Recently I’ve met a few people, 2 coworkers and 1 individual who I interviewed (but was not selected/did not work for) a job with, and I was unable to verify their degrees. My coworkers had told me that they had the degree ( where it was from, the major etc. ) and the person who I interviewed with has it posted on his company website, but omitted from LinkedIn and a few other sites (He actually is claiming a Masters as well I think). I use the school’s website and you can enter their info to verify, but I don’t know if it’s 100% accurate. One of my coworkers actually ended up admitting he was misleading, saying that he had gone to college but dropped out before graduating.
Anyway, my question to those of you who have already graduated, and maybe those of you who are still in school is this : What would you do if you knew someone was lying or being misleading? Say something, keeping digging for info, or nothing at all?
Wait, you weren’t the one conducting the interview? You were not in the position of hiring the person?
If so, then of course I would verify the credentials of any candidate I was seriously considering.
Beyond that, why do anything at all? Why is this your concern? Why are you going so far as to check a school’s website about a coworker?? Doesn’t this seem to you a bit too close to stalking???
No I was not the one conducting the interview it was the other way around, and since I would assume he verified my credentials or was planning on it, I didn’t see an issue with me doing the same.
Since where my coworkers went to school or what they say doesn’t really affect me personally, I really was just checking because I knew they had lied about other things and wanted to see if they were lying about that as well ( and they were )
At one former workplace HR and my senior supervisor brought aboard a supposed programming expert who graduated from one of the prestigious India Institutes of Technology.
The next day, I and another colleague were puzzled to find him trying to navigate his way through Windows as if he didn’t know his way around the basics of the OS when we stopped in separately to relay messages/request updates on a part of the project he was responsible for.
We mentioned this to our senior supervisor while reporting to him for other things which prompted an investigation.
Said new employee was gone by morning of the third day* as it turned out he completely fabricated his professional and educational background. Turns out he was not only not an esteemed programming expert from one of the most esteemed higher ed institutions in India…he never even graduated from college period and had practically no experience on computers.
Many years ago I had a coworker that claimed to have a master’s degree. When we were all equals he openly admitted that he had taken classes but never completed the degree requirements. As he rose up the ranks that master’s degree became more and more real.
At one point we were considered for the same job opening. I was told Mr. Fake got the job because he had a master’s degree. What can you do? Nothing. It looks like sour grapes to expose the fraud and the higher level managers don’t want to have egg on their face.
This doesn’t quite add up. How were you attempting to verify the degrees in question? To use one of the online verification services you would need to pay money and you would also need to know some personal information about the people in question ( date of birth, full name, dates of attendance, degree(s) major(s), etc.)
Did you know all that information about your co-workers and some guy who interviewed you, and did you pay the fees for the verification?
My company’s HR dept sent out a company-wide email last week that it has came to light that a couple of employees had lied about their credentials. Now HR is going to run a credentials verification exercise on all employees hired before 2013.
Best not to lie/inflate your own credentials. And best not to stick your nose in other people’s business. Karma has a way of catching up w them…
I knew someone in grad school and came across her resume online while helping my D do some research. Oooh, she had lied about something. Why the heck would she do that? Why say you had been chosen for an honor when you had won a damn raffle? Now, there are only a small handful of people who know the truth of this but why on earth would someone delude themselves into a lie like that and think they would never get caught?
My first boyfriend, from age 14, who I had completely forgotten about, found me on Facebook. Arghghghghghgh! It’s all out there people, there’s no place to hide!
@spellingbead - the more you work, the more it is your work experience that matters. Not your degree or where you got it. You should advise your coworker who confessed to you that in his future job applications it would be wise to be more truthful. A lie that gets out into cyberspace tends to stay there forever.
For now, don’t worry about it or those other people you can’t verify. It may be true, it may not. If you get into some hiring situation like the one described by MaterS, you can say, “I assume you will be verifying that degree, correct?”
I think fellow employees should help keep one another honest, and not just ignore fraudulent claims that are helping some individuals to get promoted. If you lied to get a job, it should not be a forgiven later simply because you are performing the job well enough.
“Say something, keeping digging for info, or nothing at all?”
What do you expect to say? You want to turn him in? Why bother digging more, unless you’re HR?
Romani said it: “I’d stop stalking them and mind my own business.” Pick your battles wisely. Most people who need a comeuppance will get it on their own, without us.
I personally know three who have ‘overstated’ their degrees, if one were to get picky about it. Two are movers and shakers, women in the Forbes listings. Their industries value them, their contributions and their attributes. The third simply stated the college name and “class of” without indicating a degree.
Keep you own nose clean, your eye on your own performance, building your future. We have no idea how valid this “research” of yours even is.
A lawyer related a story of an expert witness they cross-examined. He claimed to have an advanced degree. It turns out that the expert’s son, who had the same name, earned the degree, and the father appropriated it for his own use. The expert was thrown out of court.
@MaterS - You should have reported the false degree. You can bet if the shoe was on the other foot, the other person would have reported you.
I have a college friend who did not graduate - from our uni or anywhere else - (he left school with just one semester left - that always confounded me…)
Anyway, I am still acquainted with him. He has a website for a little business venture he has and it’s listed on the website that he graduated from our uni with a degree in something other than what he actually majored in., I mean, it’s very specific and not a common degree for an UG - it would be so easy for someone to check up on.
I know why he’d lie about having a BA, but I don’t get the major he made up for himself. He was also always something of a"con man" type as well, though, so I’m not too surprised he’s lying about his credentials.
I wonder how common this kind of thing is for those who went to college, but never graduated, etc?
eta: I haven’t spoken with this person for years… we are “friends” on Facebook. He lives very far from me, so I’ve never asked him about this - and probably never would, as I don’t even want to be involved…
My current company’s policy is that if it is on your resume, we will verify it. So if you are a senior level financial person and you claim that you are a CPA, or completed all three levels of the CFA- we will verify it. Since the role of Corporate Treasurer requires neither a CPA nor a CFA, it always confounds me that people put this stuff on their resume if it isn’t true.
There are loads of jobs where professionals routinely fabricate stuff- thinking either that nobody will check. Most of the time- nobody checks. Until they do. I once had the registrar of a large, prominent university in tears when I called- in a desperate attempt- to verify a degree which our degree checking service was unable to verify. I hoped that we had a digit wrong on the social security- nope. I hoped that he would tell me that the year this person graduated all files were consumed in a fire- nope. I hoped that he would tell me that several years worth of records were undergoing a system upgrade so were temporarily unavailable- nope. Just a garden variety fabrication. Candidate never attended, never graduated, but did once attend a 3 day seminar sponsored by the business school on “Negotiating Skills”, and a 1 day workshop on “Branding in the Digital Age”.
Yes. I know at least two people who have “inaccuracies” on their resumes. It’s interesting that one of them says he graduated from a college he flunked out of, but his terminal degree information (from a fairly prestigious University) is actually correct. I don’t understand why he would do that. Yes, his bachelor’s is from a third rate school, but who would care since his terminal degree isn’t.