I agree with DougR. Wait a minute... I agree with DougR!!!! Now there's a rare occurrence!

Naw, seriously, everybody else has pretty much said what I would have said anyway, so I'll just offer this instead.

Human resource departments' failure to verify the information on resumes is apparently far more widespread than most people realize. At a college where I used to work the Dean of the Allied Health Department, a position only two steps down the hierarchy from President, was discovered to have faked almost his entire work and educational histories. The only degree he had was a two-year Registered Nursing degree. He pretended to have advanced degrees up to and including a Doctorate in Education. It was quite a local scandal and, as a follow-up, the local newspaper did an investigative report on the extent to which employers do or don't verify the educational and prior work claims of applicants. They found that many employers are willing to just take the applicants' words for it because it's too expensive and time consuming to confirm what they have put on their resumes. They may call an ex-employer or two, but they rarely verify educational claims. (The obvious exceptions would be medically-related jobs where the hospital, doctor's office or whatever could be held legally responsible for the actions of unqualified employees.) In Academia, it's considered a bit of an insult to even think about questioning the academic credentials that one claims to have. They also found that people do get fired for lying on their resumes far more often than many people realize. Employers usually make up some other reason for the dismissal because they don't want their own failure to verify facts in the first place made public.

Bruce