Lying on your resume
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We recently hired someone who we thought would be a great addition to our team.
Unfortunately, we have had to let this person go, this week. They were here for just over a month and it was apparent they were not up to this task from the get-go.
We use basic office programs, Excel, Office, etc. Then we have a custom-built program for estimating and CAD. There was no expectation for this person to know how to use the custom system right away but they could't even send a simple email. I wish I was joking and you read right. They do not know how to send emails. We kept getting post-it notes left on our keyboards and screens. It got annoying after 3 days when finally I just said "hey mate, post-it notes can be misplaced. Can you please just flick us an email?". There was a bit of nervy reaction to that. Then what seemed like an hour passed. They came into my office to check if I had received an email they'd sent me. No email. I went back to their PC and had a quick look to see if they had been set up in office. There it was, a word document. They had written me a note in word and were trying to share it.
I'm not high up in my company so I tend to keep my head down. I decided to watch from a distance with old mate and see where this went.
At the end of their first week, we needed some plans upscaled. I heard one of the others ask old mate to do it. 30min later I went to the printer to get something and there they were. Sweating like a sweaty thing. No idea what to do. I asked what was needed to be done and took over. Showed them, then got them to do it so it would be a learned task, etc. One very nervous but relieved thank you later and I hoped that was going to be the end of that. Onward and upward. It was not the case...
On Friday last week, this person bit off more than they could lie about chewing and attempted to scan plans into the custom program. They actually got about 4 out of 6 steps correct. Only the last 2 caught them out and majorly. They added the plans to an existing job instead of a new one. It was a large commercial job, national roll-out, way out of my league, and not on the same planet as this person. Months of work, estimates, amended plans, and quotes. When they added their plan they, for whatever reason, overwrote everything that was existing. I don't need to explain what that means.
There were grumblings from other staff to management that this person didn't have a fucking clue about computers. It came to a head on Saturday. They were called in to go over some of the attributes they claimed to have in their resume and none of it was true. I was kind of astounded they got past the interview process.
We all embellish but have any of you put skills in your CV you flat out don't have?? I mean this was a position for a "project manager & estimator - must have high-level computer skills and knowledge of CAD".
Note: this person was much older than usual and had actual real experience as a job site project manager. They just didn't have any office experience at all. All phone and written notes.
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@raznomore said in Lying on your resume:
We recently hired someone who we thought would be a great addition to our team.
Unfortunately, we have had to let this person go, this week. They were here for just over a month and it was apparent they were not up to this task from the get-go.
We use basic office programs, Excel, Office, etc. Then we have a custom-built program for estimating and CAD. There was no expectation for this person to know how to use the custom system right away but they could't even send a simple email. I wish I was joking and you read right. They do not know how to send emails. We kept getting post-it notes left on our keyboards and screens. It got annoying after 3 days when finally I just said "hey mate, post-it notes can be misplaced. Can you please just flick us an email?". There was a bit of nervy reaction to that. Then what seemed like an hour passed. They came into my office to check if I had received an email they'd sent me. No email. I went back to their PC and had a quick look to see if they had been set up in office. There is was a word document. They had written me a note in word and were trying to share it. I'm not high up in my company so I tend to keep my head down. I decided to watch from a distance with old mate and see where this went.
At the end of their first week, we needed some plans upscaled. I heard one of the others ask old mate to do it. 30min later I went to the printer to get something and there they were. Sweating like a sweaty thing. No idea what to do. I asked what was needed to be done and took over. Showed them, then got them to do it so it would be a learned task, etc. One very nervous but relieved thank you later and I hoped that was going to be the end of that. Onward and upward. It was not the case...
On Friday last week, this person bit off more than they could lie about chewing and attempted to scan plans into the custom program. They actually got about 4 out of 6 steps correct. Only the last 2 caught them out and majorly. They added the plans to an existing job instead of a new one. It was a large commercial job, national roll-out, way out of my league, and not on the same planet as this person. Months of work, estimates, amended plans, and quotes. When they added their plan they, for whatever reason, overwrote everything that was existing. I don't need to explain what that means.
There were grumblings from other staff to management that this person didn't have a fucking clue about computers. It came to a head on Saturday. They were called into to go over some of the attributes they claimed to have in their resume and none of it was true. I was kind of astounded they got past the interview process.
We all embellish but have any of you put skills in your CV you flat out don't have?? I mean this was a position for a "project manager & estimator - must have high-level computer skills and knowledge of CAD".
Note: this person was much older than usual and had actual real experience as a job site project manager. They just didn't have any office experience at all. All phone and written notes.
I’d be unemployed if I didn’t follow some of these handy tips......
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@raznomore said in Lying on your resume:
I was kind of astounded they got past the interview process.
On a serious note, this. WTF was the management doing to let this guy slip thru?
On a non-serious note....
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I've never lied but I know our upper management employed an older lady who said she had experience of every job going under the sun, said she understood the clinical system's reporting functions, knew how to design alerts etc I think she had enough knowledge of them but had never done it, and everytime she was asked to do something she would come over and ask me to "remind her". Very annoying.
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I hate job-hunting, actually, no, I hate being interviewed for a job, that part sucks, so nerve racking, depending on the interviewers can also be rather intimidating.
I think your cover letter is the most important part these days, if it isnt up to it, they probably wont bother looking at your CV.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Lying on your resume:
@raznomore said in Lying on your resume:
I was kind of astounded they got past the interview process.
On a serious note, this. WTF was the management doing to let this guy slip thru?
On a non-serious note....
i don't think you could ever blame management for letting someone who can't email get through.. I mean jesus if you've got to ask a question for every 'basic' thing around using a computer it would be a long interview! You've got to make some assumptions - especially around the low level stuff.
sounds like as an older experienced person they got through cause they knew what they were talking about.. just couldn't use a computer!
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@WillieTheWaiter said in Lying on your resume:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Lying on your resume:
@raznomore said in Lying on your resume:
I was kind of astounded they got past the interview process.
On a serious note, this. WTF was the management doing to let this guy slip thru?
On a non-serious note....
i don't think you could ever blame management for letting someone who can't email get through.. I mean jesus if you've got to ask a question for every 'basic' thing around using a computer it would be a long interview! You've got to make some assumptions - especially around the low level stuff.
sounds like as an older experienced person they got through cause they knew what they were talking about.. just couldn't use a computer!
Yeah that was my thoughts too.
I'm intrigued as to how they applied for the job though.
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@Bones thier 10 year old Grand Kid...
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@taniwharugby said in Lying on your resume:
@Bones thier 10 year old Grand Kid...
Mate I had no idea you're a grandfather! Sorry to hear about your job.
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@Bones well my eldest is more than old enough to have a kid of his own, he and his g/f dont seem keen to have kids yet, so I'm happy about that.
I didnt need to lie on my CV, and even if I did, I suck at interviewing so would get found out pretty quick!
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@taniwharugby said in Lying on your resume:
I suck at interviewing
Hah yeah this! Thankfully I've pretty much only had a couple of proper ones.
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@Bones haha yeah, think it was my 3rd interview after 10 years in the same job, being interviewed by 3 females, one of whom was hawt AF, another pretty tidy and the 3rd I knew prior to applying, so you'd think that'd make it easier...
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This is exactly what the probation period is for.
I have had 2 jobs in my professional life, and got this job as kuch through playing footy with the owners sons than anything.
I hire a lot of people though and naturally assume the CV is full of.made up or embellished stuff
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@MN5 said in Lying on your resume:
No wonder he's unemployed the dumb fluffybunny can't even count to 3
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@mariner4life said in Lying on your resume:
@MN5 said in Lying on your resume:
No wonder he's unemployed the dumb fluffybunny can't even count to 3
Obviously not that kind of girl
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was going to reply to the original question...but see i'm too late
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@WillieTheWaiter said in Lying on your resume:
i don't think you could ever blame management for letting someone who can't email get through.. I mean jesus if you've got to ask a question for every 'basic' thing around using a computer it would be a long interview!
Fair point. But at the end of the day it's caused a major fuckup because someone didn't check the basic basics. IMHO that's a management issue.
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@mariner4life said in Lying on your resume:
This is exactly what the probation period is for.
I have had 2 jobs in my professional life, and got this job as kuch through playing footy with the owners sons than anything.
I hire a lot of people though and naturally assume the CV is full of.made up or embellished stuff
Got most of my work thru contacts and former clients.
Never embellished my CV as it often went back to people I had worked for, though I did put more emphasis on certain skills as necessary
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@raznomore sounds like a Seinfeld episode
Never recruited someone that flat out lied about having some technical skills and didn’t have it. Plenty have embellished on ‘soft skills’ like work well in teams, only to find out they have no social skills and a stalker...
