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Comment by justin_vanw | Hacker News Reader

I'm not saying this is what you should do, but it's probably what I would do if my college went under:

Put on my resume that I graduated. From a school that was good, not the shitty one that went out of business.

Actually, as someone who didn't graduate, I find that just not mentioning whether or not I graduated works fine. I just say 'University of X, 200X - 200X, Mathematics' on my resume. At this point in my career it doesn't matter, and back when it might have mattered almost nobody has the balls to say to you "I see that you attended University of X for n years, did you graduate?".

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> Put on my resume that I graduated. From a school that was good, not the shitty one that went out of business.

Not counting the ethical part, I don't think this is very smart. All of the jobs that I have worked for do background checks on both your employment history and education.

Plus, who wants to go to a job where they think you're somebody else? Being who you really are is the ultimate perk.

Ethical issues aside (and I've never done any of this) - who checks your education? I've never had anyone ask for transcripts, and I've never seen a database of what they're supposed to look like. You could send in anything with a watermark-y looking thing and 99% of people would take it.

Many employers, especially those with a dedicated HR department, call the stated university verify degrees. This is especially true if a security clearance/background check is an employment requirement. I believe a Yahoo exec got caught by this last year.

> I've never had anyone ask for transcripts, and I've never seen a database of what they're supposed to look like.

As yukon already explained, they don't ask you for your transcript. Instead, either the company's HR department or the background check company they hired just goes direct to the source. It's not an instant process either. Typically they complete everything several months after you're hired.

Don't put anything false or ambiguous on your resume. It's a disservice to yourself. I hate to phrase it this way, but your integrity is your brand.

Being able to accomplish things is so rare -- if you have that ability, the simple truth will suffice.

I hate to phrase it this way, but your integrity is your brand.

This is absolutely true. Most employers will look past all sorts of lapse of judgement in your past (especially if done in your early 20s), but lying is inexcusable.

Once you have some work experience, people stop looking at your degrees. I was actually once told by an employer, "We don't hire people from [the department I graduated from]," ...a full year after I'd been working for them.

Bottom line: do whatever it takes to get solid time at companies with coworkers who'll vouch for your quality. That is the bedrock of your resume: bachelor degrees are just placeholders until you have that.

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