In an Albuquerque Journal article, a candidate for public office admits that the BS and MBA she listed as credentials were degrees she did not attend any courses to earn but were in effect purchased on line. The candidate dismissed the situation as a "skeleton in the closet," something she says everyone has. How serious an infraction do I consider listing purchased rather earned degrees? Major? Minor? Irrelevant? Why?
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I remember back a while when I was preparing my resume for my current job search. One of the rules that they stated, very clearly, on every site was this: Make sure that you make yourself look good (the whole purpose of a resume), but do NOT list anything that is untrue.
Purchasing a degree online is not earning it. And although a certificate might be obtained from a web site, it would be worth no more than my firing up of Photoshop and adding my name to the Declaration of Independence. It is not real.
The point behind online courses is that it is an alternative to having to go into a classroom, much like the hybrid course that we are currently taking. However, obtaining a certificate without having done any actual work is dishonest.
Looking at the case in point, we notice a few things. Firstly, the purchasing of "degrees" gives the applicant to a particular job an unfair advantage over her colleagues. Instead of saving and investing years and years of effort into obtaining a BS and an MBA (Which should require at LEAST four years of intensive study to complete), she obtained these qualifications almost instantly, without any real experience, or, moreover, any real skills.
A resume is a list of skills that a particular person has. Degrees and degree programs are a form of benchmarking that allows us to see how much progression that person has made in his or her learning. This is why, for example, it is much easier to transfer from one school to another AFTER having completed your first degree than it is to transfer each individual credit. The degree is considered as one whole package, eliminating the need to take the pre-requisites. It is assumed that you have already done them.
Again, this particular person would be giving her employer an unskilled employee. She would be stating that she can do things that she cannot. Along with that, she is taking the opportunity for employment away from another, more qualified person.
Stating that "everyone has skeletons in their closets" is not a good business practice. Especially for someone running for public office. Additionally, this prescriptive statement makes an assumption about the general public that I find offensive. I, for one, do not have any "skeletons" to speak of.
In dealing with honesty, integrity, and public image, I would have to say that lying on your resume is a major problem, and will brand you for life as being dishonest.
Honesty and integrity. It's better that you have less on your "skills" list and learn in the process than to list "more" and be expected to perform at a level that you cannot.
Cheers!
-Nathan
