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Lied on resume, worried about consequences


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After getting a job offer from a company for a position as a software engineer the company did an investigation. Which, I am guessing is taking close to 2 weeks. I've never been in a position where such an extensive investigation has been done before and to be honest it has been stressing me a lot.

 

On of the jobs I said I worked for a school to build a website for them. It was actually my step father who worked for the school and the site was a small project for an after school robotics club. I don't think he was prepared, the company called him as I listed him as one of the references and he admitted he was my step father and then the company called the school itself to see if I was ever on their payroll.

 

I think i received a call from an anonymous number about 40 minutes after the incident but was unsure if it was the hr person trying to contact me or not since I was sleeping and did not answer my phone. The question is this, does this mean the company will rescind the offer due to that discrepancy. And what do I do from here.

 

I am not sure if the call was from the hr department or not and I have not been emailed by them to let me know that they are withdrawing the offer, nor have they left a message on my voice mail. So really I feel in the dark and confused about the entire situation.

 

On every other front I think I am good thou.

 

Should I either

 

A. contact hr to see whats up?

B. Play dumb and wait till Monday when I am suppose to start.

 

Also, what is the normal policy in these sort of situations?

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IT positions usually require an extreme amount of confidentiality due to the sensitive nature of the information you would have access to. This is why the reference check is so extensive.

 

They may have found out you lied. If they did, the offer could be rescinded.

 

Fix your resume for the next time.

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Obviously never good to fib, but whether it's worth it to rescind the offer and hope any of their follow-up picks can pan out probably depends on how badly you misrepresented the experience, how urgent their needs are, and if they feel they can trust the rest of your credentials without having to investigate each one in-depth. For instance, "working with" and "working at" a university would be two very different things, as well it would be a different consideration if you made any insinuation the website you helped design was a larger project than one for an after-school robotics club.

 

At the end of the day, Wiseman's piece is the simplest and most factual. You'll hear of it if it's deemed an issue. But even if you don't, I'd make sure to bust my ass and demonstrate my value out-the-gate in case they end up silently scrutinizing you a bit more for it.

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Depending on the company it can take a long time to check references and validate the work you have done. When I interview people I always ask them about the projects they put on their resumes... pretty much everyone I interview has "enhanced" their resume in some shape or form it would seem... as soon as we start to question them about their projects, a lot of times we find out it was a school project or something they did for their family or what have you.

 

Did they ask you about this project during the interview?

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Wait and let them tell you if they have a problem or rescind the offer.

 

It really depends on the company, what specific skill set they are looking for and what other candidates they have to choose from, their hiring timeline, personal view on whether they consider bolstering what you did as a big deal or not so much given other items and experience checking out.

 

Overall, don't do it again, because it can cost you a great position. I'm surprised that you didn't expect them to check. Most companies actually do.

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When I find out an applicant has lied after we do their backgrund and reference checks, we let them go or take back the offer. Next time, just be honest. It's okay to fake confidence. It's not okay to take credit for other people's work. People will find out.

 

I also judge people base on what they put on social media. If you have a bunch of drunk photos of yourself or half-naked photos, I don't hire as well.

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Just to be clear, this was already after several interviews a phone and on site. So no questions were asked about the actual work itself just technical questions during both the screening and the on site.

 

No other areas were misrepresented as someone commented before. I thought it was a very minor thing, most everyone listed on the references and past employees were contacted.

 

It really wouldn’t have made a difference if I just left that experience out in general. As one commented before it is a common practice to enchance, yet candidates wouldn’t feel the need to do this in the first place if companies weren’t so picky in the first place.

 

I realize now it’s not about the actual work itself but more of the character of a type of person who performs these sort of actions.

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I would have been honest upfront "i built a website for the school's after school club". If they asked more about it, you could say a relative ran the club. If they are looking for examples of the quality of your work, it doesn't matter who the website was for if they can see it and are impressed with it. I would have put it in the section where you put affiliations, volunteer or side proects.

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As one commented before it is a common practice to enhance, yet candidates wouldn’t feel the need to do this in the first place if companies weren’t so picky in the first place.

 

Companies people want to work for, with roles that have a lot of competition, can afford to be picky.

 

Most of the interviews I do are with students or recent grads and they tell me that the things they put on their resumes are suggestions given to them by career counselors at school... for whatever reason the career counselors don't tell them that they will be questioned on these skills and projects to determine whether they are truly "experts" in a particular area.

 

We expect enhancement to a certain degree however an outright lie that was maintained during the interview and found out when researching references is a different story.

 

It doesn't sound like that was the case in your situation so I wouldn't worry too much about it... however if this does fall apart for whatever reason you have learned an important lesson here from the sounds of it.

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Just to be clear, this was already after several interviews a phone and on site. So no questions were asked about the actual work itself just technical questions during both the screening and the on site.

 

No other areas were misrepresented as someone commented before. I thought it was a very minor thing, most everyone listed on the references and past employees were contacted.

 

It really wouldn’t have made a difference if I just left that experience out in general. As one commented before it is a common practice to enchance, yet candidates wouldn’t feel the need to do this in the first place if companies weren’t so picky in the first place.

 

I realize now it’s not about the actual work itself but more of the character of a type of person who performs these sort of actions.

 

Please don't blame employers for your decision to be deceitful. Many people are looking for jobs and it's not fair to the people who are honest -and then are not qualified -if that's your attitude then don't work for a company -work for yourself and then you don't need more than a website where you put all your accomplishments on it to attract customers/clients. I've interviewed many places, jumped through many hoops and spent lots of time making sure I didn't lie. Enhance - fine -as long as it's still honest -and even then there's a strict line. Of course your resume has to represent the best of you, as does your interview, of course you're not going to say your "weakness" is that you steal your coworker's sandwiches from the fridge if you don't like your lunch - but you know the line, you know you crossed it and I'm glad your stepfather was honest. Companies are entitled to be picky in particular because it takes so long to interview and go through resumes and find the right person for the job and because they are there to make a profit and hire people who want to contribute to the bottom line.

 

I wasn't going to respond until you tried to blame "employers" for your choices.

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Nothing on my resume is embellished. Just because it’s “common” - and I hope it’s not - doesn’t mean you should do it. You’re in the wrong here. Agreed with Bat - don’t blame the employer for your screwup.

 

I want to clarify -I don't "embellish" either - but yes I put my best foot forward so if that is embellishing so be it. I highlight my best work/accomplishments, which I would recommend everyone does, and if the job requires something I have less experience in than other areas I am honest about that and also give examples of how I have a quick learning curve etc. Partly is because of values and on a practical level I am just not comfortable being hired for a position where I am concerned I won't be able to do the work. It's just not my thing.

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I want to clarify -I don't "embellish" either - but yes I put my best foot forward so if that is embellishing so be it. I highlight my best work/accomplishments, which I would recommend everyone does, and if the job requires something I have less experience in than other areas I am honest about that and also give examples of how I have a quick learning curve etc. Partly is because of values and on a practical level I am just not comfortable being hired for a position where I am concerned I won't be able to do the work. It's just not my thing.

 

Oh agreed. I wasn’t responding to you. OP made some statement that it’s common/everyone does it/something like that

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If you already know they had a convo with your step father and your step father told them, "no, he didnt work for the school" or any "no.. acutally that is inaccurate" about anything you told them....

they could very likely rescind the offer based on that.

 

companies don't like liars or peopel that mis-represent the truth. Because they can only assume you will do so again at an IMPORTANT time fore the company and make the company look bad, cause the company embarrassment, etc.

 

Yeah.. you coudl lose the job.

Yead.. I'd wait unilt they tell you so.

 

Doesn't look good.

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Nothing on my resume is embellished. Just because it’s “common” - and I hope it’s not - doesn’t mean you should do it. You’re in the wrong here. Agreed with Bat - don’t blame the employer for your screwup.

 

All of this.

 

I have never embellished on a resume either.

 

Lesson learned, OP, even if they didn't wind up checking out this particular reference - it's causing you enough stress so I imagine you won't make the same poor choice in the future.

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A lot of people lie on resumes and either the company doesn't have enough evidence to fire them or they just never find out. Don't feel bad about this! Your best bet is to not say anything until they come to you. If you call the HR person then that will likely raise a red flag. Just play dumb and keep those lips zipped. Lying on a resume nowadays is so much more riskier than it was years ago. Years ago, they didn't really have the need to check into every reference or do background checks as much. But times have changed and now companies are much more rigorous in their screening. If anything, it is good that they catch this BEFORE you start working there rather than like 10 years on down the line and you'd end up being out of a big position that you wouldn't be able to put on your resume Worst case scenario, they find out you lied and the offer is retracted. Best case scenario is they were just bluffing to try and get you to fess up but cannot prove that you lied. All you can do is hope for the best! Good luck :)

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If you don't have a long employment history, employers understand a college student or someone just outside of college won't have a long resume. I remember putting a few volunteer positions where i had authority or responsibility on my resume. As long as it was a longer term volunteer situation, i had a reference and explained it as such -- it helped my resume. But making stuff up does not. that is why internships, being involved in student organizations and also local nonprofits can be valuable.

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The problem with submitting ANYthing on your resume or application that can't be verified is that it's not just the initial investigation you'll need to fear. If they discover the lie at any time during your employment, they can not only fire you, but if you've been exposed to confidential information, they could prosecute.

 

It may not be worth accepting the job.

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The problem with submitting ANYthing on your resume or application that can't be verified is that it's not just the initial investigation you'll need to fear. If they discover the lie at any time during your employment, they can not only fire you, but if you've been exposed to confidential information, they could prosecute.

 

It may not be worth accepting the job.

 

exactly this. It will come back to you at some point.

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The problem with submitting ANYthing on your resume or application that can't be verified is that it's not just the initial investigation you'll need to fear. If they discover the lie at any time during your employment, they can not only fire you, but if you've been exposed to confidential information, they could prosecute.

 

It may not be worth accepting the job.

 

Sometimes I wonder why people even post on these forums when I get responses like this. More then likely this is a minor detail which will be overlooked, yet people will go so far as to say to not to accept the job? Why because if I am exposed to confidential information they could prosecute on the basis of what, that I am more likely to leak information because I lied on my resume.

 

This sort of slippery slope thinking leads me to believe that its makes more sense to be paranoid and not take any chances. I will keep this thread updated with the response on Monday to Justify any of these claims to see how rational they have been. So all these people who keep saying, the offer will get rescinded, you will be fired, etc. etc.

 

Yet, I doubt anyone of these people has ever applied for engineering jobs and knows how competitive it has been, or how many years I have been studying or how many applications I have sent out. That's cool.

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