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

Ross is that you 🤣🤣

Only on mumsnet 🤣 must have been a very big whooper.

Not my lie but once I was interviewing someone and they used an example of an incident they'd had to deal with and how they'd managed it. It was a very one off incident, it wouldn't have happened twice. He'd clearly forgotten who was there when the incident took place and he was actually describing my actions back to me.

I used to know someone who made up two children at interview and kept the lie going for years. He was interviewing somewhere "family friendly" and knew from others that worked there that parents got priority for leave and preferred hours.

The dedication. I think he used pictures of his siblings kids, from memory.

Not me but my sister, aged 21, who had done about 3 months of French at school when she was 11 put "fluent French" on her CV and an agency offered her job as an au pair in Paris. Too embarrassed to own up she went along with it and the family paid for her travel. Within 15 hours of her arrival they sent her back to England!

I've never done so, it's pointless and you'd be caught out, especially in my industry!

i worked with someone who had supplied a reference, but it turned out she had written it herself, she was in finance and i think it was a case of her hand writing matching up with the referee's

She got dismissed on the spot.

When I was young I worked in a really awful job with a completely incompetent manager. She was known for giving bad references to stop staff leaving. I told my new employer (different city/sector) that she was off long term sick. They accepted a reference from a 'senior' colleague instead. The colleague was actually the same grade as me. I did the same for her. We both had to relocate but were so relieved to get out and reboot our careers. We've both done ok since and I still don't know what else we could have done at the time to get out.

I read of a situation where a woman put the wrong education grade on her CV and when I came back it did not match the certificate the job was withdrawn. She'd already quit her previous role.

Me and a friend both applied for a job at a new retail store in town, she got through to the next stage- an big group interview session at the jobcentre as they were hiring quite a few people.
I didn't get the interview but went along anyway and acted surprised that my name wasn't on the list. We both got a job 😁

Telling my potential employers that I am capable of doing the job on offer.

Works often enough

As a four year old I remember my father taking me into the engine room of the paddle steamer Bristol Queen.

About twenty years later as a volunteer I was told to go into the engine room of the SS Freshspring and start it on the basis of what I had seen as a pre schooler.

No major calamities ensued

Nothing worse than sugar coating the reasons I left a couple of really awful jobs. Not that I was sacked or anything, but I missed out “I got myself signed off sick and looked for another job because I couldn’t face going in”.

Just last week, offered a role & asked if they had points on their driving licence. Person claimed had 3 points but when a licence check was done it turned out they were banned. Job offer was retracted, the person informed and claimed he had no idea he was banned!

I told quite a few lies on my CV to get my foot in the door at my current workplace. Most ‘egregiously’, I was both my own references (they were happy to accept references via email and I used two different additional email accounts). I was in the process of leaving several years of sex work and I knew I wouldn’t get a job if I said that on my CV. I was perfectly able to do the job I got, and I’ve since been promoted.

Liar gets caught out in job interview:

I started a job which had a lot of driving involved, and the lady I started with was dismissed after 2 days. Turned out she couldn't drive, but took the job anyway & got herself on an intensive course before starting...which she then failed. I blame Richard Branson for making some people believe it's OK to overstretch yourself & worry about the rest as & when.

I'm a nurse and work for the NHS and the only person I know who lied on her CV was struck off. She claimed to be a nurse prescriber but failed to provide evidence of this, and after a very cursory investigation, it was revealed she had never even studied for the qualification.

At age 16 I was being interviewed for my first job, in the Civil Service. We were discussing my 'O' Levels, one of which is needlework. To this day I don't know how I passed it, I can't sew a button on. For some reason the interviewer was impressed and asked me if I did any sewing. I told her I made all my sister's clothes. Complete and utter lie. I did get the job but that particular 'O' Level was neither use nor ornament.

Why on earth would anyone say that...? I have worked alongside nurses who have studied to prescribe (I was on the domestic team, so please don't confuse my role with our wonderful nurses) and have seen what they go through. Also my husband is a nurse of 25+ years and has frequently dismissed jobs as he doesn't hold the qualification, nor does he plan to take it at his stage of his career.

It's such a massive and massively stupid thing to lie about, I mean, you wouldn't put it on your CV if the job didn't require it, and if the job required it then you wouldn't be able to do it...just WHY???

@MaryMack thank goodness it was discovered.

I’m gobsmacked at some of these! I wonder how many more people there are wandering around doing jobs where they’re responsible for people’s lives that they’re not qualified for

What baffles me is that employers dont check qualifications. It was pretty standard in Local Government to be asked to bring your certificates with you to the interview to be checked

A former colleague of mine put on his CV that he could speak fluent Spanish. He could not speak Spanish. Our boss (who interviewed him) is half Spanish. Still no idea how he got away with that one. I suspect half his CV was utter bullshit.

I worked with someone teaching in a secondary school who I knew hadn't got the appropriate subject degree nor a teaching qualification which you then needed to teach - somehow he got away with it and he got himself promoted too - he was a bit of a golden boy.

Years later he got caught out and he hastily changed jobs and moved 200 miles away.

I looked him up recently and there's no mention on his cv of living in the town he taught in nor of ever teaching

I always leave off my O levels and add my degree which I actually did in my mid 20s. Makes me look 40s instead of menopausal 50s.
Crap that we have to...