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I guess it might be overlooked in some communities. The woman who got the job of President of our Vo-tech college didn't have the doctorate which she claimed to have and had submitted a fraudulent thesis to verify it. This made the local news but she stayed in office for about five years.
I have never heard an explanation for that and can only assume that her being the first female president and a member of a minority group may have had some influence. Eventually there were other problems and she took a position at a different Vo-tech. She was fired upward, you could say.
1- It's not uncommon to lie about having a degree on the resume. However, going the extra step to photoshop your name and assume the position you went to x school... then submit this evidence to HR to collect a wage you would not have qualified for... that's fraud. That is literally textbook fraud. The company can go after him.
Everyone is being so dismissive, but depending on his status within the company your friend could go to jail or pay fines. An Executive position would be punished. A call center employee could get away with only being fired.
2- Reddit is curated by moderators. We're allowed to speak freely here, but its not like this on Reddit. The "Reddit/Discord mods" will delete comments they personally don't agree with (often the political ones). Someone may have commented your friend is going to pay fines, the Reddit mod would have removed the comment under some silly stance, "Rule #5. No speculations on this forum. We are only here to discuss."
Character counts. The friend may have gotten away with it this time, but he’ll always be waiting for the hammer to fall. I wouldn’t want to live like that.
As someone who worked part time while working hard to earn a degree it does upset me when this happens. But I'm more upset at the employer who should be checking on things like this. Sure most people, including me, may embellish a resume. But overplaying just how well you performed on a previous job is hardly the same as claiming you got a degree, at great cost and sacrifice, when you did not.
1- It's not uncommon to lie about having a degree on the resume. However, going the extra step to photoshop your name and assume the position you went to x school... then submit this evidence to HR to collect a wage you would not have qualified for... that's fraud. That is literally textbook fraud. The company can go after him.
Everyone is being so dismissive, but depending on his status within the company your friend could go to jail or pay fines. An Executive position would be punished. A call center employee could get away with only being fired.
2- Reddit is curated by moderators. We're allowed to speak freely here, but its not like this on Reddit. The "Reddit/Discord mods" will delete comments they personally don't agree with (often the political ones). Someone may have commented your friend is going to pay fines, the Reddit mod would have removed the comment under some silly stance, "Rule #5. No speculations on this forum. We are only here to discuss."
The odds are very slim if he was found out that his employer would spend the time, resources and money to prosecute him. They'd have to prove he more or less negatively affected their business in some way. There have been certain high profile cases of people being jailed for misrepresenting themselves to employers but it's such a small percentage of cases that go that far.
The Republican Senator George Santos who made up most ALL of his background (in laughably bad fashion, mind you) is being prosecuted for all of his various lies.
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Such falsification is grounds for dismissal here and probably most places. Since he bragged about it to you, he is likely to tell someone at work some day, and it could spell the end of his employment there. In the jobs I have applied for and/or gotten requiring a degree, I have never had to provide proof, including this one. I don't know if our background checking consultants contact the listed colleges or not. I would guess that at least 80% of job applicants have a lie or at least major exaggeration on their resume. It's up to the HR and hiring manager to find ways to verify, if only well designed interview questions.
As I've said before, I've never lied about my credentials in a resume, but as I started to find out how common this is, I've wondered how much of a disadvantage I suffered for being honest.
Same here.
I'd like to think probably not as much as this would suggest.
As someone who worked part time while working hard to earn a degree it does upset me when this happens. But I'm more upset at the employer who should be checking on things like this. Sure most people, including me, may embellish a resume. But overplaying just how well you performed on a previous job is hardly the same as claiming you got a degree, at great cost and sacrifice, when you did not.
Coincidentally, they did check. And it literally did not come up on his background check. But the photoshopped, scanned copy that he sent was sufficient enough for them to move forward.
Funny thing about it is that he tried to pull this stunt with a large, reputable aerospace company several months back. They were about to move forward with his application contingent upon a background check, but then I guess he decided to withdraw before it got to that point since he knew he lied. Maybe he hadn't come up with the idea to photoshop the degree yet. Desperate times, desperate measures? But still, wow!
Coincidentally, they did check. And it literally did not come up on his background check. But the photoshopped, scanned copy that he sent was sufficient enough for them to move forward.
Funny thing about it is that he tried to pull this stunt with a large, reputable aerospace company several months back. They were about to move forward with his application contingent upon a background check, but then I guess he decided to withdraw before it got to that point since he knew he lied. Maybe he hadn't come up with the idea to photoshop the degree yet. Desperate times, desperate measures? But still, wow!
Makes you wonder if some of these companies don't just pretend to run background checks or claim they run background checks and don't go through the effort to do the checks themselves or subcontract that background check out to another firm to save some money.
Aerospace industry is highly regulated, he'd have been caught surely. And I agree with the poster above, if he's telling you he's probably telling other folks. Imagine if you two (or whomever he's telling) had a falling out for whatever reason, he'd be sweating bullets wondering if he was going to get called out on his fake degree. The guy might be somewhat crafty/sneaky but not terribly bright if he's telling people about this lie.
I don’t think college degrees are needed for every job, and I think the push for “everyone” to pursue a traditional academic degree is flawed (I say this as someone with a Masters!). BUT lying on a job application, and deliberate manipulation to succeed is COMPLETELY wrong. I think you’re right to question your friend. He’s missing some morals here.
Even if this time it works out for him, I had a friend that said “the wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn.” If not in this life, in the next.
I’d have a hard time not saying anything to the friend; and questioning the friendship altogether. As someone else said, if he lies about this, what else will he lie about? I wouldn’t trust him.
Side note, I would ignore the people on Reddit. Their values are questionable too.
Yeah, he has a laundry list of questionable behaviors that has been weighing on me as to how meaningful this relationship is to me. I'm very adamant about keeping good company around, and he is not someone I would ordinarily fall in with. At the end of the day, he serves one specific purpose, and that is he is almost readily available at any time to go out and watch a game, etc. And with my current lack of options in that department, there's an appeal, albeit a dwindling one.
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