I heard some team members openly joked about faking certifications to land jobs, and saying that in their experience, no one has ever checked. I guess it's true, but it makes you think - how do you know for sure if the people in your team who say they are as qualified as they are, really are? Isn't it a little troubling?

It’s not that troubling when you also consider that they’re outsourcing their candidate selection to ATS and very likely passing over many, many people who are more qualified than those they are actually putting through. Not to mention all the experienced people with amazing qualifications they completely dismiss due to rampant unchecked ageism…

Hearing people joke about faking certifications? Honestly, that’s a red flag in itself. It’s tough because you never really know 100% if someone’s legit just by what they say. That’s why having solid background checks or asking for proof matters a lot. Otherwise, you risk having people on the team who can’t actually back up their claims, and that can cause real problems down the line. Trust is everything, and if that’s broken, it’s bad for the whole team vibe.

The shorter answer is that you dont because your HR isn't doing its job.

If people have certificates, they are probably posting them on their LinkedIn page, which will also give you a link to the actual certified certificate itself. Now, if people are talking about certifications on their resumes, again, those are easily checkable.

But I will say this respectfully, if HR can’t even get back to you to tell you that you didn’t get a job I wouldn’t trust them to follow up on a certification either.

There’s always the ethics hotline.

If you’re not sure how to tell employees with fake and real certificates apart, means the certificate is a joke and faking it has little adverse societal impact.

You can’t fake knowing how to pilot a plane or conduct open heart surgery. Unless you’re Leonardo di Caprio in catch me if you can.

This is not a novel idea, politicians lie all the time, some say they served in Vietnam and never did, so say they were American Indian and they weren’t, may say they do t get money under the table, and then get caught with cash, and gold at their house, while driving a Mercedes Benz as a gift.

Certifications tend to just be a financial gates to jobs so 🤷. It's pretty easy, at least in my line of work, to suss out who is BSing. There's just basic core knowledge you have or don't. I'm also in privacy and while IAPP is a good networking group, I find the certification obsession to be misguided. And don't get me started on their AI cert. It's entirely too early for a cert.

No I don’t think so because having a “certificate” doesn’t necessarily mean you are better for the job. I mean there’s things you definitely can’t fake and the ones you can I don’t think matter enough.

Most certifications are a joke, so it's a bit odd they think fake ones got them the job

So many of people lie about Agile and PMI certs is it mind blowing. The technical certs are harder to fake but it happens too. It is a dumb move, but then again the amount of BS people sling to stay competitive in order to get jobs these days is just as shocking. The job insecurity and pressure of the last few years is creating a workforce of professional interviewers who bomb out once they actually have to do the work.

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You get older and you will find out many have BS resumes / experiences / certifications / Etc

Faking certifications is straight fraud, would be wild not to report that immediately. I’ve definitely caught fake references as well when interviewing, if you’re ever interviewing be sure to follow up and due diligence on any references provided.

Certifications to degrees- look at the ppl who fake college degrees, like the ‘doctor’….and some get away with it for years before being caught.

In time they find out b/c the incompetence comes out.

We got outright catfished at my old company. We did a video interview with hands-on coding, and the guy who showed up on the first day was a completely separate person. Not only did he not have any of the skills we’d “vetted,” he hadn’t even watched a recording of the interview to “remember” what had been said. HR handled it, but said it was a liability to call him out. We had to document over two weeks that he could not do the job. My certs are real, it no one has ever, EVER checked, even when it was the point of the job.

Interesting variety of responses, and I can see it from perspectives. This job market is very competitive, and I get why some are tempted to pad their resume, I personally can't and won't do it, There is always the possibility someone will check, and not fair to start at the same level as others that actually have the experience and knowledge. Especially when it comes to speaking more than one language, as a bilingual individual I am excited and accepting of the testing. To many times I have come across individuals that say they are bilingual, and when it comes to doing the job they cannot perform their duties and responsibilities. This is not right because there is usually a diffential for additional skill sets, and to get paid the difference when they cannot fully perform their job is not fair to the rest.

My friend lied about her qualifications to get a job. Meanwhile I down play my experiences.