Lies,damn lies and cvs….
by Philip
It’s a pity the French don’t have a word for resume, to misquote George Bush…….
Two cases about cvs caught my eye. In the first a Solicitor was struck off the roll for having a dishonest cv, in the second an extremely senior hotel manager was not promoted when inaccuracies in his cv (or resume for American readers) came to light.
Read about the second case here.
We try to keep things simple here and live by some homespun values, one of which is honesty is the best policy. These cases illustrate that whilst dishonesty may enable you to achieve some short term advantage, it will catch you out in the end.
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Seven years is “short term?” During that time he has built up actual experience that he can take to his next job, a benefit which remains. Not exactly a ‘cheats never prosper’ parable.
Marcin Tustin said at June 15th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Point taken Marcin, but in my experience once your dishonesty is established career progression is difficult in terms of references and awareness in the sector in which you work. This story is not cv enhancing is it?
Philip said at June 15th, 2007 at 11:16 am
The story, no, but the question is whether he would be better off now if seven years ago he had gone around admitting that he had no degrees. I rather doubt that.
Marcin Tustin said at June 15th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Well until we know what he ends up doing for the rest of his career, we will not know whether he will be financially better off or not.
Dishonest senior execs rarely get their career back.
Leaving aside the question of money, he has brought shame on himself and his family.
I bet he is regretting it.
Philip said at June 15th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Any reported cases on this issue - i.e. faked or non existent qualifications being raised?? I recalled that the late Robert Broudie (solicitor brother who had pop star brother) had a sex discrim case against him but the claimant was done later for non existent qualifications.
Nick L Dime said at June 16th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I do remember one case where I was working for an employer. The employee who brought the claim had lied about his degree ( he did not have one), his membership of the Institute of Civil Engineering ( he wasn’t), the schools he attended and the o and a levels he obtained.
He was in fact someone with criminal convictions who had managed to work on enginnering projects with bogus qualifications. He lost his case.
The case taught me two things: firstly that time abroad on a cv can indicate time in prison. Secondly not having a qualification to your name does not mean you cannot manage engineering projects, which require a degree and membership of a professional institute.
Philip said at June 18th, 2007 at 8:46 am