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I have a friend who lied about having a Master's degree in CS and went on to become a software engineer with an income way above his education level. Six years

I have a friend who lied about having a Master's degree in CS and went on to become a software engineer with an income way above his education level. Six years later his fake MSc is still up there in LinkedIn. Nobody asked for degree proof. Ever. I used to be furious about it but nowadays I don't care much. I don't condone lying, but if he's still there having a good career he's either on par with someone legit or rather the company never really needed such profile to begin with.

bshimmin 10y ago
I have a BA (Hons) and an MSc and I don't think anyone has ever asked for proof of them - certainly not in the last decade, but I also don't think even my very first "graduate" job (specifically advertised thus) required any sort of proof. Man, just think how much I could've saved on booze and cigarettes if I'd just made the whole thing up!
tigershark 10y ago
They asked for my degree certificate in all the jobs that I worked on. I find it quite unlikely that no one verified his.
gumby 10y ago
> Six years later his fake MSc is still up there in LinkedIn. That's a shame, but let me tell you a slightly different story. We needed to hire a chemist. We found a great candidate: 25 years in industry, five jobs (i.e. not a job-hopper; people had apparently found her competent), some of those jobs were where someone at the company knew someone there so we could check on her. BS in Chemistry from university X. Hey, I attended university X and she was my year! I looked her up on the alum site maintained by the university and indeed, she had graduated with a BS the same year as me! But the BS wasn't in chemistry. Clearly she'd been doing the job. And if she'd put her actual degree on her resume we would have been excited to have her in for an interview. But since she lied on the resume it went into the trash and she never knew.
rglovejoy 10y ago
The only time anyone ever asked to see proof of my degree was when I was buying car insurance and the company was offering a discount for STEM degree holders.

bshimmin 10y ago

I have a BA (Hons) and an MSc and I don't think anyone has ever asked for proof of them - certainly not in the last decade, but I also don't think even my very first "graduate" job (specifically advertised thus) required any sort of proof. Man, just think how much I could've saved on booze and cigarettes if I'd just made the whole thing up!

tigershark 10y ago

They asked for my degree certificate in all the jobs that I worked on. I find it quite unlikely that no one verified his.

gumby 10y ago

> Six years later his fake MSc is still up there in LinkedIn. That's a shame, but let me tell you a slightly different story. We needed to hire a chemist. We found a great candidate: 25 years in industry, five jobs (i.e. not a job-hopper; people had apparently found her competent), some of those jobs were where someone at the company knew someone there so we could check on her. BS in Chemistry from university X. Hey, I attended university X and she was my year! I looked her up on the alum site maintained by the university and indeed, she had graduated with a BS the same year as me! But the BS wasn't in chemistry. Clearly she'd been doing the job. And if she'd put her actual degree on her resume we would have been excited to have her in for an interview. But since she lied on the resume it went into the trash and she never knew.

rglovejoy 10y ago

The only time anyone ever asked to see proof of my degree was when I was buying car insurance and the company was offering a discount for STEM degree holders.