You may have seen the recent news stories detailing how a recently elected politician was found to have fabricated most of his backstory.
Here are some other people whose lies were discovered:
In 2007, MIT Dean of Admissions, Marilee Jones, resigned when a 28-year-old resume misrepresentation surfaced. She did not have undergraduate or graduate degrees from Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or Albany Medical College. In fact, she held no college degree at all.
In 2012, an activist shareholder group revealed Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s augmented resume, content included in the company’s annual report, a legal document that CEOs certify truthful. Scott’s tenure lasted four months when it was discovered he did not have TWO degrees, computer science and accounting, from Stonehill College; he had ONE in accounting.
While assessing Walmart Senior VP Communications David Tovar’s resume for a promotion in 2014, a third party uncovered a degree misstatement on his resume. David “walked” at the University of Delaware’s 1996 commencement shy credits for an art degree. After an eight-year tenure with Walmart, he was found out and stepped down. In 2015, he returned to school and finished his BA, and has gone on to work for Sprint, McDonald’s, and GrubHub.
What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. MGM Mirage’s CEO, J. Terrence Lanni, quickly retired in 2008 yet remained on the Board of Directors when questions about his resume surfaced, finding he did not have an earned or honorary MBA in finance from USC.
In 2020, Checkster Research found that 78% of job applicants lie about skills, GPA, title, degree, university name, and achievements, while HireRight (2017) found that 85% of employers caught lies.
In short---Do not lie on your resume!