Don't Lie About Your Credentials

Once upon a time I worked for a start-up financial services firm (well actually I have worked for 2 of them). I no longer work there but the company made news recently by announcing an acquisition. With the company making big news many people currently and formerly associated with the start-up are getting media coverage and recognition themselves.

A couple of my former co-workers who are no longer employed by the start-up have founded another company and this week I happened to read some information that was posted on their website. Actually the information I read was forwarded to me by another former co-worker who was shocked by what she read. What shocked her were the new "bios" the firms two founders have crafted for themselves because some portions of the bios appear to be exaggerated.

Specifically the founders claim to have earned bachelors degrees from a large state university. We know for a fact that one of the founders did not earn the degree he claims to have. The other interesting thing we read in these bios is that the founder who did earn a college degree now claims to have attended medical school which we are pretty sure he did not. It is certainly the first we, or anyone else we know from the company, have ever heard about him attending medical school and he is the kind of person who would have made sure everyone at work knew that if it were true.

Don't fabricate facts related to your background, your experience, or your credentials because someone can find out and you will be exposed as a liar. Companies don't hire people who get caught making up credentials - sometimes companies even fire valued employees whom they find out lied on job applications or resumes.

Exaggerating or lying about your background simply shows that you lack integrity and, quite possibly, confidence. There are plenty of successful people in the world who didn't attend college or who dropped out to pursue a career or who earned abysmal grades in school. For example Bill Gates,founder of Microsoft, and the actor Matt Damon both dropped out of Harvard while Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, dropped out of the University of Chicago. No one would accuse those guys of not being smart and successful in spite of not finishing their degrees.

Personally, I think it's impressive that the individuals that I used as the example in this article started a successful company without the benefit of a top-tier education and the contacts that often come with such a degree. I think their story is more impressive when you know that they created the company just by working hard and persevering. They cheapened their own accomplishments by exaggerating their academic backgrounds.

Be honest and be confident that if you work hard you can be very successful no matter what your credentials. You don't need to exaggerate your accomplishments to impress others. Anyone who might be impressed by an "enhanced" resume is probably smart enough to find out that you weren't telling the truth in the first place.