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Lied, got the job, then forced to come clean
So the title says it all. I lied on my resume; fluffed a job and then added an entirely fictional job to extend my experience. But I nailed the interview and got the job, as the last few years of my experience are accurate and I really have been operating at the level I said I had. I even nailed the technical portion, there weren’t any questions I was asked that I was stumped on or couldn’t answer. I know the stuff and I can execute in the role (Senior in the tech industry) as I have been for the last several years.
Then came employment verification. I’ve never been forced to verify my employment history before, not like this. No company has gone this far to verify my employment in a background check. Basically in order to complete the background check, I had to supply all the places I’d worked for the past 7 years and include a W-2, pay stub, or 1099, which was fine. For 6 years and 9 months. But the other 3 months bled into that 3 years of completely fabricated experience. While I was in a technical role and going to a technical school, it wasn’t the technical experience I had on my resume and spoke to vaguely in the initial interview. I am also very confident that experience was used to justify the very competitive compensation package I have already accepted; basically I had 9 years of exp. on my resume, but only 6 of it was really applicable while the last 3 was a total lie.
I emailed the HR person I have been working with and spelled out the discrepancies in frank honesty, without adding any extra info as to why or embellishing on the facts. I also stated that I would be willing to speak to any of the experience on my resume as well to prove the rest of it was legit. Afterward, I completed the background verification honestly and have just finished up the onboarding documentation they already forwarded to me.
I just don’t know how to feel or what to think because I’ve never had this happen before, and I guess I’ve learned a valuable lesson here, but it’s so hard to get anywhere without a ridiculous amount of experience. So far I’ve been able to greatly exceed expectations and execute far in advance on deliverables and projects, so I’m confident I could do the same here, I just don’t know how common this is or if I did the right thing in being up front before the background check came back with discrepancies.
Thoughts?
TLDR; I lied on my resume to get a job, then after I accepted the offer I came clean to appease the background check gods, but I don’t know what’s gonna happen next.
Edits, cause some good points came up that I want to address:
1. The specific company I used had undergone an acquisition in 2020, the year my real experience began. An acquisition in most cases means the HR trail is unrecoverable, which I largely relied on. No other company I have worked for since then has cared to verify it. Not saying that’s right or it’s even smart, but it’s just the facts.
2. I’m not “skating by” on anything other than a misrepresentation of my early career. Everything else after that is quantifiable, accurate, and in most cases pivotal to the success of the businesses I’d worked for thereafter. Again, not saying it’s smart or right, but it’s a fact.
3. This wasn’t just a regular background check or employment history verification, it was a situation wherein a lie on my resume would immediately pop as a discrepancy, meaning a false submission of any kind would guarantee they’d see it. In my opinion, fessing up to this before they see it on the background check is a better course of action than to just hope they don’t notice it. Best case, they don’t give a shit and just have to modify the offer, worst case is that they rescind my offer entirely.
4. I know full well this wasn’t a good idea; it never has been, and it never will be, but some roles you can quickly excel in this way. My mistake was continuing with the lie. If I had been honest and forth coming from the beginning starting with this role, it may have turned out an entirely different scenario. But to all of your points, this is damaging to my trust with them and the business realistically has no expectation to move forward, which I anticipate. Just sucks.
#business
source
So the title says it all. I lied on my resume; fluffed a job and then added an entirely fictional job to extend my experience. But I nailed the interview and got the job, as the last few years of my experience are accurate and I really have been operating at the level I said I had. I even nailed the technical portion, there weren’t any questions I was asked that I was stumped on or couldn’t answer. I know the stuff and I can execute in the role (Senior in the tech industry) as I have been for the last several years.
Then came employment verification. I’ve never been forced to verify my employment history before, not like this. No company has gone this far to verify my employment in a background check. Basically in order to complete the background check, I had to supply all the places I’d worked for the past 7 years and include a W-2, pay stub, or 1099, which was fine. For 6 years and 9 months. But the other 3 months bled into that 3 years of completely fabricated experience. While I was in a technical role and going to a technical school, it wasn’t the technical experience I had on my resume and spoke to vaguely in the initial interview. I am also very confident that experience was used to justify the very competitive compensation package I have already accepted; basically I had 9 years of exp. on my resume, but only 6 of it was really applicable while the last 3 was a total lie.
I emailed the HR person I have been working with and spelled out the discrepancies in frank honesty, without adding any extra info as to why or embellishing on the facts. I also stated that I would be willing to speak to any of the experience on my resume as well to prove the rest of it was legit. Afterward, I completed the background verification honestly and have just finished up the onboarding documentation they already forwarded to me.
I just don’t know how to feel or what to think because I’ve never had this happen before, and I guess I’ve learned a valuable lesson here, but it’s so hard to get anywhere without a ridiculous amount of experience. So far I’ve been able to greatly exceed expectations and execute far in advance on deliverables and projects, so I’m confident I could do the same here, I just don’t know how common this is or if I did the right thing in being up front before the background check came back with discrepancies.
Thoughts?
TLDR; I lied on my resume to get a job, then after I accepted the offer I came clean to appease the background check gods, but I don’t know what’s gonna happen next.
Edits, cause some good points came up that I want to address:
1. The specific company I used had undergone an acquisition in 2020, the year my real experience began. An acquisition in most cases means the HR trail is unrecoverable, which I largely relied on. No other company I have worked for since then has cared to verify it. Not saying that’s right or it’s even smart, but it’s just the facts.
2. I’m not “skating by” on anything other than a misrepresentation of my early career. Everything else after that is quantifiable, accurate, and in most cases pivotal to the success of the businesses I’d worked for thereafter. Again, not saying it’s smart or right, but it’s a fact.
3. This wasn’t just a regular background check or employment history verification, it was a situation wherein a lie on my resume would immediately pop as a discrepancy, meaning a false submission of any kind would guarantee they’d see it. In my opinion, fessing up to this before they see it on the background check is a better course of action than to just hope they don’t notice it. Best case, they don’t give a shit and just have to modify the offer, worst case is that they rescind my offer entirely.
4. I know full well this wasn’t a good idea; it never has been, and it never will be, but some roles you can quickly excel in this way. My mistake was continuing with the lie. If I had been honest and forth coming from the beginning starting with this role, it may have turned out an entirely different scenario. But to all of your points, this is damaging to my trust with them and the business realistically has no expectation to move forward, which I anticipate. Just sucks.
#business
source
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