Alright folks, how long have you managed to keep this charade going?
People Who Lied about Their Qualifications. What Do You Do and How Long Have You Been Doing It?
LOrangePotato on 29/07/2024 - 21:00
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Not recently but when i was looking for my first job, and finding it hard to get without some prior experience, I wrote down on my CV a couple cafes which i knew had closed down so they couldn't check the references. Seemed to work straight away
So it was your fault they closed!
When I was 18 they asked if I had a driver's license, I said ya but I didn't. Still living in fear of my career being cancelled the moment someone runs a thorough background check 😭
Truckdriver ?
There's no singular repository of records where all CXOs and Department Heads can go read your file, it's not a school. Even if someone find out, move on.
When I finished Year 12, I'd not worked a day in my life. Had no luck getting hired anywhere with no experience. So I put down a few random retail / hospitality jobs I'd 'worked' all of a sudden I was hired.
Didn't you know you're supposed to have worked for 3 years in your relevant field straight out of high school already and only allowed to go for entry-level minimum wage jobs?
Haha no I'd missed the memo on that one.. But it became very clear later on.
Number 1 career people have lied on their job application to get a job is definitely HR.
Recruitment consultants who claim to have people skills. 99.9999% have no idea who to interact with anyone. Especially people who are old enough to be their parents.
Olympic sports commentator but it’s not just me. Most of the channel 9 commentators are faking it too
I claim to be a successful business man when in fact i have filed for bankruptcy many times.
I am now the ex-president of the greatest states of United States in all of America.It's amazing what you can achieve by just blatantly lying. Lying big, lying often, blaming immigrants- i learnt that from Hitler. I keep his book by my bedside. Great book.
Of course i don't lie all the time. Just when needed, which is most of the time.
How else do i excuse being on Epstein's paedo plane, or grabbing them by the (profanity), or raping sometime in a department store, or having sex with adult film star while my wife is pregnant?
I just say it didn't happen, and my moron supporters believe me. They're so dumb.
Well that and Fox News propagate my lies too. It's a great deal i have with them. Probably my best deal. The greatest deal. And that's because I'm great at the art of the arty dealy deal.I read this entire thing in his voice and it haunts me. Lol
*my/ your
Dude - Biden said his uncle was eaten by cannibals…
So what?
I made 30,000 lies during my presidency!I'm the biggliest liar there's ever been.
I lied during the recent presidential debate too. Dozens of lies. Barely even mention those ones
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-fa…
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-electio…
That wasn’t Biden’s only lie. He has told many.
@iCandy: Time to stop watching fox news. Trumps lies are orders of magnitude 'worse' than Biden's 'lies' about his uncle being eaten/his son dying during a deployment.
@I like freestuff: I dunno… “I can handle another term” is a pretty significant one. So who is actually running things?
Mr Biden I think you're confused again.
All told, it looked like he earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, and only had to pay the Chinese consulting firm about $50,000 (£31,270) annually."
Isn't this what every company in effect actually does with their own employees.
Havn't heard of many companies that profit-share annual earnings.
i identify as qualified
Got 'em!
I've never lied, but my pass employer actually wanted a copy of my degree a few weeks after i had started.
back in the day had to submit academic transcripts. they had to be certified copies when giving it to grad jobs at the time.
Surely they would still ask for this?
yes and no, my latest job asked for my transcript which matched my Unique Student Identifier (USI).
all other jobs just never asked,
Was it a grad role? I thought ukulele was talking about grad roles specifically which IME always required a transcript.
@Ghost47: nah senior leadership role is what asked for it.
every other management non-SLT role never asked just assumed I had what I said I did.@Ghost47: my experience was grad role it seemed par for the course, if i were to apply again now with years of experience, i doubt they would ask for my transcript, i wouldn't even know how to get a copy again.
@ukulele: Depends on the company size. A few I've worked for do background checks including academic checks. Surprised me the first time because I had never heard of it.
funny this thread should pop up.
https://youtu.be/6PtiY-ev2qA?si=AV5XCYUeXq2G5Aw3
thankful it happened in another country, but can easily happen.
when I moved to Melbourne I was interested in working in a cafe - I saw a 'help wanted' sign in one window and walked in, the boss asked if I had experience, I lied and said yes
I worked there about 10 minutes - the boss saw I was inexperienced, and fired me on the spot
I walked down the street into another cafe - they asked if I had experience, I told the truth and said yes … ;-)
I worked there about 10 minutes - the boss saw I was inexperienced, and fired me on the spot
What could you possibly fail at working at a cafe that it's so obvious in 10 minutes? Unless you were put on the coffee machine and you tried to make coffee with the milk frother
what could you possibly fail at…
He just stood around people watching.
'What could you possibly fail at working at a cafe that it's so obvious'
yeah - brain surgery is just using a knife, innit ? Anyone could do it.
it's last century now but if I try to recall it may have been something about service skill, i.e. the ability to carry multiple cups of coffee with china saucers through a crowd to crowded tables, and take orders in the most efficient way - maybe stuff like that.
yeah - brain surgery is just using a knife, innit ? Anyone could do it.
Did you just compare working at a cafe to brain surgery?
the ability to carry multiple cups of coffee with china saucers through a crowd to crowded tables
Sounds like your boss was an a-hole, or you dropped a bunch of coffees lol
@coffeeinmyveins: 'Did you just compare working at a cafe to brain surgery?'
yeah - the same way you said 'What could you possibly fail at working at a cafe that it's so obvious in 10 minutes?'
'Sounds like your boss was an a-hole, or you dropped a bunch of coffees lol'
sounds like you are a proud keyboard warrior lol - hope the delivery pizza doesn't kill you there in your ergonomic chair surrounded by your imaginary supporters in your bedroom ;-)
Sales/repairs. I ran a highly successful multimillion dollar campaign repairing name brand tv repairing hardware issues. I had never opened a tv before the contract.
Not me, but one of my team members - who was generally nice, asked if I could be their referee - which I had agreed to. But to my surprise he had applied for a position that was senior to me, which is not an issue ofcourse, but he had advised them that I operating in a Group General Manager position or equivalent. When I was speaking with an agency I was shocked at the claims, or completely taken back, which I gathered that they had sensed and I couldn't really answer majority of the questions since I would be lying.
I never found out what happened to him, but I'm guessing he never got the job.
So many of the IT professionals my workplace has hired over the years (from overseas ) lied about their qualifications and work experience or in a lot of cases also, they have the qualifications but those were just bought / paid for and the skills or knowledge were never passed onto them.
Seen it myself too and heard stories from people in other industries about this happening as well. People who have been hired who seem to just be completely clueless to the point where you question if their qualifications are actually valid or not, seriously disturbing stuff.
There was one guy who had all sorts of hardcore crazy high end qualifications which you can only get from the ground up, you cant just jump right into them. Meanwhile he had no clue on the most basic of IT stuff. We basically thought him IT, He came from pakistan and my manager still has no clue what has happened here. He said either it was a really good fake (the qualifications and certificates) OR and more likely the university its from, just gives them to you if you pay money, you dont even have to attend.
The ones I've met personally who I would be surprised could even tie their own shoelaces came from around that part of the world too. The ones I've heard about from others seem to come from poorer countries in general. Disgusting that these people are allowed into the country, just adult babies really.
@Ghost47: Yup it was really frustrating because we not only had to do our work but basically had to teach him and do his work too and i dont mean just teach him once on some unique items. But basically from ground up basics of IT. He would use his camera to video every fix / solution we showed him and then try to replicate it but still couldnt till like years of us showing him again and again.
@lonewolf: That sounds painful lol. Sounds like a fresh IT grad could've done his job better than him. But hey, I guess we must have a shortage of IT graduates… /s
@Ghost47: Basically the government ruined IT jobs in australia, there was a time where the pay and demand was high for IT just like in Finance and certain other roles, but the government opened up IT jobs and pushed to get IT applicants from overseas and now we are inundated with a lot of IT people, half of whom dont really have the skills or team work ability but look really good on paper due to their qualifications.
@lonewolf: Huh, that's interesting! I can't say I'm surprised the government stuffed yet another thing up.
'he had no clue on the most basic of IT stuff … He came from pakistan'
as a TAFE teacher of IT - I was told 3 students from Pakistan with 'Master of Computer Science' degrees from some upstairs university wanted an exemption from my basic Excel spreadsheets class - they walked in - I asked a first basic competency question "How do you start a formula in Excel?" - their leader cried out anxiously "SORRY SIR ! WE NEVER TOUCHED A COMPUTER !!!"
I let them find their own way out.
Welcome to India. @lonewolf
Lying about your qualifications at a decent sized domestic/international company is almost impossible. You gotta go through proper background check
I work in one of the major Universities as a IT / Network professional staff. We have had overseas people hired who either lied or were given qualifications without having to pass any actual legitimate examinations. But I am not sure if you only mean in the private sector. I know there are checks and things but also I can see people falling through the cracks. About 15 years ago, the university ended up hiring someone for a permanent role (meant to be only for PRs / citizens) who didnt have a PR or citizenship yet, They only discovered this years later.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there are people out there working in HR who give favour to people of their own race/country over other people who are more meritorious. I've read about companies where Indians work in HR and tend to only hire other Indians.
It wouldnt surprise me, although in this case it was Indian hiring Pakistani which might not be the same as they have a lot of history of conflict. But in this manager's case, he was too proud to admit he had made a mistake so he stuck with it, insisted he had hired the person because he thought they would get along with the team. This was during a period where jobs were in demand and we had like a 120 applicants.
Seen it happen, it's an open secret.
Merit is about the last factor in hiring these days, given DEI policies.
Now we wonder why our high trust, complex society has gone to crap
Mike Ross reference
A couple of links posted to stories of people lying about their qualifications, here's another one. Gives a whole new meaning to "imposter syndrome".
SUS
Believe it or not - Rife in the University sector.
Those who can't do, teach!
Those who can't teach, teach gym!
I was sent a membership card in the name of Carl Williams by mistake. I kept it as I don't think he needs it anymore.
Have seen fair bit of these folks in my past teams and also them dodgy candidates during onsite face to face interviews.
Very quickly I got caught. My family was heavily shocked when I lied about my sparky qualifications.
IT system admins call themselves "engineers" all the time now, without any qualifications in engineering, i.e. a BE or similar.
I think they get away with it by just spreading this practice across the whole industry, including job advertisements, to further crowd out real engineers from their professional title.
The word is totally washed out these days.
Take me. I did some automotive engineering at tafe.
Then joined the "real" engineering department and did welding.
Then joined the army and was a combat engineer.
Then did civil engineering and environmental engineering at uni.
Then became a mining engineer.
Then became a drill and blast engineer.I think I should try my hand at IT engineering just to collect the whole set.
Also, that entire time there was less than 1% cross over in any of those roles, and at no point have I ever feel like a "real" engineer. Imo, those are the guys building skyscrapers and rockets. And even then barely any civil or aerospace engineers are actually doing that stuff haha.
guy has never driven a train and yet claims he's almost got the "whole set"
And "data scientists" who know how to use VLOOKUP ;)
If they wear a fedora, I generally don’t press on their credentials. I draw the line at how long it takes me to get them to grant me wheel.
In it for the #
They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.
I hired someone who ended up not having the qualification he'd claimed many years ago. He learned really quickly. One day he told me "gotta fake it 'till ya make it" lol. It sucked when he moved on too.
I tell people my father gave me a $1 million loan to help me start out but it was actually closer to $500,000 million. I also claim to have the IQ of a genius but in reality I'm not much higher than being institutionalised as a dimwit.
Oh and I bankrupted a casino (lol) but tell people I'm a very successful businessman.
How do you bankrupt a casino? Is that even possible?
Its gotta be possible, seems Vegas Casinos disappear and get replaced all the time?
When I was younger and played at a tennis club, in between matches I chatted with a guy who informed me that he was a… proctologist.
I didn't ask him to prove it, in case he told me to bend over.
Not long after he had to move across the country for a posting at a local hospital.
Robert Kiyosaki enters the chat.
Rambles on and on but no solid evidence about much of his claims or any specifics.
The only truth is that he sells lots of books/courses/seminars to the gullible.
Not exactly the same thing, but I killed someone overseas, then I bribed official to give me somebody’s ID that I know could never apply for passport himself, then after a couple of other countries, I applied citizenship here and living the Australian dream
I lied of course
Went from IT 0 to IT Hero in the space of 5 years.
Listened to my managers interviews and random questions he asked people for sysadmin roles when I was L1 Helpdesk, left after 1 year and got a job elsewhere as sysadmin bullshitting the entire thing, saying I had 3 years' experience elsewhere and getting friends to do the reference checks knowing most places only do a HR style reference check and no skills validation.
18 months later job hopped from there to team leader saying I was 2IC at current job doing team leading and sysadmin then after a year our manager left, and I ended up moving into management.
Of course, over this time I did learn all about networking, administration, HA, FSMO, clustering, CI/CD pipelines, IAAC etc but to get the roles themselves was 95% BS each time.
Would recommend it over and over, 45K to 140K in the span of 3.4-4 years and top-level management position.
Stayed in management for a further 3, (profanity) hated it and now I'm a senior Security Technician making a fair bit more and also not stuck a desk all day, love it and haven't lied at all throughout my tenure where I am.No lies about qualifications besides Microsoft certs which don't really count, no real qualifications, don't need them for majority of IT roles.
I have hired those with CS degrees and those without for help desk roles, generally would prefer to not hire those with degrees because they all seem to a little too 'know-it-all'
Wages have kinda been a funny thing, during the pandemic I would hire a level 2 for 95K + Super but prior to that they'd be on 70K~
Things have gone back to where they were it seems.
No shortage thanks to immigrants being allowed back in the country!
I slipped through the cracks, never officially got my pen license. I had a number of days off in year 2 or 3 for health concerns, missed out, and just kinda never told anyone til now.
I hope you’re using a VPN. If the education department finds out they’re going to cancel everything and Billy Madison you…
I filled out some annoying tech survey many years back and put my real work email, but checked a CTO box just being stupid and purchase authority in tens of millions. To this day I regularly get emails with ‘free’ VIP conference invitations codes and heavily discounted sometimes free accommodation. The locations are all over the place - mainly US. I’ve never taken any up on the offer though.
never got the covid jab. told my employer i would when they were hiring me. they wrote it into my contract that i had a month to get it sorted. never did. they never followed up. several years on now :)
My name is Mike Ross and I was a successful lawyer without ever attending law school
Be truthful. If you can't, then shut the F*#k up.
In this scenario, sell your experiences and skill not a piece of paper that you don't have…
If you have no skill or experience, there's plenty of ways to get some depending on the role. e.g. doing something for free for someone, getting some online skills etc.
I never got my pen licence. Kept slacking off and the teacher eventually forgot about it. Unlicenced pen weilder for 30yrs.
Ooooh, the rush when you graduated from a pencil to a pen.
Dunno if this counts as a 'lie', but I've used white sounding names on the CV and have had a big spike in success over the years (% conversion rate from application to receiving a call). Have since learned it's common to do so in Australia. At least it helps get the CV shortlisted.
got a casual job bullshitting that i am an excel expert. when i got the job i googled everything on the go from how to do anything to cool templates. made permanent and even became a manager.
I did really badly in uni. Barely passed everything so Cs all round in whatever the pass minimum is.
I got a internship at a major insurer by editing my academic transcript and kicked off my career in style.
There's definitely people that deserved it more than I did but that's the first life lesson isn't it.
TAB cashiers / operators used to require accreditation which would (should) be regularly checked by on the spot audits. I had learned on the job in a PUB TAB but never got the proper accreditation. If an auditor had ever come in on the Friday / Sat / Sun when I always worked I'd have been screwed but I never saw one.
To get my current job I told the interviewer I had 17 years experience, which I did, but had never got the proper accreditation. I left the interview with the job and an understanding I'd have the proper accreditation before my first shift a few days later.
I new of a bloke who applied for a job running a lock. Where boats get lifted and lowered. Zero experience.
He got a burner phone and gave that number and a made up name as a reference. Gave himself a glowing reference when they called and got the job.
Various colleagues from the sub-continent with zero related experience and Cornflakes packet qualifications. In both public and private institutions, they are absolutely thriving. Strong in group preference, I suppose, taking advantage of us high-trust individualists.
Overheard at work one day a few years back - "Jono, are you any good at Microsoft Excel?"……. "Depends if you ask me or my resume. And one of us isn't telling the truth"
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Uhh but… I was the lead tech on that project. Who are you two?!