Lying on you resume…how far does it really get you?
For those of you that have not been following the news, Myer recently sacked their star recruit. One week ago Myer were boasting about their new recruit who was supposedly the former managing director and VP of Inditex group which is the Spanish company that own fashion brand Zara. Myer were so impressed with Andrew Flanagan’s previous accomplishments he was hired as the group general manager of strategy and business development but was fired on the first day of his employment. Myer had not completed their reference checks and after their boasting, they were quietly informed that Andrew Flanagan had never worked for Inditex group and they had no idea of who he was.
This is not the first time an incident of this nature has occurred. In 2012 Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson was fired for falsifying his education on his resume. He had claimed that he had a bachelor’s degree in both accounting and computer science when in fact he only had a degree in accounting. It was discussed at the time about how Thompson may have fabricated his education when he first started his career but with the rise of social media and the internet things like this are being picked up on that would have not been picked up on in the past.
The consequences for falsifying your resume can be worse than get fired from the job. In 2002 John Davy was jailed for 3 months in New Zealand for falsifying his resume to secure the role of Chief Executive of Mauri Television Service. Davy had lied about his position at British Columbia Security’s Commission and at Middle East Round Table for International Affairs both organisations denied knowing Davy at all. He also falsified his education claiming to have an MBA from the Ashland School of Business at Denver State University which was later found to have been purchased from the internet
After looking online about what other people had been saying about lying on your resume I read differing reviews some even going as far as
“Once you’ve “updated” your resume, give a second look. Is it compelling? Will it help you get the career you want? If not, go back and add whatever you need because when it comes to getting the interview, you only have one shot to make a first — albeit fictitious — impression.” Robert Pagliarini
Other websites and blogs actually said
“And really, why even get the piece of paper? Why not just write down the name of that piece of paper? Can you spell a school correctly? That’s basically good enough. Hiring managers are very busy people — that’s why they’re hiring, funnily enough. Calling a school and asking about some English degree is very rarely done. If you’re really worried about this, make up the name of a school in a place that looks like it’d be expensive to call.” Chris Bucholz
In today’s modern world of technology and social media it only takes a couple of minutes for an employer to check your credentials. A survey by Employment Office found that over 80% of employers believe that candidates are lying.
“Our clients trust that we will provide them with the best candidate and that all the information we pass to them will be correct. Lying in this current climate is not worth it, we have many ways of checking your credentials and it is our job to give our client the best possible candidate.” Winsome Bernard
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