It seemed somehow sadly ironic that Marilee Jones' title at MIT was dean of admissions.Her owning up this week to misrepresenting the qualifications on her résumé more than a quarter-century ago will have struck a chord among more people than you might think. And at a higher level than you might imagine.
Human resources surveys regularly show that anything upward of a third of résumés may be knowingly incorrect, from "padding"--or overplaying qualifications or previous work experience--to outright falsehoods, while companies generally are spending more time conducting background checks and verifying claims.
In a survey by CareerBuilder.com last October, over half of HR managers said they had flagged a lie on an applicant's résumé - 93% of them did not hire the candidate.
A 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office found that 463 government employees in eight federal agencies had listed bogus academic credentials on their résumés.
In February 2006, the CEO of Radio Shack resigned after 11 years at the helm when an investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had turned up overstated qualifications on his academic record.
Michael Brown, the former head of FEMA, much-criticized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, found himself at the sharp end of an investigation by Time magazine, which indicated that he had padded his experience in emergency management prior to his appointment.
Notre Dame football coach George O'Leary resigned just five days after his appointment in 2001, over academic discrepancies.
This from Forbes.com.
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