Lying on Resume: Hiding the Elephant

Today's paper carried the story of the "resignation" of RadioShack CEO David Edmondson following the recent discovery that he had lied about his educational credentials on his resume. We hear about these incidents from time to time, when they involve high-profile people (coach at Notre Dame) or top executives at well-known companies. But the sad truth is that MANY people lie on their resumes.

My theory on why they lie is that they feel insecure about some aspect of their background (often it's education). To them, their perceived lack is enormously obvious - an elephant, if you will, that they fear will completely disqualify them for the jobs they are seeking. Thus they try to disguise it (that's OK) or cover it up by falsifying credentials (that's not OK).

It's true that many recruiters and resume screeners will use "lack of education" (or lack of some other specifically stated qualification) as a screening-out tool. But if you're concerned about this possibility, consider these strategies:

• Don't rely on recruiters and ad responses as your primary job-search strategy. Use network connections and referrals to make contacts at your target companies; set up meetings to learn about the company's challenges and how you can help. In other words, be more than a "job applicant"; be a "business solution" with more than enough ROI to justify the company's investment.

• Be sure your resume, other marketing materials, and all of your marketing messages focus on what you have accomplished and what you're capable of doing. As an executive, you have a track record of 15, 25, or more years that has much more value than a degree you earned at age 22.

• Be confident in what you do have! Most people who lack confidence feel that their perceived shortcoming is screamingly obvious to everyone, because they themselves are so focused on it. Usually it's not that noticeable or is a small blip (rather than a large elephant). Lead with your strengths and be ready to discuss why you don't have a degree, if asked.

Lying on your resume can come back to haunt you - sometimes even many years down the road. Don't fall into that trap. Instead, reduce the issue from elephant-size to normal proportions and don't let it stall your search.

Comments

[blureain]

This is a great example of why you're (expletive deleted).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6308419/

Lying on your resume is an imperative. YOu should do it because no one else is doing it (its a strategic advantage), and there is simply too much competition, both from genuinely qualified individuals, and other countries with more lax credential-assigning mechanisms than ours (can you say India, where you can get a BS in 3 years, not 4?)

You're just a number to the HR folks. If you hit your numbers, it don't matter.

Only sentimental fools tell the truth.

From what I'm seeing on TV, no one cares.

If there are no penalities for forging degrees, (i.e. prison terms) then people will continue to do it.

[Louise Fletcher]

blureain, I guess it depends on your own moral stance. You're free to lie on your resume if you want. Personally, whenever I had to fire someone for that, I usually found that their lie was completely silly and unnecessary. Louise's point was simply that most people don't need to lie. They just need to highlight their very real qualifications and skills. I left corporate life and I now write resumes professionally. I have yet to come across an individual who needed to lie in order to sell themselves for a position - but I've met a lot who thought they did.

[Andreas]

A couple of points.

Any education achieved a long time back is useless anyway, because the world has moved on. 6 months out of university and your skills are obsolete. What stays is the capability and skill to learn, to find out where to find what in your jobs and how to think, feel or see the right stuff in front of you.

In fact, it is required to keep educating yourself anyway - otherwise, one is out of the job market anytime soon. Build up a second career besides the one that you have and you ARE secured. Network, to develop a net below in case you fall.

In any case, there is always something to be proud of in a job that just needs a bit of brushing up. If not, pity you because then you did something that was so repetitive that you might have thought of changing job/ upgrading your skill way earlier

[Eloise]

If you don't find a job in the first 6 months after getting your university degree, then you find yourself on a downward slide whereby with each successive year of unemployability your situation just gets worse and worse. What is someone who can't get a job right out of college because they are nonwhite, supposed to do when the jobsearch and the length of time unemployed, starts to go long?! Just openly admit that on their resume?! The longer you go unemployable, the less anyone wants to employ you; and then what!?

But no. Don't lie on your resume. Just stay unemployed for the rest of your life....!

[Jimmy Joe]

Here is the logical problem: nobody is perfect. Few people have had a perfect past, or were not given the same positive attributes as others. Therefore, most people have something to hide on their past. We all need to work. However, employers, BY BEING TOO PICKY, force most people with flawed pasts to lie in order to get in the door. Resumes are plain stupid and pointless because of this. So, it is not a matter of insecurity, but need to survive and live in a society where you are not expected to be perfect, but I am. Go figure that out...

[Kathy]

I have come to the conclusion that I am going to be forced to lie on my resume just to get a job. Several months ago, I moved 1000 miles to make a fresh start back in my home state. Nine months ago, I was fired from my job. I worked under the "Queen of Mean" office administrator in that area, who never missed an opportunity to make my life miserable. Now she is giving me a bad reference. Although my interviews go very well, I never hear another word. This really hurts because in my field, I am the one person who really can deliver the goods and who is honestly a great employee. It isn't fair that my former office administrator is keeping me unemployed just because she didn't like me. On top of this, I am an older person in competition with younger people. Basically, I am a very honest person, but I am getting desperate now, so lying has become a real option. I hate having to do this, but I just don't see an alternative. I know you're not supposed to say anything negative about a former employer, even though we all know that bad employers are out there. Kathy

[Allan]

Everyone does it... so?

There is no ethical justification for lying on a resume and it is inherently unfair. Others may do it too but two wrongs don't make a right. The test of character is when there is actually some benefit to doing something immoral so this is the moment that matters. Don't kid yourself, by lying, anything you do get out of it is empty, worthless and undeserved.

[anonymous]

Employers are too picky, nepotistic, discriminatory, and demanding of "Experience," which is just a shell game to exclude younger people. The capitalist system gives those who have the privilege and luck to get a job the inside track for the next job.

What are you supposed to do if you aren't as lucky? It has nothing to do with working hard, I worked hard for my degree and never failed a class. And I'm sick of people who actually think they got where they are because they are harder workers. Some of us are working hard, but don't have silver spoons in our mouths. So yes, if I get passed over for jobs I know I am capable of doing, eventually I will have to lie and the corrupt capitalist system is to blame.

[Brad Waldbaum]

There absolutely IS ethical justification for lying if every else is doing it. If every one else has a clear advangtage, by lying, then it could be perceived as a moral imperative to lie in order to support yourself, your family, and the common man (in the form of taxes). The fact is, everyone lies sometimes. Ask yourself why people get fired for lying on their resumes. It isn't just because they lied, it is often because of a shift in power and the bosses are simply looking for easy pickings to get rid of and replace with their own minions. The reason big executives get fired for lying is either because they are performing poorly or there is social pressure from outside the organization. No company cares about 99 percent of the lies on resumes, unless they think it will affect their bottom line.