It's time consuming to chase down credentials, especially as when you're hiring someone, it always feels more likely that they aren't making it up. After all, you have a great hiring process, right?
My father-in-law is a doctor, and he tells me there's been several occasions where he's thought some colleague was really quite shockingly ill informed. He's always been too timid to call the bluff, but he says it's happened a few times. Also he's had the old trick of the certificate with the the cigarette burn on the date attempted.
There's probably a lot of jobs outside of the more technical fields where simply being a nice person who can read and write makes you indistinguishable from someone with an education in that field.
Heck, I worked with someone with a mathematical PhD for years wondering how he'd never heard of Banach-Tarsky. Not that it's a specifically useful or necessary thing, just that you'd think a math-interested person would have come across it. Or how it could be that he thought excel was a good platform for quantitative finance. In the end I decided there were too many things that surprised him, even if he did act interested when told about them. That's not to say he didn't actually have the degree; but he certainly didn't have the skills that are supposed to go with it.
> Heck, I worked with someone with a mathematical PhD for years wondering how he'd never heard of Banach-Tarsky. Not that it's a specifically useful or necessary thing, just that you'd think a math-interested person would have come across it.
Math is huge. If he does have a Ph.D., he has probably forgotten more named theorems than either of us know. Banach-Tarski is one of those results that, for a pragmatic mathematician who doesn't know it's a meme-y theorem, could go in one ear and out the other.
I'd bet the average avid HN comment reader knows more about Goedel's incompleteness theorems than a big percentage of math phds.
> Or how it could be that he thought excel was a good platform for quantitative finance.
That's not surprising at all. Why would a math Ph.D. have any clue what-so-ever about how to build quantitative finance software?
I know many practicing math PhD's who I wouldn't expect to remember Banach-Tarsky. Especially if you spend your time doing discrete math you really don't have much occasion to worry about the implication of AoC or non measurable sets. Heck I probably only remember due to giving lectures on it, rather than having taken them. Not that I'm really practicing much these days.
Math is a big place. Most of us will have at least heard of it, just because it is counter-intuitive and easy to describe. Some might only remember it as "oh, yeah, that sphere thing".
> Some might only remember it as "oh, yeah, that sphere thing".
Yes exactly. I haven't got a clue how to prove it either, but just like with Godel, I'm not going to drop my jaw on the ground when you state the conclusion.
MD here. Is your father-in-law suggesting that several doctors he works with aren't legitimate physicians?
It seems a bit hard to believe. I've had to apply for medical licenses in 3 states, and it was a colossal pain the ass for each. Took 4 months the first time; and I have a completely clean record. Getting hospital privileges takes forever, too.
If fact, I think it should be easier, especially for those of us who did medical school, residency, and exams in the US.
Best doctor that I know failed 2 of his USMLE exams.
One of the things that always stuck with me from learning about psychopaths, is that if you act confident, the majority of the time no one will question what you are doing.
I've never worked anywhere that actually checked references or verified credentials as part of the hiring process. I think it's something that is very often skipped over by employers if they like the candidate otherwise.
Presumably, make the date illegible so that you can claim whatever date you like. I don't quite see how that gets you anywhere. Maybe somebody who only just got the degree is trying to claim they got it 20 years ago and have been gaining experience ever since?
Many credentials expire at which point they earn rather difficult or expencive to get back. Consider an application with a MSCE from 2002 or something.
My father-in-law is a doctor, and he tells me there's been several occasions where he's thought some colleague was really quite shockingly ill informed. He's always been too timid to call the bluff, but he says it's happened a few times. Also he's had the old trick of the certificate with the the cigarette burn on the date attempted.
There's probably a lot of jobs outside of the more technical fields where simply being a nice person who can read and write makes you indistinguishable from someone with an education in that field.
Heck, I worked with someone with a mathematical PhD for years wondering how he'd never heard of Banach-Tarsky. Not that it's a specifically useful or necessary thing, just that you'd think a math-interested person would have come across it. Or how it could be that he thought excel was a good platform for quantitative finance. In the end I decided there were too many things that surprised him, even if he did act interested when told about them. That's not to say he didn't actually have the degree; but he certainly didn't have the skills that are supposed to go with it.