I told a mistruth about one of my qualifications. I've now been asked to provide evidence of my quals. What should I do?

Cry

Ok if you come clean, your dogmeat, no matter what. NEVER think that coming clean will mean that people will take pity on you, they wont they will see you as spineless hoping to get away with the lie and then when confronted fessing up.In the real world where we consultants lie on a daily basis this type of truthful operation would/will not be tolerated, you would be a liability. And dont for one minute think that adhering to your comanies 'value' system will help, its there to get rid of you not nurture you.Ok heres what we do....Q1. Does the qualification exist but is a 2:2 vs a 2:1?A1: If so scan it into photoshop and change it around, reprint it or take it to a reprographics shop, they just want you money and will do a good jobQ2: There is no QualificationA2: Um can you 'fabricate' it, do you have a copy of a real certQ3: Do your company use the 'Qualifications Checking' procedure online, which is where the papers get their information from on graduation dayA3: See above, fake it, worst case you get an extra few weeks pay whilst they wonder what to do nextMoral of the story:A lie is a lie, without the lie you would never have got the job (If your a grad). You lied, you were caught, if your in less than 6 months just remove the company from your CV and put in 'backpacking'If it all goes really badly worst that happens is you pick yourself up, write off 6 months and try again, no biggie.

Wow, i so disagree with your opinion Taxman.Liying is bad. You are caught. You should face it like a man. You wont get the job, but maybe you will get a bit of self-respect. You should also closely re-examine you values and pririties in life. I would never, like many others, exchange my word for a job.I really think you should take advantage of this experience and learn from it.my two cents only, though

Everyone has lied. Never confess - if you do you will get fired and you will not get any pardon from the Firm. You wont be able to apply to them later on in your career either and your situation and lie will end up on a HR PowerPoint slide which will be used in the grad recruitment and induction process.

Exactly, google for 'The resume mocked around the world', if you fess up and the company gets it from the horses mouth then....Thats you that is....

If I were in your shoes, I would call the employer and tell them that I had changed my mind about joining them. Make up whatever excuse you want -- that you've received a better offer, that your personal circumstances have changed, whatever.I wouldn't admit to lying, but I wouldn't take the job either. Consider this a lesson learned the hard way.

I have to agree with the last poster, unless there is some way to convince them that you actually have the qualification, you should withdraw quietly. You are getting into pretty fraudulent territory there though if you start creating false qualifications. Although I have to lie a lot and so do all strategy consultants (I await the barrage of false moral highground taking from 23 year old idealists), lying about qualifications in an industry which focusses on academics as part of its process (I assume this is a consultancy application) is not the brigtest thing to do....Lie about career history by all means - we have all done that - you can make sure you have someone to back you up. The other thing is that if you can find out what system they actually use to check, it may be that the people here can advise as to how to circumnavigate. I will warn that "an NVQ in woodwork is equivalent to a PHD in International Business according to the ladybird guide to BS" is the oldest trick in the book. If you don't think you are going to get away with it, you should definitely withdraw from the process quietly. Don't beat yourself up. If you lied for the sake of it you are stupid. If you would not have got the interview based on your real credentials, it was worth a shot!If you want a laugh, why not apply for South Harmon Institute of Technology (check out the film "Accepted".....

Thanks. I do feel like an idiot, and it really wasn't an intended lie (so I don't think I need to evaluate myself or values, I really am not a bad person!). It was something I said at interview which just sort of came out so to speak...and isn't recorded on my cv or on any other written document of mine....does this change things? I didn't lie about my quals to get the interview or the job and I suspect what grade I've got doesn't even matter to greatly but the fact is I said I had something I didn't. Do you still think withdraw?

Hmm...methinks this changes things slightly.Morally, I agree with VI - withdraw quietly and repent for your sins. If it was a relatively minor point you "exaggerated" and THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF IT (the important part!) then maybe you'll get away with it. However, if you claimed to have run the operations of a FTSE 100 whilst the COO was on holiday (oh sh*t, slip of the tongue!I meant I ran my uncle's shop whilst he was caravaning in Devon), then maybe you'll get found out the hard way...through the quality of your work..the repercussions of which will be pretty severe.At the end of the day, as wooly as it sounds, if noone will ever find it (i.e. if your lie will not stop you doing the job as well as someone who may have the skill/experience you've lied about) - its a judgement call you and your conscience have to make. Can you live with yourself having lied etc etc? Yes this is a fairly dishonest industry and the irony here is blatant but maybe as people our characters should be more important to us than our pay cheques...Maybe if I were in your situation, I'd find it harder to be this objective..good luck whatever you do.

Hi, thanks for all the advice. to further clarify I've given completely accurate info about my past experiences etc. When it came to the end of the interview we ran through my quals and I gave the wrong information for one of them (heavens knows why). As I mentioned before i haven't stated this on any written document or my application etc...are HR interviews typed up and documented?

Interviews minuted, thats like taking notes at a client site. If i wont bother for a $10m contract im hardly going to give a sh1t about an interview.And as long as you dont make a 2:1 into a 1 then as fas as I am concerned go for it, if they ASK YOU for proof it means they cant get it, and neither can you, the dog ate it.One lie begats another and so it goes :)

treat it as their error - deny all knowledge of having inflated the qualification and confirm the actual grade. very likely the interviewer wont remember or wont have notes anyway.

I think the course of action depends on exactly what it was he lied about.Said you've got a Masters when in fact it's a diploma? -- That's gonna be tricky. Said you've got 10 O-levels when, in fact, you double-checked after the interview and found out it's only 9? -- Might just get away with it.

lying about being a Senior Vice President is perfectly acceptable

As previously said if it comes up deny it, tell them you said what you really have and they got it wrong. If they pull the offer sue them for going back on themselves claiming monies for the period of time spent pursuing this vacancy with a firm who have no idea how to conduct the interview process. Get the doctor to confirm you are suffering from stress, receive a pay off from the firm and fly to the South of France for the summer. Repeat next year.

I told a porkie about my salary before joining my current employer, who then asked for evidence of my salary details, on top of a whole other load of things. I submitted the pay slip, showing my much lower salary, along with a whole other bundle of documentation, and they never even queried it.It probably just goes to some clerk in a shared services centre somewhere, who is just happy to tick the box that they've received the paperwork.I'd submit your degree certificate, and claim ignorance of saying you had a higher grade, if questioned.