What is the best way to ask someone whether she has lied in her resume?

Question

A lady at work told everyone she has 5 years experience in an accounting firm, yet she seems to be rather lost when preparing or explaning basic trial balance - and not comprehending basic practical tax questions.

I know it is none of my business (I am not reporting to her, she is not reporting to me), but I'm such a sticky nose, and it is burning inside me - what is the best way to ask her, whether she has glossed up her resume or not?

She doesn't do any "dirty work"; having 5 y exp, she comes as a supervisor, supervising other junior/senior staff in doing their work.

No I won't talk about her behind her back at work... I only do it here where noone knows who she is :-P

Interesting replies. Love Kate's posting the most. Thank you all. I promise I will keep my mouth shut and won't ask her anything. If I have other burning issues, I will just post them here... :-)

Answer 1

Accounting is like car repair , not all is alike .
Your systems may not be like the ones she used .
It is very presumptuous to automatically assume it was lying ( very negative attitude on your part ) .
Although some people do lie on resumes ,
To take that tack because your in-house system is not familiar to someone else is wrong .

A more mature person might be curious about the variance and ask where she had worked previously .

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Answer 2

There is no good way to ask if someone has padded their qualifications on a resume. As long as her performance doesn't affect your work the best plan is to leave it alone. Keep in mind that if you confront her on this issue, even if you phrase your opinion as a question, it could be deemed harrassment even if you are correct and you may lose your job to satisfy your curiosity. This is a matter best handled by the senior staff. If she has indeed lied it will become apperent quickly enough and she'll be terminated.

Another thing to consider, depending on how old she is and when she had this experience the rules, laws and prosedures may have changed meaning her skills are not up to date. Additionally, depending on who she worked for in the past and what position she actually held at this other accounting firm she may not have had to deal with trial balances. What if her experience dealt completly with helping people prepare their personal tax returns? I myself have never had to complete a trial balance when my taxes were prepared.

Furthermore, while I don't know your companies policies pertaining to the hiring process, it's far more likely for managers to undergo background and reference checks prior to employment. Provided your company did this one of two possibilities is likely. First, whatever her resume said was true but what she's telling you may not have been in her resume. Maybe her resume didn't reflect 5 years experience but she's telling people this at work to try and gain their respect. The other likelyhood is that she does in fact have 5 years experience despite the gaps in her skill set.

While you can certainly ask her about who she worked for in the past and what she did, I would not try to finesse an answer about her honesty. Besides, if you think she lied on her resume could you trust any answer she gave you about whether she lied or not? Because you already don't trust her the only answer that would satisfy your curiosity would be if she confessed to lying. If she tells you she didn't lie then you wouldn't believe her and here you are stuck in the same position. The difference is now she will have personal issues with you and it could lead to you losing your job.

Let this one go.

Answer 3

I don't know accounting or law, so bear with me. Pretend you're having trouble with some type of problem that she claims to have experience with and ask her if she's ever come across something like that and what can you do about it, etc. You should be able to tell from her answer how much experience she actually has. THAT is an actionable communication you can make to a supervisor. (supervisors talk, trust me)

Such as "I asked her about X, and she didn't even know that X was Y. Where did she come from?"

That's the sneaky way. If you do it like this, you run the risk of being labeled a troublemaker, so tread lightly. If it was me, I wouldn't worry about it. Phonies don't last very long.

Answer 4

I understand how you must feel ; I have worked with someone who was incompetent at her job ; who had smarmed up to and smooth talked people into giving her the job .
She might indeed have five years experience working in an accounting firm ; perhaps making the tea or as a filing clerk , not necessarily the work she is supposing to do now . It was up to her employers to have checked on her past experience ; she surely had a reference from her previous employer .
It is not for " Nosy " you to ask her whether her resume is strictly the truth , or whether she lied to get the job .
The most you might do is ask in friendly , chatty conversation , where she worked before , what it was like working there and what she did .

Answer 5

And an business enterprise business enterprise could prefer to lease anybody with questionable ethics, why, as quickly as extra? sure, we habit history exams - we glance at yoru training and make certain your degree for the distinctive objective you component out - considering people lie. If we detect which you're a form of people, we can rescind your activity latest. in case you probably did not have a level at a similar time as to procure right here to artwork for my organisation, and now you at as quickly as do, I certainly have the alternative to run a look at on you however if or not you're at the instant employed or now not. while you're intelligent sufficient to get immediately A's, then you definately are intelligent sufficient to comprehend that cheaters get caught out finally. someplace down the line you would be waiting to interview with anybody that's an extremely alum of your favourite college and can ask what profs you had, which dorm you lived in, and a selection of of different others. and can be certain attractive swiftly which you're a liar. The commerce community is nearly a small the city, and word travels speedy. Please don't be boring sufficient to try this.

Answer 6

Thats life Trolley, get over it.

After staying at your firm for five years, she can say that on her resume as well. Time has nothing to do with skill.

As a supervisor, she only needs the skill to delegate work to others.

Slave on patiently Trolley, you will get rewarded eventually.

Answer 7

What's the point of asking her directly? She lied once, she'll do it again, especially if it could put her job on the line...have you tried asking her why she lacks all the basic knowledge?

Answer 8

although u need not ask her as u are not responsible for he appointment, it appears u are very curious. for satisfying your curiousity, u can cross check by asking he indirectly some relate question so that truth comes.

Answer 9

Worry about your own skills and qualifications. Don't try to wipe their nose every time they sneeze, but distance yourself and let them fall on their own ass.

Answer 10

Hon, her skills will speak for themselves. No need to ask.