LinkedinLunatics

The DMs have been flowing in ... from scammers.

DMs from who, though? Recruiting agencies? Those aren't job offers, those are people who want to doctor your resume even further and some it at companies going they'll get paid for it

Have you heard the story of Darth Brianna Wu the Wise?

She did that, except people found out later on.

As with most things, if you are competent, a degree doesn't really matter. The degree is just a shortcut, and even if it's checked it's no guarantee you are otherwise competent. You're expected to have picked up competency during the time you got your degree.

So this probably works if you are otherwise competent, but if you're not it's just going to lead to increased scrutiny (Because hey, you should know these things) and if someone does end up checking up on you it's a great way to get fired with cause. Depending on how tight knit your industry is that can still make things very hard for you.

And of course, once this becomes frequent enough, you'd be surprised how quickly checking will become the norm again.

Wouldn't you fail the background check?

As someone that works in academia, you'd be surprised how many academics never get their qualifications sighted for employment at a university. I've heard a few stories of renowned individuals admitting to fake degrees before retirement, suddenly rendering their highly cited papers ignored after 20 years of publication.

I have an old friend who worked in advertising for decades in Montreal. I talked to him about career advice once and I remember him saying something like this.

He said he just jumped into a low entry level position as a young 20 year old in the 70s, worked like a dog in a bunch of positions and eventually became a high level manager. He had a small college degree and he said that in his first position, they were just looking for someone .. anyone .. and he got in. No one ever checked his background or education ... no one ever asked for documentation or anything. From that start, he just worked day in, day out and after about five years, he becomes a leading manager. After that point if anyone asked about his education, he pointed to his track record working for the company. 40 years later he retired with a wealthy pension.

The verification is the Harvard sweatshirt you wear to the interview.

I once had a coworker whose CV said she had a BSc from Oxford University.

Clearly neither she nor our hiring manager knew much about Oxford.