Worst lie ever told in an interview

[PetrichorSoul]

I work in HR and as part of my role I manage recruitment.

I've seen people lie about all sorts. From university degrees (can't produce the transcripts) to reference calls from best mates or aunties who don't know the technical jargon someone in their supposed position would know.

I myself have previously inflated my experience because I had done the part of the job I was moving into and knew I could do it well?

Have you ever told a lie in an interview? The confessional booth is open

Yes I have lied during an interview. This was a good few years ago now though, when I was in my late 20's and clearly wearing a wedding ring. I told the interviewer that I was infertile and couldn't have children. I got the job.

Not in an interview but I did once fake a reference and used my friend instead, in order to transfer uni course

I know someone who lied on a CV and was caught out. Served a custodian sentence for it.

Clearly there is a spectrum but it's no laughing matter and can actually be considered fraud.

Many years ago when applying for my first charge nurse role - I was pregnant and I had interviewed for the role on a ward where people knew me. I didn't get the role and was told unofficially that they didn't want to support me through maternity but would be happy to offer me another role in the future after I'd had the baby.

So I went for a role in a different ward where they didn't know me, said nothing about my pregnancy and kept my jacket zipped up.

The final question of the interview was "what is something about you that we don't know but would like to know". I did not tell them about the pregnancy, I got the role, and I'm not sorry at all.

When I've been interviewing, the worst has been people not disclosing serious offences which then come up on their DBS.

Companies lie all the time. Last year I worked for a 'billionaire'. He's now in jail whilst owing hundreds of thousands in unpaid wages.
I think a bit of sparkle doesn't matter (I've changed a title if it didn't correspond to my role or is outdated) but I worked with someone who made up a full career in the military. What he didn't know was my family were all ex services or government. He knew, I knew ditto a previous boss with no relevant degree for his CFO job.

For the interview for my current job I altered my previous job title. In fairness I had actually carried out that role for most of my time in the job.

Jesus, they're never get away with that nowadays! Blatant discrimination.

It was blatant discrimination then too! Just impossible to prove.

I 100% agree with hiding a pregnancy unless you're a couple of weeks away from delivery of course. So many women are discriminated against and we can't win.

Single - will get married and have babies
Married and child free - will have babies
Married with kids - will take loads of time off for babies
Divorced - will take even more time off for kids

and so it goes.

My OH was applying for teaching course - he needed a reference from his current employer. They were supposed to log on to UCAS(?) and fill in their bit. Now, we lived with the person who was technically his boss, in a big houseshare. He was a super hippie flake, and didn't do the reference on time (despite us keep asking him). They both worked for a book-makers at the time, and weren't particularly career driven or organised.

Anyway, it being an academic course, this could have set us back a whole year!! Just because his boss was lazy. UCAS were quite strict about the application deadline, but got my OH to message them saying his boss had died, which is why he hadn't done the reference. They gave him a couple more days to do it because of "extenuating circumstances" 😶 Got my lovely, reliable friend to log in and give a good reference, although of course he'd never been my partners boss...

He did the course when it started, and is now teaching secondary!

Not me, but a work colleague (and friend ) landed a new job with another company by saying she had my job. Not one similar to it, but my actual job title in the company we both worked at. She was at junior assistant level in a department which crossed over a very limited amount with my specialisation and we had cooperated on a small project once.

She must have been very convincing in the interview or they didn’t look too closely into her background. Her department was going to be outsourced with the manager that she worked with promoted up and away so I think the manager gave a very supportive ( ie deceptive) reference. Either way, she spent a year phoning me up in a panic when she kept coming across areas where she had no idea of what to do.

She only told me later that she had said she had my job - when I queried why she needed so much info on the subject - but by that time she had done well with the part of the job that she didn’t need technical skills for and got moved into something more suitable. Good on her and she went on to have a very good career !

( Just like to point out that her lack of technical knowledge or qualifications did not impact anyone’s safety or cause monetary loss to the company etc. )

Convinced EVERYBODY that I knew how to run a country. Oops 🤗Tee-hee!

I said I could use a Japanese word processor. I was (am) fluent in Japanese and can read and write it, just didn't know how to use a computer in it. The first day of work, I was whispering into the phone with my Japanese friend who talked me through it. It worked out in the end! This was 30 years ago and I still work regularly using Japanese.

@PetrichorSoul

This would have been 30+ years ago ...

Had a friend who had been out of work for some time. Produced a reference which looked OK but when the employer checked the company had been closed down [details from Companies House] some 6 years previously!

Tsk tsk

Companies lie all the time. This is so true @Mrsredlipstick it's such a double standard.

I bullshitted once, I was told the job had a 6 mth training period and required a full drivers licence as the job included a company car. I said I could drive and had lessons but no full licence yet. In truth I had never sat behind the wheel of a car. I applied immediately, i spent literally every weekend learning, all my money went on lessons, i got the train home every other weekend to practice on my parents car, it was my sole focus and obsession for months and I really felt bad about what I had said. Before the 6 month deadline I got my licence and left my flat for a more expensive place further out because I needed parking. But then my employer extended the period for another
7 months, no apologises, no explanation. I was left on a trainee salary with a higher rent and every penny spent on honouring my part of the deal. AIBU to still be annoyed 20 years later?!

Worked alongside someone who claimed she had a degree in the creative field I worked in (she was in admin role). She was given projects at my level to do, presumably to see if she'd be a fit in our team. She failed. Spectacularly. Didn't understand the first thing about the process. Ultimately, she looked a total fool, as did the MD who had believed her patter, despite being told she was lying. Egg on face all round.

Not lied. Only thing I did was take my engagement ring off at interview. I don't regret as it would have counted against me, knowing the characters I went on to work with.

@PetrichorSoul
Don't forget 50+ menopausal or aged parents.

I had a HR director who was calling herself Dr who hadn't submitted her research paper. She had never been questioned before. I told her I'd show her mine if she showed me hers!

Tbh I now say I'm looking forward to getting me teeth into something as my DC are adults and both sets of DP have died. However that has backfired insofar that I got calls at 5am from overseas.

I did this as my official job title and the job I did didn't match up.

Not a lie as such but I was so nervous during my interview for my current job that I put on a Scottish accent by accident. Luckily neither of the people interviewing me were native English speakers so I don't think they noticed and I was able to just go back to my normal accent after I got the job.

I lied about keeping up a language which I had studied many years earlier. It backfired when I had to do a project using that language. It turned out ok in the end but it was a lot of work.

That I used to walk a blind woman around Asda weekly so she could do her shopping and I even made sure my shifts were on the days she was in. Did I fuck, and I was on the checkout anyway. Got the job though (20 years ago, long moved on since)

I regularly cut 10 years of experience off my CV. Pretend to be in my 30's and never mention my kids.

What a shitter the world is for working women.

My CV is full of lies mainly to cover up periods of time out of work. I also lie about my health