Computer course sending us on work experience told us to lie.working with mail merge. None of us understood it!
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Have you ever lied on, or otherwise embroidered your CV by a touch of exaggeration?
(62 Posts)No, never, too worried about being found out and shown up.
I did have a member of staff, a graduate trainee, who on her application form claimed archaeology as a hobby, based on a one day school field trip to an archaeological site and an hour or so excavating.
She had reckoned that no one inteviewing her would ewver know anything about archaeology and ask her anything about it.
It was unfortunate for her that I was part of the interview panel. My main hobby is archaeology and, at the time I had been invovled in it for 20 years.
A couple of quick questions, meant as settling down questions. What period was the site, what were they excavating, made it clear what she had done and we moved on. She got the job and when we discussed it later, she said she had learnt her lesson an would never risk putting anything on a cv in future that she could not support.
No, it never occurred to me.
No never. That would be dishonest.
BigBerthal. Yes. I remember this. It was absolutely hideous. 😖
I've never lied but I did make a genuine mistake once when asked on the online application form about how much experience I had. I was filling out literally 13 applications online one after the other for different companies/jobs and my brain was utterly frazzled, I also had a stinking cold on me which wasn't helping. All the questions were basically the same/very boring, most were very long and asked the most ridiculous questions.
I received an email from a woman boss, her tone was quite abrupt, who asked why I'd put I had 500 years of previous experience, instead of 5! I emailed back with an apology, saying it was a honest mistake, explained I was mentally exhausted after doing 13 forms one after the other taking over 3 hours. She never replied, I had no interview, nothing!
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Was her name Rachel Reeves?!
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Indigo8
Allira
That reminded me of Horace Batchelor, the Pools man on radio Luxembourg:
K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-MThe famous infra-draw method.
That brings back memories of listening to Radio Luxembourg on my transistor radio.
And a generation knows how to spell Keynsham!
Apparently, according to the BBC today, Reynolds only amended his LinkedIn profile after the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority contacted him about it.
Barleyfields
”Jenrick is, rightly, pointing out that it is a criminal offence to claim to be a solicitor if you’re not”
That’ll be ‘Honest Bob Jenrick’ you’re referring to! Pot and kettle come to mind.
Allira
That reminded me of Horace Batchelor, the Pools man on radio Luxembourg:
K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M
The famous infra-draw method.
That brings back memories of listening to Radio Luxembourg on my transistor radio.
It has never occurred to me to lie on a CV. In fact I can't tell lies after telling a whopper of a lie when I was 5 that has scarred me for life.
I’ve never lied on a CV, but as a singer and performer have certainly made the most of all my singing experiences.
However, I was horrified to see my bio in the programme when a colleague organised a tour. He had taken my (truthful) details and exaggerated them to such an extent I was embarrassed😬
That reminded me of Horace Batchelor, the Pools man on radio Luxembourg:
K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M
I have a BA (Hons).
That's Bachelor, not Batchelor, of Arts.
It's in foreign languages.
I'd be cross if anyone else said they had one without sitting the rigorous examinations.
No. Maybe now reading some of these I should have, I may have got further on in life... I used to believe honesty and integrity were their own reward. How foolish of me!
Not lied myself - I wouldnt have seen the point of getting a job I didnt feel qualified for.
However, a job agency did darn well lie on my behalf (or were inefficient). Either way = same result and I got sacked because of them!
The agency had sent me off for a secretarial position in an insurance brokers office and I had a successful interview, got taken on - but was sacked a couple of weeks later.
Reason being either the agency hadnt checked whether any maths was involved in the job or had lied and told the firm I could do it. So I was very surprised to find part of the tasks I was asked to do by the firm was mathematical calculations for quotes. If they'd asked me at interview or told the agency and they had done their job properly - then I would never have been given the job in the first place and so wouldnt have been sacked.
I'm an extremely fast typist, good enough shorthand, basically very suitable person for a wide range of typing or secretarial posts of that era (ie the 1970s) and was good at my work - but I do know most of those jobs did not involve making maths calculations and I wouldnt apply for the odd few that did say they expected that - because I know I'm pretty useless at figure work and didnt even get a Maths O level. Hardly surprising - lots of people arent good at figure work.
I would not have put myself in that position and obviously don't blame myself for not being up to that maths bit of the job - as it was so rare a requirement as far as I could see for that type of work.
BA is Batchelor of Arts. And by ‘dues’ I mean I certainly put the time and effort in studying art. Had several jobs after that and no one was interested in my American degree.
MillieBoris well with a name like that why would I be surprised you lie
Can’t believe there are so many well behaved ladies on here
Well start believing it I m sure the majority of people are totally honest, why wouldn’t you be, it would get found out in the end
My best one was when I got a job which stated they wanted a graduate well I never got the opportunity to go to Uni but I was totally honest with what I had got which wasn’t that much past O levels but I was offered the job and did it well for 15 years, maybe I interviewed well. So no I wouldn’t lie
No I just put down what I had and what I d done
Not this woman! I have always worked on the basis that the worst that can happen is that I won't get the job and applied for anything I reckon I could do with a wing and a prayer.
The best one was when I applied for a job requiring someone with an engineering background and I looked at DH and said 'Your an engineer, I have an engineeering background.' I got the job and it got my post-children career off to a roaring start.
You might have ‘paid your dues’ (fees?) but you lied. What if you had been asked to produce your certificate or enquiry of your university had been made? Incidentally, what is a BA of Art as opposed to a Bachelor of Arts?
Surely embellishment is a form of lying??
Can’t believe there are so many well behaved ladies on here….
I lied on my CV that I had a BA of Art - took it in the States but had to leave to return to UK just before I completed the last semester - I was a mature student and I had certainly paid my dues. Suppose you can’t compare that to completing 10 years in the Bank of England!
My sister has interviewed many people, and says that women are so honest they often don’t apply for the job in the first place even when they would be ideal. If a job has ten requirements, a man will say “Oh, I can do five of those and learn the rest on the job.” And a woman will think, “I can only do eight of those, so I won’t apply”.
I wouldn't think about it. It is dishonest.
Most people have early in their careers. I certainly have. I haven’t lied, but I’ve certainly embellished some of my experiences.
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