Trust & Integrity Starts With The Application!

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Today's Tip: Never lie on an employment application and do not lie about your education credentials! Those of us who study and assess human behavior for a living can tell you unequivocally that if you are someone who chooses to be untruthful during your 1st introduction to any company, statistically there is a very high chance that you will be truth-challenged when you are employed with us. Because of this fact, in most cases - we will not hire you if you are caught in a certifiable lie.

FACT: Of the 350,000,000 residents in the United States, CNN reported on March 24th that adults over the age of 25 who currently possess bachelor's degrees are reported as follows:

33.6 % Whites
19.9 % Blacks
13.3% Hispanic

If you have a degree, congratulations! You have achieved a milestone and a credential that a high percentage of Americans do not have.

If you don't have a degree, don't give up because you may have achieved an "educational equivalent" which means you have secured some college credits and/or business, work, civic, military and general life experiences that gives you an "educational equivalent" that many companies will view as completely acceptable and enough knowledge in a chosen field to achieve the goals of a particular position or even an entire class of jobs inside their company, (i.e. - Microsoft's Bill Gates is one of the most famous examples!)

When you see a job requirement that reads, "This position requires a Bachelor's Degree or "Commensurate Experience" to qualify," it means that the company will allow you to compete for a position against candidates with college degrees because there is a past performance history of successful employees who have already proven that their experience gave them an "educational equivalent" along with the skills, knowledge and competencies to execute in a particular job effectively & with excellence. If others have succeeded, so can you!

Having said all this, many times over the past 20 years - employment candidates have - in fact - lied about degrees they did not possess. Every time it happens, companies are amazed & highly disappointed! In every case, the candidate was either denied an employment opportunity and/or they were released from the company in those instances where we allowed new hires to start before the background results were complete. What a terrible experience and what a terrible waste of every one's time.

The silly thing is this: In most cases, the Hiring Team's decision was not solely based on that degree the candidate claimed to have had - we were interested in a combination of assessed elements & factors such as number of years of experience, the complexity of projects they had executed, revenues secured, their leadership styles, repeat behaviors which helped them deliver with consistency & excellence, and the business benefit the person had delivered on behalf of the companies they had been accountable to.

Let's be clear: Trust starts with the employment application, so why do some candidates who have had DWI/ DUI offenses think it's okay to make conscious decisions to check the box NO when asked about such offenses on the application. When candidates explain their circumstances, there is always a very good shot that they can prevail beyond this mark on their record and secure the job. But... when the Criminal Background Check comes back and reveals false information was checked in that box, the candidate's chance of getting hired moves towards zero because he/she led with assertions that were false and therefore our trust in them and their candidacy was eliminated.

Once you lie in the employment process, all those great things you did in the past don't matter to the hiring company any more because market leaders believe that Business Integrity starts with what the employment candidate chooses to write in his/her employment application. It's as simple as that.

Who you really are has to be good enough... so go for it! Good luck!

Best regards,
Tish