this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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I was a hiring manager in aerospace for decades. We for sure checked transcripts before a start date.
I also just don't get people who lie on their resumes. That would cause me so much anxiety. Even for things I have training or experience with, I always worry people are going to expect me to be more proficient than I am. I had I guy put that he was fluent in a computer language that I'm not sure he'd ever seen, so everyone was always frustrated with him and he eventually got laid off.
I think it's super dependent on the industry and you as a person.
I used to have a fake degree on my resume and I attribute a decent amount of my career success to that. But I am in IT where experience is a lot more important and there's a lot less risk than engineering haha.
But it was just some random bachelors degree from a community college in my home town. I would explain it away as "just some online BS program so I would have a degree on my resume" and that was really all the background checking anyone did. I'm also very charismatic, had a bunch of professional references, and a couple certs so that helps a ton
I don't have it on my resume anymore because I'm at a point in my career where it just frankly doesn't matter, but back when I was just a baby help desk tech it genuinely got me a couple incredible opportunities. I didn't feel bad because the hiring process is such nonsense and employers made candidates jump through so many hoops I just figured it was fair. They ~~lie~~ creatively explain benefits and pay, so we can ~~lie~~ creatively explain our history.
I had a 25-year career as a programmer. Not once did I ever have a company I worked for verify my academic or employment histories or even contact my references. I could have put down anything I wanted and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference - my continuing employment was based on my ability to actually do shit.
I'm now a school bus driver and they checked out everything. And of course threw in drug testing and a criminal background check for good measure.
The school bus thing makes sense.
I'm pretty sure people lie on resumes because you're more likely to actually get a response that way, rather than using whatever credentials you actually have.
Well sure, of course. I'm more likely to hire a painter to paint my house if he says he's been in business 20 years, but I'm going to be pissed off it turns out in his first job and he's bad at it.
That's the whole thing about "fake it till you make it," though. You fake it to get your foot in the door, pray like a mother fucker you can actually do the job, and pray like a mother fucker you keep the job. I don't know how folks actually make it like that, but, hey... In the current dark times, gotta do what you gotta do.
Wouldn't be worth the anxiety for me.
On the other hand, I've long been a proponent of the above board fake it till you make it approach. There were many, many times in my career that my boss needed something done and I told him I could probably figure it out if he keeps his expectations low. Got to do a lot of interesting things that way and learned some really cool stuff.
And every promotion was like that. They knew all of my experience, but were putting me in a new position. Managing people for the first time is always a fake it till you make it situation.
My partner's dad lied on his resume long ago and held that job for years before anyone checked.
The reason he lied was because he knew he could do the job because he had enormous experience (I'm not sure what it was something related to agriculture and he had grown up farming) but the job required a degree. He did the job well.
He is an argumentative person though and I guess he finally pissed off the wrong guy who finally looked into his background and got him fired.
I guess some businesses and industries check more than others. Where I worked, you had to submit your transcripts, plus they did background checks for criminal records.
Why the fuck would they fire somebody who did the job well for years?
You piss off the wrong person, it doesn't matter how good you are at your job. I can also say from personal experience, he is not an easy person to get along with.
Dunning-Kruger perhaps. You sound like me. I have a master in thermodynamics and 20 years in the field of energetic materials, but I know that there are lots of stuff I don't know nearly enough about.
This, I was also a hiring manager in sciencey fields. We also verified education, even with a robust job history. I share the same sentiment and could not embellish on my resume because it’s pretty hard to lie about technical expertise in science and engineering. Also, the labs I’ve worked in have very expensive instruments, not a good idea to ‘wing it’ with those things.