Do business schools check your work experience?
Do business schools ever check your work experience?
My impression is that they really don't.
I mean they will know some things from your letters of recommendation, but if you have 5 years of work experience with let's say 3 employers ( 2 years, 6 months, and 2.5 years in your current role), you could totally leave the "middle one" (6 6onths) out of your CV and tell them you've spent 2.5 years with your first employer, because it "looks" better on your CV.
Am I right?
Thanks
Business School Background checks: Omitting a job on application?
Business schools will conduct a background check that includes a verification of your work history. Omitting anything from that history is a bad idea and it is likely to be caught. If you want to downplay a role that was short lived then only give it two lines. A single header and a single bullet.
Key Takeaways
- Do not lie about your employment history on MBA applications.
from certified user @kingtut"
The most important thing to a business school is its reputation. One of the easiest items to verify in a background check is dates of employment.
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No. They will have a 3rd party do a background check on you, including employment verification. Very likely that you would get caught.
First, you will likely get caught during the background check process. Second, if the only reason you don't lie on your application is because you're worried you will be caught you might want to consider what that says about your character.
Haha... your a tool.
Of course they will check and know - they are business schools, not small regional boutique employers that offer unpaid internships or something along those lines.
The most important thing to a business school is its reputation. One of the easiest items to verify in a background check is dates of employment. As others have said, you will get caught.
Nope, they don't check -- you are the sole person to think of this what a gamechanger
they will check and they will find out. If you want to downplay the 6 month stint, include it but just put 1 bullet point under that heading.
I know of offers of admissions being reversed for smaller infractions.
They will check everything Not in detail but make sure all the titles, salary, and dates of employment are correct
@"restructury" Don't lie. No one is going to hold it against you that you accepted a better offer 6 months on the job. If they ask you about it, it's easily explainable. I see this as a non-issue, however if you lie it will become an issue. This isn't even about the ethics of lying, it's just common sense.
How about volunteer or other experience? Most of my volunteer work is through an organization that doesn't have a website or anything like that set up. Would they just call whoever I tell them (the President of the org for example) and he can verify dates?
You should not lie on your reusme or any application. If it doesn't come out during the application process, it could come out some time in the future and they can revoke your degree then. Your employer may also fire you then.
Yet a guy (Matthew Martoma) is able to get into Stanford after being kicked out of Harvard for cheating? Stanford had no background info other than his GMAT since he had just recently legally changed his name. I'm assuming that he had to put some type of false information to explain the background of his new persona that just began to exist right before he took the GMAT. Maybe they've stepped up their game lately, but their whole "exclusivity" factor hinges on their ability to receive way more applications than they accept. I don't think you should lie, because you would ruin your one shot, but it's not like you're applying for a job with the CIA. Who really knows how deep they go to research. I would attempt to find someone that has worked in admissions for a target school and get an off the record answer if you care that much. Otherwise, just tell the truth.
.....See @Betsy Massar 's post above.
I understand that her post stated that, what I meant is that if you want to get a better understanding of what they actually DO by way of background checks, OP should seek out and ask. I would definitely assume that if they found infractions and inconsistencies that in any way look like the applicant is trying to lie, they would deny. That doesn't even have to be said. I would be interested to see some type of research polling students and determining what % of students were accepted that materially lied on their application. It just seems like a lot of schools are worried more with building up the entering class's statistics (top GPA, top GMAT, etc.), and checking/verifying work experience wouldn't be forefront.
If by "lately" you mean ~15 years ago, than yeah, I guess they did. When he took his GMAT it was probably on scantron sheet and he probably submitted a paper application to boot.
Yes, they'll check company, dates, title, and potentially salary (many companies won't disclose $$ though). A straight omission is ethically gray. In the best case, it would leave you with a gap to explain; in the worst, it could be considered a ding-worthy material omission.
Extending your dates of employment is not gray. It's pretty damn black-and-white. Same with fudging your salary; the upshot of looking like you made an extra $5k is not worth the downside risk.
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