To lie on my CV?

[MumOfTwee]

My perfect job has come up. Its asking for experience at a certain type of company. I do have that experience but only was there for 6 months and left because my boss was hell on earth. AIBU go stretch out that 6 months to say a year/18 months?

No real way to check unless someone on the hiring panel knows someone who used to work at the other place, but even then it's three jobs ago so can't imagine they would check

I work in a creative industry so I'm not saving lives or doing anything specialist that would mean exaggerating experience might have any risks

Do people do this all the time?

People are demented about this sort of thing on MN. I had a period about 10 years ago where a job didn't work out (not my fault, it was a horrific place to work) so I left after 4 months and did bar work until a better, more relevant job came along. Now I just don't mention the shit job and the pub work, and stretch out the good job. No one is ever going to check that sort of detail if it's not your most recent employment. It's not dishonest, it's pragmatic.

So you’re lying for the prestige?

It’s not about needing the experience, it’s about wanting to look like you worked there for longer to make you look better.

That’s not dissimilar to saying you headed up a project when actually you were just a part of said project.

It makes you look desperate to be seen as something you’re not.

If you worked for them, own it. If you left after six months, so what.

Assuming you have the experience they need in the industry you’re applying in, claiming to have worked somewhere for 18 months rather than 6 months 8 years ago really isn’t going to impress anyone.

Lying by omission is fine - blatant lying is not. It's not a moral test but there are degrees. Saying you were brilliant at your job when some days you were rubbish (as we all are) same thing, imo.

Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Make sure it matches.

Go for it. It’s three jobs ago so they’ll only check back to the last job (maybe two) I left my current job for 6 months to go somewhere awful and when I re-applied for another job
within the same organisation, I completely left out the awful job. No-one ever found out 🤷‍♀️

And that's where it gets tricky because on a CV you are lying in private - on your LinkedIn you are lying in public and previous people you worked with will see what you've done.

''@Florissant · Today 07:53
RampantIvy · Today 07:46
Why is having a moral compass considered pearl clutching and hand wringing by a significant minority on MN?

Don't lie. Just don't be specific, and say eg 2015 project manager at xx.

And that's lying by omission.''

Nonsense. It is not ''lying by omission''

You don't need to list all the start/end dates with the exact day/month on your CV.

Very common to simply have the year listed for simplicity/ease to read.

I'd fudge it but only for the year rather than 18 months.

No, that's something only a sociopath (or let's be blunt) dodgy man would do.

It's always good to see those people get sacked when a) it's discovered or b) they're crap at the job.

Either get the experience first or talk your way into it honestly.

I used to work with a guy who is ridiculously lying about his experience on linkedin. He hasn't added anyone from the company we worked at.

He no-longer even works in the sector. His bio says he's trying to get back in, but has zero shot after that.

Makes him seem like a delusional psycho.

I wouldn't lie. Just be honest and make the most of the experience you do have.

I know a young man who recently applied for a job. He didn't have one of the qualifications that the advert said was essential, but his application said that although he didn't have it he was confident that he could get it quickly and he would be prepared to study for it in his own time.

That impressed the employer and they interviewed him and offered him the job, saying they they would pay for the training for the qualification and he could have time off to do it.

Are you saying that if a member of staff, who had worked at your company for 10 years and was a good performer, was discovered to have said they'd worked for a company 6 months longer than they've advertised, you'd sack them?

No, that's something only a sociopath (...) would do.

😂😂😂

well, I didn't sack him, personally! He was sacked. He had been working at the new place around 4-5 years I guess, how good a performer he was I have no idea.

The blackmailed manager had been there longer, he wasn't great, tbf

My goodness. I've worked in the public, private and charity sectors. If we sacked everyone who'd bigged themselves up in their cvs by not telling the exact truth, we'd have had very few workers. 😂

gosh, that is alarming, you work in places were fraud is normal and accepted? That isn't what normally happens, you know, sounds like one whistle blower could potentially crash your whole organisations

This. As long as you do it for all your previous jobs you will be fine.

I worked education for nearly 20 years and, yes, teachers beef up what they've done.

This is absolutely fine. If they do ask you outright at interview you could say something like "Just under a year. I wouldn't normally leave a job so quickly, but the salary and extra responsibility at the Pepsi role was too good to pass up." If they press you for exact dates, umm and ahh a bit like you can't quite remember and say erm... it must have been October or November to about the next summer, erm, maybe June?"

Don't do it. They may email that place for reference because it's of interest to the post. Then you'll be fucked.

Don't put the months. Just put the year

So 2015

Or 2015/2016

Or 2014/2015

Then if asked you can decide what to say

Just don't do it.

These things have a habit of coming back and biting you on the bum years later.

🙄

I'm interviewing at the moment. We look at CVs and we have people talk their way through their career to date in the interview. Lying on a piece of paper is a very different thing to lying to people's faces. Especially as we ask follow up questions. I had someone tell me about a 6 month role a few days ago. I'd worked in the same place and lasted two years, which I think was probably a record. I would have been very very suspicious if he'd bullshitted his way through a lie. And I still know people there of course.

I do work in an organisation and field that holds itself to a high standard though. And my manager is very focused on trust and trustworthiness. People would definitely lose their jobs if it was found out.

Besides which, you know, lying is wrong. You're competing with people who will have told the truth.

Turned on Good Morning Britain this morning and they're debating lying on your CV - ha - www.mylondon.news/news/tv/itv-good-morning-britain-viewers-26377882

The deadline for the job is today and I'm not going to apply. I was grabbing at straws trying to think of ways to stand a chance. But I don't.

It’s a compliance issue. Because another company got burnt by the employee lying, and the fact he was doing a great job and had been for 15 years was irrelevant as he had lied about a qualification, our company has decided to do an audit. It’s a complete pain in the arse tbh. I’m responsible for doing my department, it’s very painful.

My daughter works for a law firm and they use an agency who checks everything. She was even questioned about the meals on wheels volunteering that she did at school! These agencies love to catch people out- proves their’worth’ to the companies paying them.