Posted by Elaine Ellis
My junior year of college, Notre Dame’s football coach was fired and George O’Leary was hired to be our coach. Regardless of your knowledge of the Irish, you’ve probably never heard of George. He got the axe within five days for lying on his resume. He claimed a master’s degree that he never actually never got around to earning. Troublesome details. Fudging the resume was probably a little easier when you’re dealing with a paper trail and not on the national stage.
Enter LinkedIn. You’d think, you’d THINK that would make people think twice before lying on their resumes for all of their former colleagues to see. But people tend to surprise you in professional situations. I recently stumbled upon a former intern from my last job who stated she was an intern/account coordinator. She assuredly was NOT an account coordinator. She may have felt she was doing work at the same level as an account coordinator, but that doesn’t give you the right to assign yourselves titles no one ever gave you. Even if I felt that I’m doing work at a vice president level, I can’t go adding the title to my LinkedIn profile especially since I’m connected to Doyle. Let your work stand for itself and titles fall into play truthfully.
This seemed incidental until I found out another former colleague had a case study on her new company site for a video contest campaign that I executed from my last agency. The problem was that she left the agency way before the three-month contest even started, and I had to step in to take over the project. While the idea for a video contest might have been hers, the execution was all me and another colleague. We sweated bullets over the contest the whole summer as it was the first big social media project our clients would let us execute, and the client took a giant leap of faith to give us the project. We brainstormed and executed idea after idea to get videos contributed. We were provided an idea and a scant framework, which we brought to life. And after all, it’s not like video contests were exactly revolutionary. So to have someone publicly claim work that I was extremely proud of makes me seethe.
So what are my choices? I could e-mail her to discuss it, which would likely be confrontational. Or I could just straight up challenge her to a cage match to settle it while Carmina Burana: O Fortuna plays in the background. OR… Or I could do nothing, which seems to the best route.
The netiquette for dealing with LinkedIn liars and exaggerators doesn’t seem to be established. And they likely wouldn’t involve cage matches. So the best route seems to do nothing. While having someone take credit for your work is irksome, having her take credit for it doesn’t diminish the work my colleague and I did. We didn’t do the work to take credit for it, we didit to help the client meet marketing goals. Plus, in an agency, it takes a team to execute a project. Who am I to say who can take credit and who can’t?
So I’ll drink my green tea, listen to Adiago for Strings and forgo the cage match. But I’m curious if you were in my shoes, what would you do?
13 responses so far ↓
1 Guest // Sep 23, 2009 at 4:19 pm
One good lie deserves another – contact the former colleague and infer that the company was contacted about the project and asked about said liar's involvement and that the company said the truth. That may scare them straight.
2 Kevin Boulas // Sep 23, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I think you are taking the right approach, for the reasons you state: you know what you DID, which matters a lot more than what this person CLAIMED.
On a side note? I actually find it very useful to know that someone would lie. People will tell you whatever you need to know, if you listen carefully enough.
K
3 Brett Borders // Sep 23, 2009 at 4:50 pm
They do have a kind of reputation and comment system – where people can leave recommendations and affirm that you did, in fact, do what you listed as job / title / your position on LinkedIn. But it doesn't prevent people from making stuff up. Or from people making up fake LinkedIn accounts and recommending themselves. I guess it's up to HR / hiring people to scrutinize it carefully.
4 Elaine Ellis // Sep 23, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I see what you're saying, but I feel like I'd just be sinking to their level. Altho that would be funny.
5 Elaine Ellis // Sep 23, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I agree! Hopefully people can figure it out on their own by getting to know these people.
6 Alexis Anzalone // Sep 24, 2009 at 4:18 am
It seems like taking the high road is the best choice, but the old saying "what goes around comes around" springs into my mind. Just wait until she has a great "idea" in a new job, but cannot see it through to the end from a strategy, planning and execution standpoint – then SHE will be sweating bullets!
7 ElaineEllis // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I didn't realize they had that kind of option with the comment system. That's good to know. I also wasn't aware people wrote online recommendations for themselves. Slimy.
8 ElaineEllis // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Agreed!
9 Ef Rodriguez // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I would LOVE to see some names attached to these scandals, but I know Elaine is far too classy for all that.
(Heehee!)
Elaine for governor of Colorado! Let's make it happen or whatever!
10 Glen Turpin // Sep 28, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Always take the high road, Elaine. This sort of thing would make my blood boil too, but as you noted, there's no point in skining to their level.
Oh, and excellent choice of Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi! Their LinkedIn profiles, like the moon, are changeable, ever waxing and waning.
11 Lisa Greim // Sep 29, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Second the motion on "Carmina Burana," although, given the nature of the dispute, you might choose the movement where the lyricist brags, "I screwed the Queen of England."
12 Michelle // Oct 1, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Okay, so now turn the tables – I was unemployed for 10 months, and just recently found out part of the problem. I worked for a HORRID boss, doing everything and then re-doing it. We spoke often about my title, as it was ever-changing in the spirit of the start-up. We finally agreed upon Marketing Communications Manager, and she had the business cards printed herself.
Come to find out that when potential employers called her, she told them I lied on my resume about that title and that I was simply a Marketing Assistant. I wasn't even hired at that title.
I did finally land a job, thank goodness, but what in the world am I to do going forward?
13 Steve // Oct 20, 2009 at 6:21 am
Lying is so common I don't pay too much mind to it anymore. Sad but true. I ran across a former colleagues linkedin and read his comments for the place we both had worked at and what he wrote made him sound like he walked on water lol. He talked about the SAP environment. Umm we didn't have SAP there at all!
Or this woman who started a particular craft around the same time I did and 6 months later was proclaiming she was an expert in the field with 10 years experience. She convinced some art school to let her teach a glass there and so on. I just had to shake my head knowing she was no more an authority on that than I was.
Or the Linkedin profiles where all their jobs have some high brow title. I mean come on you graduated from school in 2007 and that year your were hired into a management position or director. I don't think so.
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