I lied on my résumé and got the job that kickstarted my entire career. I don't regret it, but I wouldn't do it again.
- Maureen Herman had just moved to Nashville in 2000 to break into the music industry.
- She had no experience, so when a music video producer role came up, she faked her résumé.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maureen Herman, a 56-year-old writer from Chicago. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
When I was 29, I got a job producing a music video for a country music star, based on a résumé I sent in that showed I was tailor-made for this job.
The only problem? A lot of the résumé was either an exaggeration or an outright lie.
I went into the interview with this leather briefcase that looked more expensive than it was and I printed my impeccable (but untrue) résumé on linen paper. I brought a proposed budget for the music video that I had almost completely copied from a budget I found online.
At the end of the meeting, I was offered the job. Afterward, I walked out to where my friend was waiting for me and we couldn't stop laughing — I couldn't believe I had actually pulled it off.
It was the ultimate 'fake it 'til you make it' scenario
In 2000, I'd just moved to Nashville and was hoping to break into the music industry. I had a friend who told me about a job in video-producing and encouraged me to apply. I was interested in production but I didn't know how to get into it — I didn't have a degree, I didn't have experience, and I didn't have the clearest idea of what producing a music video would be like.
But I knew I could figure it out.
One of the reasons I felt like I had to lie on my résumé was because I hadn't been able to finish college due to financial and personal issues. I always wanted to finish, but it just wasn't in the cards for me — and if you don't have a degree, you have to find a way to overcome that stigma.
Requiring a college degree for a job is arbitrary. There has to be an inroad for people who are willing to learn on the job or who have experience instead of a degree. I used to put my college on my résumé, and even though I didn't explicitly say that I'd graduated, it was implied. No one ever checked or called me out on it.
Lying on my résumé worked out for me, but I wouldn't do it in 2023
Even though my résumé was an exaggeration, I did a great job producing that music video. It even got picked up by Country Music Television and had a good run there. Having that credit to my name helped me get my next job, producing a pilot for VH1, which snowballed into other opportunities in my career. It opened doors for me and showed people I was capable of doing a big project with a big budget. I always tell young people to apply for jobs they may feel underqualified for.
I do realize it was easier to get away with fibs like this back in 2000, before LinkedIn and the easy Googling of everyone's work — but that first experience taught me not to let archaic rules stop me from pursuing my dreams.
Years after I first fudged my résumé to get that job, I was in Alcoholics Anonymous — a program known for adhering to rigorous honesty. A sponsor was talking about the need for that honesty, and then she said, "... except when it comes to résumés."
I just laughed. Safe to say, I agree.