Should I tell the truth on my CV?

One of my next books is called Should I Tell the Truth?

So I was interested this morning to read about a top executive at InterContinental Hotels being fired for having lied about the qualifications on his CV.

Patrick Imbardelli had worked for 25 years in the hotel industy. He had claimed to have three qualifications - a bachelor of business degree from the University of Victoria in Australia, and a BSc and a masters of business administration, both from Cornell University in the US.

In fact, he had only attended classes at both universities in the 1980s - but he never received any qualifications!

To me, this says two things. Firstly, of course it's bad to be caught lying on your CV. Secondly though, it illustrates how easy it is to get away with lying. He had managed to lie about his qualifications for 25 years and risen to nearly the very top of his industry! It was only because he was about to rise to the main board of InterContinental Hotels that he got caught out - if he'd had a more ordinary career, he would probably have got away with it for life.

So if there's a lesson here - it's either not to lie or not to get caught anyway!