Fake degrees get companies to look beyond resume??

Article from the Korea Times: A Degree Isn't Everything

I found this interesting:

• Fake degrees might be an interesting "forcing function" to get companies to take resumes with a grain of salt, and actually interview candidates with the intensity and quality of the school they claim they graduated from.

IIRC, this was a concept espoused by Lysias on collegehints.

 

I am researching this topic for my PhD, and every day I am fascinated in hooks and turns my studies take me. Albert is quite right in suggesting that all it takes is a phone call to the university to check on the qualifications claimed, but the literature suggests that the majority don't. My primary data research in Australia will make interesting comparisons to this general trend.

Out of interest, my prelimary findings suggest that, on average across the globe, 15 to 17% of all resumes presented for employment purposes contain some falsehood regarding claimed qualifications.

The background theory on the sociological aspects of credentialism (especially in the Asian nations), degree creep and the commodification of education are just fascinating me.

Cheers,

George

 

The problem with the whole idea of a fake degree eventually forcing companies to look beyond resumes and interview more has to do with why companies don't interview everyone to begin with.

I was applying to a job at a very small private college in chicago. They told me that they were recieving over 100 application for that position A DAY. There is no way they can interview that many people for a position, so the resume acts as the basic filter for who should be interviewed and who should not be. Now people who put fake degrees on their resume MAY be more likely to get interviewed, but in the process they are being selected for interviews over others who were as least, if not more, qualified for the position, simply because they were honest in their resume.


Here is the problem I have with all of these attempts to rationalize fake degrees on resumes. When a person hires you for a job they are not only looking for someone qualified to do the job, but someone they can trust on some level. While we could argue back an forth about a person not really needing a degree to perform the tasks required for jobs that require a college degree, something more important is at issue. A person putting a fake degree on his resume is lying to their prospective employer. I believe they if the person was willing to lie to their employer at the very begining of their relationship, they CANNOT be trusted to be an honest employee. Simply putting a fake degree on a resume is a statement that you are willing to lie for a job. Do you want a person like that as your doctor or nurse? Taking care of your children? Handling sensitive financial data about you?

Jon

 

I agree with you Jon.

We have recently been getting about a thousand resumes for each opening we have. Because our recruiting team can't look at all these, we have an entry-level employee in HR who does the initial filtering -- discarding about 90% of the resumes (all those that don't fit the ideal profile) up front.

So I can see that someone with a fake degree could get through the initial filter (though I have only seen one such applicant).

In many cases, the HR recruiter will contact the candidates she hasn't summarily rejected to get clarification or to get names of references, etc. A smart applicant could then offer to send in an updated (and sanitized) resume or CV now that he/she has a foot in the door.

 

The problem with that is now you have to explain the discrepency. How do you do that without admiting "yes I lied on my initial resume to get an interview, but I really am trustworthy ". No matter how you put it, the person still lied on their initial resume. It is not like they could pretend that this fake degree on their initial resume was a typo. If people are going to go that far, they might as well start making up companies they worked for.

I new someone who was trying to get a job as a principal at an elementry or highschool (can't remember which). She made up a school name and had her friend pretend to be an administrator. She gave prospective schools her friend's number and had her friend tell the school that she was this excellent principal at this fictitious school. This person had never been a principal before. Thankfully, last I heard she hadn't gotten a prinicpal job yet.

I mention this as an example of someone that dishonest attempting to gain a position of leadership and guidance over our society's children. Also I believe this demonstrates not only dishonesty but horrible judgement. If she was ever found out, it could destroy her reputation in her field. I would hope that her teaching liscense would be revoked for such behavior.

Jon

 

I have an acquaintance (friend of my wife's) who abandoned a bachelor's degree she had been pursuing part-time. She was in her forties with just a few credits needed.

I asked her why she didn't just finish one last course to get the degree -- and she said she didn't see the point because she had been claiming to have a bachelor's degree for more than 20 years, and nobody had ever challenged her about it.

Indeed, she said she made her decision when she printed a mock-up of what her resume would look like if she completed the degree -- and it looked much less impressive than her current resume with the 20-year-old fake degree.