Re: Resume Facts

[d r <writeagain -at- JUNO -dot- COM>]

On Fri, 21 Feb 97 06:17:16 PST "Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com> writes:

>If the person was really an asset to the team and
>had demonstrated reliability, as in the case you cite,
>I might give them the opportunity to come clean. What DID
>you do?

and

>I still haven't figured out why people lie on
>resumes and at interviews  ... I just don't get
>it. I do know of at least two people who have
>fabricated a MA and gotten away with it, but ...
>
>Eric

Eric, an entire degree was fabricated!!! And to think I used to cringe if
they wanted 10 years experience and I only had 9. Someone told me to say,
"I have nearly 10".

RE:  your question. As a writer/reporter, I have interviewed literally
_hundreds_ of people. I have walked away from that experience with the
idea that every person is different. Some just want to lie because that
is the type of person they are. They try to get away with as much as
possible. And they don't give a darn about anything. Like the guy I
almost hired as fact-checker who said he worked for the Cowboys. If we
hadn't checked...

But then there are other cases. The fellow on my team who lied on the
resume was for the position of Technical Editor. I've seen him work. He's
been doing this for 25 years. I know that for a fact. What I initially
did was nothing. But I'll admit that it was bothering me a bit. Not that
he did it, but WHY. He didn't have to add anything that was false because
he had enough true experience that I was aware of.

Well, I guess I am a little more creative than the next person because I
wrote a CV for him and gave it to him to use. It was very humorous. Under
education, I put College of Hard Knocks. Under "current titles", I put:
Yo! and Hey you! When he asked why I had done this, I told him that I
could be just as creative as he. But I wasn't condescending, we had a
good laugh.

After our first editorial meeting, he told me that he was thinking about
declining his post. I talked him out of it. Right before we were due for
special funding, he pulled out.  I didn't expect that and asked him why.
He told me for the same reason that he had lied on his resume. (He had
given me the resume 8 months prior to this conversation). I hardly said
anything. I tried to have no expression on my face. He was very upset. I
think it boils down to either a pride  or a  fitting-in thing. He said
that when he saw all what the rest of us (editorial staff) had done with
our time over the years, he felt ashamed that he didn't have that push
that we had. He said that he used to have it but that he had just gotten
lazy over the past 10 years and stuck to his 10-6 job and that was it.
This wasn't a soft-soap job. He was humiliated to say it. I felt so badly
for him. I told him that it wasn't as if he had "dropped out", that he
worked and had nothing to be ashamed of. But nothing I said helped. He
quit then and there.

I sometimes think that perhaps if I'd have handled it differently I could
have gotten him to stay. We missed his input a great deal...not to
mention his excellent skills.

D.R.
writeagain -at- juno -dot- com

P.S. Believe it or not, I read on another newsgroup that a student caught
falsifying a perscription was given a " one semester suspension". And I
thought to myself, and on TW we're talking about not hiring for writing
something false on one's resume!

>--- On Thu, 20 Feb 1997 23:12:47 EST  d r <writeagain -at- JUNO -dot- COM> wrote:
>>I come to see you. You like me. You like what I've done. I've
>impressed
>>you. You ask me if I can start tomorrow. I say yes. I leave. Do you
>check
>>my information? I am now about to start work for you. Do you see if I
>>really worked at the jobs I have down on my resume? And if so, and
>you
>>find out that I didn't work there - what do you do then?
>
>
>**************************************************
>Eric J. Ray                      ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com
>TECHWR-L Listowner         http://www.raycomm.com/
>
>

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