

Ask HN: Lying on your resume - emilepetrone

To make it clear, an ex lied on her resume for a $100k+ job. If you were in my shoes, and knew the company, what would you do?<p>The second piece to this question- what do people think of lying on your resume? I can't stand it- but I think it may be common place.<p>Thanks for your thoughts!
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mindcrime
_If you were in my shoes, and knew the company, what would you do?_

What would I do? Not a damn thing.

It's not your job to right every injustice in the world; and it's questionable
if there's any injustice here in the first place. Ok, she lied on her
resume... big deal, getting a job is one thing, but keeping it is about
performance. If she - in the end - can DO the job she was hired to do, does
the lying on the resume bit really hurt anything? Not that I'm advocating
lying, I'm just saying that "what's done is done" and that it's not your place
to get involved.

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rksprst
Why are you even thinking about this? Move on. There's not much upside to you
telling them (they might know, they might not care, hurt you down the line).

Either way, why are you even thinking about this? This is wasted time you
could have spent doing something productive.

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brg
I would do absolutely nothing. The primary reason I can see you asking this
question is that you are looking for justification to take revenge upon your
ex. If that is correct, it is better for your own well being to move on.

Even so, the resume has little to do with a hiring decision once getting
someone passed the initial bar. Hiring is completely dependent upon the
interview and the background check. The resume is not used for much more than
a sanity check.

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wccrawford
Have you considered that it might be illegal to tell them? There are laws that
prevent other companies from giving most information to a hiring company
unless the applicant has listen a person as a reference, and then only that
person can give more info.

I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me this is really risky for you and doesn't
provide any benefit other than revenge.

~~~
billswift
In the US it isn't illegal for companies to give information to a hiring
company, they don't give out information because of the risk of being sued by
the applicant if they give out information that may cost the applicant the new
job.

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reeses
Are you stalking the ex? There should be a seven-year waiting period before
doing that kind of thing. Then it's just "catching up on Facebook."

If your knowledge of the company is material, then the most you'll want to do
is possibly telling them to do their own fact-checking. I.e., if it's your
best buddy's startup[1], then you call him or tell him face-to-face, with no
written record. Use tone (sarcasm is good here, but when isn't it?) rather
than word choice to convey that not all is as it seems.

It's possibly grounds for a slander or defamation lawsuit if your ex finds out
that you called potential employers and called her a liar, so think about
whether you are still carrying enough baggage that it's worth exposing
yourself vs. using this as an opportunity to move on.

[1] In which case, your first words should be,'hey, bro code violation–stay
way from exes!' Then you get to punch him once in the stomach the next time
you see him.

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freddealmeida
I think anyone that can get a 100k+ job probably doesn't really get it because
of her resume. And you shouldn't care. Move on.

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pygorex
Big lie or little lie? Did she say she was manager of a large project when she
shared most of the management duties with another employee? Or, is she
fabricating a medical degree out of thin air?

Everyone puts their best face forward on a resume - and will usually
stretching the truth a bit. But most don't engage in outright fraud to land a
job. If she is doing _that_ , well she may be facing liability down the road.

It's impossible to discern the severity of the lie from your question alone -
for all I know you could be nitpicking douche-bag - OTOH she may be a
conniving, money-grubbing harpie. Details, please.

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us
1\. It is common place as f'd up as that is.

2\. A lot of times, for higher level positions, it'll catch on fast and it's
not uncommon for people to be let go.

3\. As to whether or not you should let the company no, this part is tricky.
The right thing to do is obviously tell the company whether or not she could
perform the tasks. The problem though is it may ruin your relationship. It
would have been better to prevent it from happening but what's done is done.

In reality it's not really your place to interfere but you're going to have to
make a judgement call on whether or not you want to step in on this.

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orijing
Relevant: <http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-02-20>

According to Dilbert at least, lying is common...

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nwmcsween
I don't lie but I sell myself, I also don't really create a resume but more of
an overview of what I can do and a why / why not. On the other hand as an
employer I don't care about previous jobs unless they're exceptional and I
want to know what you know and why I should hire you and also why I shouldn't
and a few references to chat to, if I need anything else I call the person.

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gtb
You can't separate work and lying ... if further explanation is needed, just
check Feb 20 Dilbert!

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davidk0101
It probably happens all the time and you are just wasting your time even
thinking about it.

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davidmurphy
Lying is wrong. I'm glad that person is your ex, not your current partner.

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nika
You want to be a startup founder, right? Look forward.

Your Ex may turn into a valued contact in the future, or might be your future
boss, you never know. If they lied then it will really depend on whether they
can do the job or not, and a resume only gets you in the door, interviews are
what gets you jobs anyway.

That said, I once received a resume from someone who listed as one of their
past employers a company I'd also worked for. He listed his work there as
being on a project that I'd worked on, and partially led. One with less than 6
people on it. One that happened without him being involved at all!

I was amazed at the nerve. Would have been easy to call the company if we'd
been reference checking and found out, but worse, I'd worked there so I knew
right away it was a lie.

We uninvited him from his interview.

~~~
dstein
_We uninvited him from his interview._

That's too bad. It would have been a very interesting interview.

