Husband lied on CV - offered job but they want a reference!

[PeanutyButtery]

DH lost his job last February and he's finally been offered a job back in his field. He's been working in a supermarket for the last six months.

He left the supermarket job off his CV because it's not relevant and instead put that he's been working as a consultant for an organisation (prestigious well-known company that's relevant to the new role) from last March until now. Problem is that he won a tender to provide that organisation with services, signed a contract and everything but they never actually sent him any work.

HR called this week to say that they are offering him the job and does he accept. He said yes and then they asked for references. He gave two people from his previous employer but HR replied asking specifically for a reference from X organisation as it's his "current employer".

He replied to say that since that consultancy has ended, HR can contact the company he is working for right now (which is a freelance client he has actually been working for). But he did put the email address for a contact person at X organisation.

I'm so worried they are going to contact X organisation who will say sorry but this guy never worked for us, and that they'll rescind the offer (it's only an oral offer anyway). DH doesn't seem so worried. He was convinced they wouldn't contact references, but actually his previous employer and freelance client have both said they've already been contacted.

Is there anything he can do to fix this situation? It's been two days and nothing... they contacted the references immediately who both replied that same day

Maybe if employers were more understanding about career gaps and stopgap jobs, people wouldn't have to stretch things so often. Some of the posts on this thread are quite sanctimonious, you should consider yourself lucky if you work in an industry where it's no big deal.

That said, the latest update from the OP puts things in a different light for me. He did not just lie about working for the company, he said he did things he patently did not do. That is not stretching the truth, that is an outright lie.

It's a pretty big lie to be honest. He could just have made it more clear that ...due to the pandemic no work materialised so he also worked in the supermarket to support his family.

He seems to value looking like a big shot higher than valuing what he actually is - a good man doing the best for his family and not afraid to do supermarket work if that's what it takes!
If he does get the job he'll be forever wondering if someone will ask him 'oh didn't you work for X Prestigious Company, what was the approach there?'.
The other point is - he doesn't listen to you and didn't take your opinion on board.

sorry if mentioned before but if he does get the job, wont his past employer info be required for his PAYE/payslip? Its all going to come out then surely? As it stands I think he hasnt actually lied at interview, just supplied reference details he should not have for a contractor role which has not materialised. 'I should clarify I only have supplied that contact to confirm I had been successful in being awarded a contract but to date the work has not materialised. In the meantime I should add that I have taken on supermarket work in the interim, which while it may not be relevant experience for the role, so x is my current employer and I am sure would confirm that if required. I dont think this came up in the interview so thought I should clarify' ?

The other thing I noticed in OP's most recent post was a comment about it being 'silly' to do this about his most recent position....with an acknowledgement that this was he one they were most likely to take references up for.

Op seems to be suggesting that if he had told this lie about an earlier job it would have been okay or less 'silly' because he would have been more likely to get away with it.

It just makes me wonder how cross OP is with DH at the lie telling or if it's all about getting caught really. Lots of people are far more sorry about being caught doing wrong than doing the wrong itself. If they thought they'd get away with it, they'd do it again and more.

Lots of people on the thread are pointing out its a big, direct lie, told in full knowledge that it was a total fabrication.This needs to be acknowledged rather than passed over as a small error.

In some jobs, if you did this and it came out, you'd be on an industry blacklist as dishonest and a fraudster, because honesty is so vital to the role and the safety of all the employees. I wouldn't play down how seriously this kind of lying and especially if it followed up with attempts to cover it over by further lies, are taken. Employees can start their job and be performing really well and be very liked in the workplace and then when this kind of thing comes out, the firm has no choice but to sack them.

In lots of ways, it would be better if this job just doesn't happen. It would be better for him to create an honest CV and applications in response to other jobs which come up and get one of those honestly and not have to worry about the references or later being found out.

Interesting that you say it didn't come up at interview and he didn't mention the faked job. If the interviewer had asked him about it, presumably he was going to further lie about a job he'd never done rather than admit the lie on his paperwork. It was lucky for him that it didn't come up becaue he would be further embedded in a web of lies if he had.

he did send an email address for a contact person and didn't specifically say no don't contact them, just kind of hinted at please contact this other person instead

At the point that HR asked for the contact details, he needed to explain!

Why didn't he get in touch with this admin person before giving out the contact? He's sort of landed them in a tricky spot now, hasn't he? I very much doubt the admin person is allowed to give references. If I were him I would be getting in touch with them ASAP to explain the situation and find out if I could use an official line to feed back to HR about how/why they cannot give a reference.

And why did he never chase up the work in the first place? So many questions...

@WombatChocolate, I would agree with you. I know we want to be on the OP's side as she has told her side of the story here but her OH is not someone I would want to work with based on his behaviour here.

I have heard anecdotally over the years of people lying on their CV's and in interviews to get jobs.

People might think its a victimless crime if they get away with it. But its not. There are victims in every single instance where someone lies to get a job - the person who fails to get the job that they would have got. The person who is honest.

I sympathise with the OP as its an awful position to be in. I think honesty would have been fine in this case because he could have said that he got the contract but was not required yet due to circumstances and that last year has been so mad that explanation would have been perfect.

@motherofgodhaudyerwheesht

sorry if mentioned before but if he does get the job, wont his past employer info be required for his PAYE/payslip? Its all going to come out then surely? As it stands I think he hasnt actually lied at interview, just supplied reference details he should not have for a contractor role which has not materialised. 'I should clarify I only have supplied that contact to confirm I had been successful in being awarded a contract but to date the work has not materialised. In the meantime I should add that I have taken on supermarket work in the interim, which while it may not be relevant experience for the role, so x is my current employer and I am sure would confirm that if required. I dont think this came up in the interview so thought I should clarify' ?

This is sensible .

If it's a large company with established policies, the admin assistant will simply forward the reference request to HR, who will issue a reference or not.

weird internet myth that references have to be positive or can only be limited, but there’s no basis for it, in England at least.

There may not be anything stopping you from a legal "it's against the law" point of view, but in many companies, especially larger corporates, we can no longer provide personal references.

HR will provide a letter to confirm the dates of employment ( obvs. for employees) and would not provide anything in writing for a contractor.

They really want to avoid any possibility of getting tied up in costly legal proceedings, too many had to settle out of court with self representing disgruntled ex employees.

It does make networks of people, where you can have an informal chat about someone ever more important.

Mother, I think he did lie about the job itself because Op in her recent post, says on the CV he went so far as to cut and paste from the job application (for the contract offer he received but didn't materialise into work) the various jobs/tasks of that role and said he had done them. They could have easily asked about any of those....which presumably would have resulted in a lot of lies about tasks he had carried out. That's the thing isn't it...one lie often leads to others.

I hate how he's now blaming you. What a prick.

It's deeply weird that the 'job' didn't come up in the interview.

It's more likely that it did come up and he lied in the interview, and is lying about this to the OP.

If I was the employing manager I would be very suspicious of someone who lied like this.

It's fair enough to put that he won the tender from X company, as that shows they valued him, but he needed to have clarified it.

@daisiesanddaffodils

Hope it works out for you OP. These threads are always slightly uncomfortable as there’s a strong element of schadenfreude running through them.

There is nothing wrong with working in a supermarket but it ultimately can be damaging CV wise. It’s naive to think it isn’t.

I wish you and your DH the best

Isn't there just.

Knowing (from actual real life experience) getting on an approved list of suppliers means that several checks on the company have already been made. The fact that your husband didn't do any work for them wasn't because he wasn't willing and able.

If I were reviewing the interview, I'd probably ask about the omission/blurring of details but would - if husband was a good candidate - let it ride as long as the other references were satisfactory.

Working in a supermarket (for example) when you've done a higher level job indicates nothing but integrity IF it's a depressed job market or there's a valid reason. I agree with daisiesanddaffodils that to move from high level work to a supermarket for no apparent reasons makes the candidate stick out like a sore thumb and they'd probably be rejected on that basis.

Good luck OP, to you and your husband - and ignore the tricoteuse that haunt these boards.

Dreaming, I hadn't thought of that.

Yes, the thing with those who lie and who lie very easily, is that they do it to lots of people and sometimes it gets to a point where they barely realise they're doing it or think what they've said is pretty much the truth.

We don't know Op or her DH so maybe this is very much a one-off which is totally out of character and he wouldn't normally lie and on reflection is pretty disappointed in himself about all this. But then, Op said he seems pretty relaxed about it all and thinks he's going to get away with it. Not sure he really has learned any lessons or wouldn't do it again, or has even told the OP the full story. Perhaps he's only spoken to her about it because he's worried it's all going to come out and job offer rescinded and OP will then know.....but if he thought he could avoid that, perhaps he would have kept quiet. Or perhaps he felt that OP is similar to him in approach to truth and would have understood why he lied and not been worried about the lie itself and only getting found out. Op herself seemed more bothered about the deftness of lying about the recent job which would get referenced, rah the lie itself.

Who knows....

"Shoe me the person who does not tell a lie or two on their CV or at least garnish the truth!"

Me (and loads of people I'd imagine). Not that I blame people for embellishing or exaggerating.

I agree with dreamingbohemian, surely his latest role would have come-up at the interview, he's lying again.

" if he does get the job, wont his past employer info be required for his PAYE/payslip?"

Didn't he say he was a consultant? It's also possible to start without a p45 from the previous employer, but you'd be on emergency tax then I suppose.

Ex magistrate here.
Had someone in court for lying on cv. He'd made up previous experience. His company found out ten years later and took him to court for fraud and re payment of previous 10 years of salary.

I'm not trying to pretend that it was okay, but yes I am hoping that he gets away with it (and then never does anything similar again) just because of our financial situation and the jobs market being what it is right now. It's not a fancy job or one that DH would choose if he had other options, but it's one that means we can finally cover our bills.

He has produced work for this organisation in the past, as his previous employer was an agency who worked pretty much exclusively for this organisation. So the work in his portfolio for this organisation is genuine, but the info on the CV obviously isn't.

Tbh, the fact that he seems to not be taking much responsibility for it and even suggesting 'why did you not tell me?'....I don't know what industry he works in, but I'm not sure I'd want to employ him as any sort of 'consultant'.
My industry is regulated by a professional body and you can have your membership suspended for that.

If he didn't even draw on it in the interview then what an even more stupid thing to do as he clearly would have gotten the job without it- it added nothing, only risk!

only thing you can do is wait it out now and see what they say.

Oh dear. It's just what happens when you lie on your CV. All he can do is fess up and hope for the best.

@memberofthewedding

Shoe me the person who does not tell a lie or two on their CV or at least garnish the truth!

I run a company and have given a reference to a relative who did a few small jobs for me but made it sound like a full time job to cover up a gap on his CV. Ive also written references for myself in the past. Its so much easier now with email.

I dont know how DH is going to fix this. Lets just hope he is lucky.

I never did. Neither has my husband.

So you're dishonest, and expect everyone else to be?

@DidgeDoolittle

Ex magistrate here. Had someone in court for lying on cv. He'd made up previous experience. His company found out ten years later and took him to court for fraud and re payment of previous 10 years of salary.

Really? In 10 years they'd failed 'due diligence' checking? How did that affect their professional indemnity cover? I can't believe they'd see a penny of that 'repayment' apparently due. Very odd indeed.

Oh. Ex-auditor here... not that it matters.