
Ask HN: Fabricating a Resume - ResumeQuestions
I&#x27;ve applied at a company a few times for a job I am well qualified for (15+ years of COBOL, RPG) but I heard that the company won&#x27;t hire unless you have experience in a big bank. I have experience in small credit unions and smaller financial environments.<p>How bad would it be to test this theory? Make up some fake job experience and fake details to see if they ask this fake person to an interview because they worked at a big finance company versus a small company, same 15 years experience.
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muzani
If you're going to do something questionably legal, turn it into proper
research, with multiple data points and a control, and publish the results. It
doesn't have to be a formal paper. Something like a blog will do. You might
also want to look into studying other factors - racism, sexism.

One guy did a study on this [0], but they got their methodology wrong [1].
Nobody actually criticized them on sending thousands of fake resumes to
companies. People said they should have sent more.

[0] [https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/03/07/race-
more-...](https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/03/07/race-more-
important-than-skills-when-it-comes-to-jobs-study-finds/)

[1] [https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/03/11/centgps-
ra...](https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/03/11/centgps-racial-
discrimination-job-study-called-into-question/)

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adnanazadsg
This was a very different scenario though. The intent was a legitimate
research. I feel like OP is more looking for a justification for something he
knows is wrong.

Even if it was conducted purely for research, the findings wouldn't really be
interesting. Results for whether a company gives you a callback if you add
experience they are explicitly seeking is hardly going to be surprising.

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muzani
OP said they did meet the experience the company was explicitly seeking. Since
there's no callbacks it has to be something else.

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adnanazadsg
" the company won't hire unless you have experience in a big bank"

Seems like this is the requirement the candidate doesn't meet - although its
unstated.

If the issue was sex, race or age it would me a legitimate "study" but in this
case, it'd be just lying about experience to get the job.

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adnanazadsg
Its a very unethical approach. And if you're caught, it'll destroy people's
trust in you (and thats something that's hard to gain back).

If you really want a job there, I'd say try to get in touch with the hiring
manager or someone who's on the team. Usually it's HR acting as a gatekeeper
without understanding the nuances of what makes a good candidate good.

Reach out to folks either through your personal network if you have a
connection, or via LinkedIn.

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iraldir
Well if you send the exact same resume with a few different thing, you're
going to be caught and get bad rep. If you change lots of things (formatting
of the resume, skills, education, description for positions etc.) then you are
not testing anything because you change to manny variables.

And what's the point of it. Say you're right and they consider working at a
big bank like necessary experience. That's not illegal or anything. Knowing
that will not give you an edge, it's not something you can change.

So overall, you will probably learn nothing or get your real profile banned,
potentially for multiple companies if going through a recruiter or in a small
industry. And even if you manage to pull it off, and you're right, that
doesn't give you anything. so just don't.

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Antoninus
It's fraud.

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Starknaked
Is it fraud to just test their hypothesis with no intention of following
through with it?

