For all those who fudgeFor those of you that are considering "fudging" on resumes, interviews and/or applications. Have a read of this: It CAN come back to haunt you, even decades later! The real shame is that this woman was highly respected in her field and in 28 years could easily have actually gotten more than one degree.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/04/26/mit.dean.ap/index.html
Tess
You'd have to be an idiot to lie about something as easily verifiable as education, driving record, or criminal history. I don't think any reasonable person would recommend doing that. I'm guessing 28 years ago employers weren't as thorough in conducting education verifications, or perhaps they didn't have the background screening resources that are available today. If this person had half a brain, she would have started working on a degree as soon as education verification became standard hiring practice, listed the new, real, degree on her resume, and started looking for work at another organization that wasn't aware of the claims she had made on her prior resume. Had she done that, by now she'd be happily employed somewhere else, there would be no lies in her file at her current employer, and everyone would be none the wiser.
this is why i call my degree the 30,000 piece of paper. it's a piece of paper just like the same piece of paper that says your wife is yours by law. I know it is not right to lie on resume, but a degree is nothing more than a ;piece of paper. you can have almost 20 years of school, but unless you get an acknowledgement from the schoo, saying you have a piece of paper that says you finished a college degree, you are a nobody and should not apply to jobs that require a degree, i mean piece of paper. I have put my 30,000 degree on credit which has made me in debt up to my eyeballs, which I could only cap out at 7500 year for the degree, and for what? My 30,000 piece of paper. I have been going to school for years and years, but no degree yet because I am going for my masters. but for right now, i am wanting a job that pays the bill because someone has to oay for this 30,ooo piece of paper. You cant win so I will work mindless job where I am undervalued and micromanaged until I get my 30,000 piece of paper.
:) I agree. When you look at all the incompetent people who make it up to the upper tiers of management, you realize that building a career isn't so much about being honest about your qualifications as it is about not getting caught. I very much doubt that this woman is the only person who has lied their way into a great career, just like I doubt that everyone who has ever done so will eventually get caught. Who knows what happened there. Maybe she was desperate for a job when she first started and could not get hired without a degree nor afford to go to school to get one. She was apparently very good at her job regardless, so what does this tell you about how useful these pieces of paper really are? I suppose they had to let her go, being an educational institution and all. However, when a regular company fires an employee who has been with them for years and have done excellent work, just because they found out he/she lied on an application 20 years ago, that's just idiotic. I think you are right in that she should've simply completed a degree after the fact and changed jobs once she had the new degree, so that her record would be clean. She'd still have a career, and the whole situation would be a non-issue. Like someone I know likes to say, you don't get punished for lying. You get punished for getting caught. If one is going to lie, one should at least think it through. Hey Tess, What do you think about enrolling at a school, taking a course, getting a parking ticket or something, and then claiming a degree? The school would then refuse to verify your degree until you paid them, but wouldn't they also refuse to verify that you didn't have one? I am with Tess on this one--This was a very big blunder!! MIT is by NO means going to let something like this slide either--and they should not!! A few weeks ago I was angry because my CPR certification expired & it says on my resume that I am certified---I signed up for a certification course---it says on my resume that I AM CERTIFIED IN CPR--SO I HAD DAMNED WELL BETTER BE WHEN I AM CALLED IN FOR AN INTERVIEW. MIT did the right thing here. I am glad to see some people still have standards around here and WILL hold people accountable for their BS!!!!!!
Tess makes the point simply. #### and moan if you want but for places a whole lot less prestigious than MIT degrees matter. Two out of the last three companies I worked for verified degree awards as part of the background process. I once personally had to turn down my top candidate for a position because she claimed to have a master's degree but somehow just hadn't gotten around to completing her master's thesis. For those companies that DO verify degrees, this is an easy one to figure out.
Several of you are missing the point. This isn't about whether or not degrees have value. This is about lying on your resume and application. Plain and simple. If you don't see that's the issue, then you're destined to have huge problems throughout your career. And to New Shopper, if that's the case, then you say you have all your credits for a degree but have not been issued one yet due to a clerical matter (or something along those lines). There are several things like that that can hold up your diploma.
Tess This is hardly a cautionary tale about lying about academic degrees. The woman held the job for 28 years before she was found out.. 28 years! I think it's funny., especially with MIT being such an exclusive school. Dwight Sooo, I guess the moral of the story is that if one is going to lie, one should lie about things that are not as easily verifiable and/or have a contingency plan to avoid getting caught. Why did this story end up in the news anyway? Broadcasting the story to the entire world was kind of malicious. After all, she has worked her a$$ of for them for the last 28 years. Plus, the fact that they were fooled for 28 years by someone with little more than a HS education doesn't exactly make them look good either. | |
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