Never Lie on Your Resume, Bio, or Anything

Never lie about academic credentials. Never lie on your resume. It will come back to haunt you.

Disputes about the truth of academic credentials have become common and often lead to job losses even after years of employment:

• According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Gregory Probert, the president and chief operating officer of Herbalife Ltd., was caught by a fraud investigator falsely claiming he earned an M.B.A. from California State University, Los Angeles. (Herbalife sells products to a network of at-home distributors who, in turn, recruit other distributors.) In response, Mr. Probert, 51 years old, said he nearly completed an M.B.A. at Cal State, but "the truth is that my vanity prevailed and I did not take action" (to correct Herbalife's biography of him) "even though I was aware it was not accurate."


• Wednesday, West Virginia University said it would revoke an M.B.A. it granted last fall to Heather Bresch, chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., a Pittsburgh generic-drug maker. Last October, Mylan issued a news release that incorrectly claimed an M.B.A. for Ms. Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia's governor, Joe Manchin III. Ms. Bresch had studied at the school but hadn't completed her degree, an independent panel later concluded. After receiving questions from the media, the university retroactively awarded Ms. Bresch an M.B.A. -- which, after further contention, it is revoking.


• Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dismissed its longtime dean of admissions, Marilee Jones, after the university received an anonymous tip that she had claimed fake academic degrees.


• In 2006, David Edmondson resigned as chief executive of RadioShack Corp. after a newspaper disclosed that he lied about having a college degree.

Never lie about your academic credentials, work history, skills, or accomplishments. Eventually you will pay a tremendous price.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."