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It may be more instructive to focus not on what a job gets you but on what a job can mean. After all, money is only one reason people seek the jobs they do. Jobs can also convey a certain status within society, a sense of purpose and belonging. Perhaps this is why workplace deception often begins before people have even found a job. As competitive as the American college application process can seem, it is probably still far less stressful than the education system in South Korea. From an early age, South Korean children begin preparing for college entrance exams in intense cram sessions. Admission to the right school means qualification for top jobs and social benefits that extend as far as marriage prospects. Not getting into an elite school, though, can close career and societal doors permanently. It was against this backdrop that it emerged that Shin Jeongah, a top art historian, had falsified her educational experience. Or, to put the issue more bluntly, the scandals point to the stakes of superficial academic success. After all, as in the United States, the question is not so much what an individual learns at a university as the reputation of that university. The line on the résumé is what opens doors, not the content of the education. 
As The World Turns
Without that degree, an applicant will not even be considered, regardless of skills, knowledge, experience, or any other sort of qualification. This helps explain why so often the lies on American résumés relate to education. Generally, all résumés are prone to deceit. A low estimate is that a quarter of résumés contain lies. But with educational background in particular, job seekers are apt to invent the facts. In 2008, the Liars Index was nearly 16 percent. Applicants claimed degrees they had never earned, honors they had never received. Examples of degree falsification by highly successful people abound. Edmondson, was fired after it was revealed that he’d added to his résumé degrees in psychology and theology that he didn’t have. Olympic Committee falsely claimed to have a doctorate in American literature. But a less morally charged explanation is also possible. To make it to the top requires a foot in the door. The Adventure of A Lifetime
A lie on a résumé may be the means to start a career that, through skill, luck, determination, or some combination thereof, ends up in a chair or a presidency. In fact, one of my own research studies, conducted with Brent Weiss, found that job applicants are more than ready to bend the truth to obtain an attractive position. The job ostensibly involved tutoring high school students, but the specific nature of the position varied in one of two ways. In contrast, other job applicants were told that the position required strong interpersonal skills, with high sociability and enthusiasm central requirements. After learning about the job requirements, applicants filled out an application form and then participated in a job interview. After the interviews, we let applicants know that in reality there was no job and that the entire situation had been designed to study the interview process. The results were quite consistent with our other studies of the frequency of deception in everyday life. Just over 80 percent of the participants admitted telling at least one lie in the interview. The average number of lies was 2.2 during the interviews, which lasted from ten to fifteen minutes. Furthermore, the nature of the lies was consistent with the job requirements. Applicants applying for a position involving math skills were more likely to boast about their mathematical prowess. No You Don't
In contrast, applicants applying for the job where social skills were paramount were more apt to lie about their adeptness in socializing with others. After all, many people consider résumés and job interviews to be sales opportunities, ones whose purpose is to put the best possible gloss on past experience and accomplishments. In this view, it is standard practice for an afternoon digging through files for a lost invoice to become extensive research experience. Embellishment can easily lose its grounding in the facts, if it ever had one in the first place. After all, a degree was either conferred or it wasn’t. Further, while it may be difficult to check or to ascertain what extensive research experience constitutes, a degree can be verified with a single phone call, or even a single Web search. Perhaps the fact that educational background remains so frequently fudged points to a certain attitude toward such credentials. Again, the importance of such degrees can certainly be viewed as only surface deep. This ambivalence regarding the practical benefits of a degree, as opposed to the surface benefits, may actually be echoed among employers. Given how easy it is to check educational background, it is surprising how many companies don’t. The proof of job worthiness may ultimately lie in job performance. This is not to argue that companies don’t care when applicants falsify their educational experience. Rather, it is to state that their interest in finding a person to fill important job vacancies is very strong, as well. Employers don’t benefit from losing good employees in résumé scandals any more than the fired employees do. This may be another reason why the Liars Index never approaches 0 percent. Of course, faked education credentials may be among the more benign forms of workplace deceit. Other practices can be far more insidious. He made his name on Wall Street at Scott Paper, a struggling company that Dunlap rejuvenated to the tune of a 6.3 billion increase in market value. One way he achieved this was by the cutting thousands of jobs. But Dunlap was unapologetic over his hardball tactics. How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great. Dunlap reportedly declared, The old Sunbeam is over, and oversaw a restructuring plan that would eliminate 87 percent of Sunbeam products and about half of its jobs. The apparent boom at Sunbeam didn’t last. Its stock tanked, and as the company started to fall apart, Dunlap was fired. Accusations of fraud emerged.