What should I do if I know one of the leaders in my company faked his work history?

Question

Please note I have used slightly modified job titles to describe this without showing who's behind the scene.

I work at an established corporate, and the head of my department (Marketing) was someone who I used to work with at another company before joining this one. At first, I was impressed by him as he successfully transitioned from project manager to head of marketing.

And then, I found out the uncanny truth a few days ago.

When I visited this guy's LinkedIn profile to give him kudos, I realized that he put a fake work history. He claimed to be a "Senior Marketer", "Principal marketer" while he didn't have any professional marketing experience at that time. His role back in the days was not related at all.

I mean, he is capable of his job as head of marketing, but... it seemed like he got the job with the fake work history. Maybe he wanted to add up more years of experience? I don't know why he did it, but I don't know how to approach it from now on. He is in charge of the entire marketing strategy of the company. I think he can still continue to work but morally this stresses me out.

I'm not sure what should I do to fix this, and what's the recommended action to take.

Any advice?

Answer 1

I would ignore it, especially because the guy is capable.

You have no idea what it was he actually used to get hired. Maybe he is just using it to get recruiters to his LinkedIn (I know od junior engineers who have faked LinkedIn experience, sent their resume to a recruiter with their true experience and then gotten an interview) You have no idea whether he has a reference to back up that he was "Principal Marketer" at your past company (and he easily could). You have no idea whether he was hired as a friend and then asked to retroactively edit his experience to pass muster with a higher-up person or with a board or with HR. You have no idea whether he changed it to ward off questions about his competence from curious LinkedIn readers.

All you know is that he is currently lying on his LinkedIn profile. Those are the known facts between what his profile says and what your own experience tells you. That's it.

The fact that he is capable does not help you. If he were mediocre or lousy, the company might welcome a way to fire him for cause. But if they want to keep him, they now might think that they have to get rid of you. Sexual harassers frequently survive on their competence and connections and lying on a resume is a much smaller offense.

Imagine that you see an enemy flag over the horizon. You shoot at it. And then you get closer and realized that the horizon hid an entire fleet, a position you do not want to be in.

Don't get me wrong. I bet that he was less than truthful when getting the job. But you want something solid when making that kind of accusation and for all you know, you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. The default of it being your word against his is already fairly lopsided in his favour.

Answer 2

it seemed like he got the job with the fake work history.

That's what it is , it "seems". You do not have any "proof" of that. The linkedin profile (unless directly endorsed by the organisation) is a personal entity and technically have no verification process for experience whatsoever^{see notes} - so you don't even know (or prove) whether it's a genuine profile or not.

Moreover, two more things to consider

1. The guy is able to manage their work, as you mentioned

I mean, he is capable of his job as Head of Marketing

2. You don't know what exact work history / reference was submitted by them during the process and/or any outcome of the background check.

So, I'll recommend, stay out of this. Organizations have dedicated people / team to verify and handle this sort of cases, let them do their job.

Note: LinkedIn has verification to validate your employer, not for the particular post or experience. See here

Answer 3

Especially since "he is capable of his job as Head of Marketing", you should just calm down. The entire thing can turn against you very ugly.

An alternative would be to send an anonymous letter to his superiors, but in that way you will not know what actions would be taken against him - although it would not matter much.

Answer 4

Isn't it a good thing that the head of marketing is a competent liar? Do you really want a head of marketing that always speaks the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (to your customers/prospects)? I think there is a good chance that your company would be out of business soon if that would be the case.

Answer 5

1. The linkedIn profile could have an error in it that's not in the resume he used to get hired. Some of us have experience in multiple fields but the profile might only focus on one thing. Although the errors in my resume/profile tend to not be in my favor like accidentally shortening experience from 3 years to 1 year.

2. Maybe he didn't lie but management told him to pad his linkedin profile. A corporation probably doesn't want to promote the idea that their director of marketing has less experience.

3. Let's say he lied to get his job. It's very likely that if you snitch or confront the guy he will still have the time to stuff your HR file with bad notes and fire you. Yeah, his first thought when he's found out will be that you gave him up since you're the only person he knows close by with firsthand knowledge. And nobody on earth will stick their neck out for you since you're practically best, old time friends (compared to them) with the guy they no longer trust .

I think your best move is (in no particular order) to:

• Get promoted.
• Get out.