I couldn’t afford to finish university back then, and I was desperate to get my foot in the door. I searched for months and found someone who could replicate my best friend’s degree raised seal and all. I’m honestly not sure how it cleared due diligence or if my company ever did check, but here I am five years in, working hard, and I just got promoted. Now I feel like I owe it to myself to actually go back and finish my degree. Young desperate me deserves it.
Comments
I think about this sometimes like how often do employers actually check.
As long as you are not a Dr or lawyer something like that you are fine degree are a scam for the most part
I’m not sure they actually check unless you’re a doctor or something like that.
Good. I’m glad you’re making it. Obviously the degree wasn’t needed in the first place!
All the financial institutions do a thorough FBI background check especially the FINRA registered. You won’t be able to lie there.
Pulled a Mike Ross.
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Damn now kids with college are having to go against people with 5 years of experience before their Degree????
very curious about the position and field you work in.
First it’s 5 years then it’s 3 and then 5 again. Cool fake story
Don’t bother going back for a classroom degree. You’ve graduated the school of hard knocks and accelerating in your life. Don’t waste your time chasing after imaginary bubbles that show you are educated. Your promotion shows you are educated.
Sounds like bullshit. No one gives a shit about anything printed. Background check companies check the national student clearing house. It lists every college or university you’ve attended, your grades, and whether you’ve actually graduated.
Waiting for the post when the forger is blackmailing you for a cut of your salary
Maybe look into an online degree like western governors, a quick and relatively “cheap” way to check off that box
Wouldn’t you out yourself if you actually finish your degree tho?
All the schooling in the world won’t give you life lessons or experience. Also, we live in a post pandemic society now so most courses (even some medical ones) are online.
What goes around comes around 🙂
Jeff Winger?
Hey this is your boss can you come to my office !?
You sir, this is for you 🍻
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
Dragon 2025 Tamil film
Are you Michael from Suits?
As long as the company does not due diligence, do not brag/talk about it, do not ever bring it up, I would delete this post. Life has a way of biting you on the backside at the most inopportune times.
I hope for your sake your boss’ name isn’t Harvey Specter.
Back in the 1990’s had a job in manufacturing. I rose through the ranks over several years. From a night shift supervisor to manager of production. Had 130 heads under my control. Eight different departments. I was often asked what college I went to and avoided giving an answer until I couldn’t go any higher. Then I let it be known proudly I graduated from the school of hard knocks.
How does that happen? Not detected all those years..
For anyone wanting to do this.
insert survivorship bias meme
hahahahhahahahahaha. bruh!
No one wants to see your degree with a seal. They want to see your transcripts. This is completely fake.
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Fake it to make it
I think most places don’t check to be honest. Many office/desk type of jobs are hiring you based on your interview. When I took my first job out of college I didn’t submit my actual degree or anything like that. It’s possible they checked on it, but I really don’t think they did.
What company is checking the physical degree? Like, do they ask you to bring it in so they can run their fingers over it?
But here is the biggest thing. If they ever do check you will be fired. Because the job most likely requires you to have a bachelor’s degree even if they don’t care what it is. It’s a stupid hr policy but they use it to prescreen that you have minimum college level skills.
Now That you’ve had experience in that role. You need to start applying for jobs and removing the bachelor’s degree. Your experience alone should allow you to get into a new role. Continue applying till you get another role. Ensure your future, because if they ever check it’s an instant job loss. You got the privilege for 5 years. Now switch to another company that knows you don’t have a bachelor’s degree.
Mike Ross
Are you nervous? Unless you stay at that job forever, someone is going to find out. Verification is simple and cheap these days thanks to AI.
I was in HR many years ago when we would verify degrees by contacting the universities or technical schools. We acquired a business once and required everyone in the business to complete applications and background checks. One woman lied about a technical degree. She was a highly regarded employee in the company we were buying, but we had a strict policy on lying on applications. We withdrew our employment offer to her. Because of confidentiality we could not tell her former employer why we did this. She went crying to them that we were mistreating her. They were furious with us because they really liked the woman. They actually found her a job within another business they owned and let us know they weren’t happy at all with us. The funny thing is that her “degree” had nothing to do with her current job and we would have happily hired her if she hadn’t lied on the application.
I actually have a friend who got caught with something similar 16 years after being hired with a fake degree and the company not only fired her, they filed a lawsuit against her 😬. Idk what the outcome was because I moved away and we lost contact, but this reminded me of that.
Most companies for most positions don’t check. If they care, they’re gonna want your transcripts.
Yeah you can fake a degree like that just don’t put down that you spent time at a research institute in Antarctica.
feels like a waste of time. spoken from a man who has a mechanical engineering background but never used it. started my business from last year of college and haven’t had to report to anyone, anytime, anyplace, at anytime I didn’t want to since. Going for near 6Y+ of this now
I will say going to school introduced me to the technology which started my business. So worth it
But if you are 5Y in? Waste of time imo
lol some dude did this at a company I worked at 6 months in they found out and he got fired
I guess congrats on the promotion. However, be cautious. Go back to the original job listing was the degree a requirement or a preference but not required. If they happen to do a background check and they found out you knowinglyl omitted certain things this could lead to unwanted consequences. What those consequences are would depend on your role and your industry. If you contracts with costumers where trust is highly valued this hiccup may lead to legal action.
Seems like you are doing a good job, and given the fact that you’re up for promotion, it seems this degree wasn’t needed at all.
So do me a favor and stop having second thoughts about it.
Most adult people I met barely have any clue what they are doing and just act like they do, until it it becomes reality, lol.
Don’t waste the money to learn something you will never need for a paper you already have.
If you just got promoted, that means your performing above expectations.
You are good, you are component, you are better than your peers. You don’t need anything else to validate you.
The educational complex has enough money already.
There was a massive tunnel built in my state long ago and 20 years later they learned that the head (? )engineer didn’t have a degree,but they acknowledged he did a bang up job 😂
I am going to delete this post as I understand there might be consequences if they ever discover that I falsified my education documents. I am clearly dealing with a lot of anxiety around this new promotion and will work towards completing my degree. I took that route due to being desperate. I know my potential and I couldn’t sit around waiting years until I could financially afford to finish my degree. Sorry to the people that I’ve upset I just needed to share this with someone.
Some folks commit federal crimes in positions that require a degree and they don’t have one.
Use the opportunity to finish on the low.
Nearly 20 years ago, a Sr. Manager work at the corporate office for 10 years was let go after they found out he lied about his credentials. Many of the staff suspected that the C-suite executives knew and just kept it in their back pocket until he did something egregious. He was an AH, and it was bound to happen.
Additionally, think about your next job. It’s best to do it now.
I worked for RadioShack years ago. The CEO had two degrees on his resume. A reporter discovered he had no degrees. One of the degrees he lied about was a theology degree. He was given the opportunity to submit his resignation and was given a 5 million dollar payout.
TL;DR: You faked your way in but earned your way up, and now you’re thinking about making it right. Look, what you did was fraud – let’s just call it what it is. But here’s the thing: you’ve spent five years actually doing the work and proving you belong there. Your promotion isn’t because of that fake piece of paper anymore, it’s because you’ve shown you can do the job. Going back to finish your degree is honestly a solid move, both for yourself and to clean up this mess you started. You could frame it as “advancing your education” or “completing something you always wanted to finish” – nobody…
If you make amends, one honest sentence is a good place to start.
OPs next post is going to be how they’ve been busted and had to enroll at Greendale CC
Go back and get it! See if your company has tuition reimbursement too
I’ve never been asked to show my degree. I’ve never been asked when I was younger about my high school diploma either. Not sure it’s truly relevant in most roles.
That’s actually pretty incredible it shows how much your hard work and skills mattered more than the paper degree.
Careful, promotions are usually when they do a legit background check (because the higher title/job requires it), and if they call the institution, it won’t check out …
I graduated in 2005 and hoped jobs and careers several times. Literally never have been asked for transcripts or anything else.
Someone did that at a community college in my state and they found out yearssss later and fired her! Which seemed stupid because she was obviously a good employee!
Every company I worked at has each reference & degree verified.
I would get a degree simply because you cannot depend on working at one employer for life. Not having a degree will likely get you filtered out when applying to any large company, regardless of you actual job experience. Legal/HR simply won’t let them hire someone without a college degree when there are plenty of other qualified candidates with degrees that belong in various protected classes, too big of a legal risk. They would only make exceptions for executive level (ex: genius college dropout that founded a successful tech start up, that would be defensible in court).
I don’t even put my degree on my resume.
Currently a marketing middle manager.
Definitely fake, no company asks to see your physical degree
I know of a guy who never finished his degree either and also lied about it. He is going on 20 years in the field now and making as much or more than people with a degree. He never did go back to get it.
I had a background check service say they called one of my school administrators. I was sitting next to the admin, and asked them the kind of questions they were asked.
“What call?”
I don’t know what everyone else here is talking about but I have had my degree checked for jobs before… and they don’t ask to see a paper copy they contact the university. I’m not an engineer by trade nor by education but I work in an engineering focused industry. I’m in a leadership role and they checked me out thoroughly with a background check.
I would of course never ever tell anyone but I would try to finish the degree and again never speak of it.
Just a prime example of what a giant waste of time and money school is for some jobs. Good for you OP!
You’ve got your doctorate in the streets. No need to spend time on anything retro. Keep moving onwards and upwards.
Another proof that degree is unnecessary if there is a willingness to learn on the job and diligence.
Great, but they can still fire you if they ever find out.
Not sure what country you’re in, but can’t believe they didn’t verify with the school itself, wow.
Most companies only checked prior employment unless this was your first job or it was a requirement of the position
If a company is dumb enough to not require a new hire “out of college” to produce transcripts with no prior work history they deserve to be scammed like this.
You can do a night course or something. But i would still keep my day job. You sound happy in your job. After all a certification is basic. 99% we learn on the job.
My brother couldn’t finish high school after my sister passed away. He got a fake diploma to get a job installing security systems at 18.
30 years later he is head hancho of the electric/technical department at a college he couldn’t attend.
Some promotions trigger a check, so be careful not to fall from a great height. Watch out.
Ive had several corporate jobs in the past, not once have I been asked about my degree (although I have one). Nice work, OP lmao. Keep on keeping on 😎
If they don’t ask for transcripts then they really don’t care if you graduated. A background check will not reveal anything about your education. There’s a law called FERPA. I’m not even sure if a school can even confirm that you attended much less if you graduated.
The actual diploma is a worthless piece of paper. Mine has been framed since a few weeks after I graduated and has never left my wall. ( I didn’t even care about framing it but a friend was a professional framer and did it as a gift)
Imposter syndrome….except it’s real. But is it? You’re obviously doing the job well. Finish those last few credits up just to lock it in just in case.
I’ve often wondered if it would be worth it to include an associate’s or bachelor’s degree on my resume. I always meant to use my GI bill for one but…well…I was a bit of a fuck up when I first got out of the service and then life happened and now it’s 30+ years later 🤷♂️ Would anyone even bother to verify it at this point?
Hell yeah!!
I’ve worked for many large corporations and have been the hiring manager for positions reporting to me and I’ve never known a company to verify completion of stated education. I put very little value on diplomas as to me, that only validates that you can show up and follow some kind of instruction, which is something I can learn from you the first week on the job. The best people I’ve worked with in my career, never went to college.
I mean this in the nicest way possible but I think you have proven that the degree is useless haven’t you?
I would go find another job and get the job based purely on your experience, don’t ever mention a degree.
Then your in the clear
As an HR rep. I request and receive official transcripts for every new hire position that requires a degree.
Go back and finish that degree just to cover yourself.
Don’t know about degrees, but half these places don’t even check your work history anymore.
I wouldn’t go back to school. You’re not going to learn anything that work hasn’t taught you and your next employer is going to care more about your experience than a diploma. Save the money.
How do they even check what degrees people have is there a database somewhere?
UK specifically
The real life Mike Ross
Jobs mostly care about ur portfolio of work. What have you don’t and what can you do. I used to get asked about my degree and not anymore.
My wife got a new job last year and they would not complete the application until they were able to get someone from her school on the phone to confirm she went there. She had to call them to tell them to get back to the job asap. This was in spite of providing the actual degree and transcripts and everything. So idk you got really lucky I guess. I’d probably stay at that job for as long I could if I were you. Idk if you’ll get so lucky again when applying to another job
Op is a doctor 😭😭
I worked for multiple companies without my finished degree. I had three classes left, long story.
After 9 years, I went back and got my degree.
Did I need it? Hell no, my experience trumped my degree.
Am I glad I finished it? Yes
You need to switch jobs before you’re caught and apply to the new job without the degree.
I got a General vs Honours Bachelors. 3 years instead of 4. Nobody asked. I had a B.A.
Once you have some industry experience, in many cases, then trumps what got you in.
You good.
I worked at a place for 8 years that thought I had a master’s degree. I had never claimed to have that degree and have no idea how it was in their system. I didn’t even know about it until I was looking at my info in their system and saw it there. I never corrected them and my plan if I was ever called out was to claim ignorance and ask them to produce whatever documentation they had that I had claimed to have it.
My best guess is the recruiter put it down to try to get me through the hiring process without my knowledge and claim his commission.
Where did you find said person to replicate the raised seal? Asking for a friend.
You know, EVERY time someone posts something like this, a week later, they post that they got caught and fired.
post is so vague with a clickbait title its 99% fake
I know someone who did exactly this who also found a way to collect full disability from the VA
After learning how other veterans were doing it.
Everything about him is a lie.
Jake is that you?
Here’s what you do. You leverage your new promotion and find a new job at a different company for higher pay. And on this one you don’t lie about your education. You effectively close the loop and you never have to worry about anything.
Same here but it was a deep insecurity of mine so I went back to finish after a couple of years. It was well worth it for my own sanity hahaha
Please tell me this is not your regular account.
Companies sometimes re verify background checks as part of the promotion process. Newer background processes may include your social media posts in that search.
Good job faking it to make it, and hopefully even if it does come up you have proven yourself worthy of the role and it is a non-issue.
The Mike Ross method.
Finish your degree so after you get laid off of just want tochange jobs, you have it.
I worked if you places in my life and we literally always check. Be nice to everybody at work cuz you may not get a break like this again.
I’ve thought about doing this.
I never actually said I graduated. Just put the dates I attended and my major. That was 10 years ago.
OP, start streaming the show Suits. You’re gonna love it.
have you seen the show “suits” this is the premise of the show lol.
Don’t do it. That’s when they find out.
I’ve heard of senior people losing their jobs after it was found they didn’t really have degrees
The trick now is to apply for a new job listing just your current job as your skills and don’t mention your degree. Then if you get that new job you’re in the clear.
Why you put it online.
One of my friends did this, and got away with it for over 8 years. He got promoted twice during that time. One of his former coworkers that he was now a manager of knew, and ratted him out. After they had a falling out. He got fired on the spot.
Most degrees these days seem empty and useless anyway.
So many jobs where theyre asking for a degree where someone with few weeks of training could probably do the job.
I don’t think I’ve had mine checked in a decade
Youre going to get caught eventually, most likely when after you get an offer somewhere else.
Mike Ross over here
I guess this works in some industries and not others. I get checked every year for any new arrests and truthfulness of background by my current employer through the Hireright service. Our banking clients insist especially because of the criminal checks so we would never get away with this for long
Isn’t this the Jeff Winger storyline?
I was hired from an intern to full-time employee under the condition that I finished college and provided proof of my degree.
I did graduate, but they never asked for proof, so I could’ve just dropped out
Get a job with a different company, might get snother promotion and theyll never check
You know what now thinking about it, when I got my job fresh out of college a few months ago, they didn’t even ask for my degree???
/u/bot-sleuth-bot
a real company would require sealed transcripts
In some companies, a background check is purely a Credit check + criminal records check. Yours is probably that.
It’s only an issue if they’re looking for a reason to terminate you.
Dude pulled a Mike Ross
Some Micheal Ross type stuff right there
Suits IRL
I’ve hired people at several different places. Not one time did we double check if the degree was accurate. I think only academic institutions really would.
Meanwhile, I have 4 actual degrees and I’m unemployed lmfao 😭