The US and the UK share a common love of the TV programme the apprentice, though it has to be noted that the US version appears to have a standard of applicant that leave the UK’s slightly pale in the shade.
However the phenomenon that hit the UK was the decision of the UK’s Alan Sugar (a rather diluted version of Mr Trump) to employ Lee Mcqueen after the discovery that this young man had lied on his CV.
Sugar felt that “one hiccup” over the period of the show was something he could overlook in relation to the bigger picture of the individual. Lee himself who has now infamously stated “I wasn’t lying, I just misconstrued the information” (which lets be honest Lee is a lie in itself) has now landed a £100K/$200k role.
So is it OK to lie on your CV? It appears that it is, but at the same time it definitely is not! Is it OK to stretch the truth, to embellish? Did you really ‘head up the project’ or were you just ‘part of the project’?
Legal commentators feel that Sugar has condoned lying by giving Mcqueen the role, and they are right he has, but then Sugar is also a practical man. You can see it written all over his face “well there’s nothing wrong with a bit of BS here and there”.
My favourite comment thus far is from Professor Nigel Nicholson of the London Business, “a CV should NEVER be regarded as an honest and open document.” Really, well that’s encouraging, actually I disagree Nigel, the CV should be taken as an honest document, that’s the point, and if I discover you ‘misconstrued the information’, then you lied, I caught you out and that means you tell lies! Ah men!
Filed under: leadership behaviour | Tagged: apprentice, lee mcqueen
