Resumes are certainly de-valued these days, what with the ability to send out a million of them for $49. And, we all know that candidates tend to make even the lowest job seem more glamourous. These are white lies and we can overlook them.

But what happens when someone outright lies? I actually caught someone in an outright lie, he had not even gone to the college he said he graduated from. Turns out, I had a college buddy who taught there, and I knew some of the local scene. When he couldn’t comfortably talk about the area, I knew something was up. I even gave him some chances to say he had over-stated his resume. He didn’t.

On the way, I said…”you know, I think you could probably do the job. But–you know—I know you are lying about your college.”

“So,” he said, “if admit it, will you still consider me?”

“No,” I said, “it is one of the few unrecoverable mistakes you can make. Sorry.”

That was in 1980. And I still believe I made the right decision.