Nowayto­makealiv­ing is col­lect­ively intrigued by today’s appoint­ment of Iain Duncan Smith as Work and Pen­sions Sec­ret­ary in the bodge-job coali­tion which now runs Bri­tain. Formerly leader of the Con­ser­vat­ive party, and some­time nov­el­ist (his book, The Devil’s Tune is cur­rently 212,689 on Amazon best­seller list), the ‘quiet man’ is a pro­voc­at­ive choice for the con­cerned employer.



After all, he’s the man who faked his CV, lay­ing claim to hav­ing stud­ied at the Uni­ver­sity of Per­u­gia, when really he’d atten­ded the (fab­ulously named) ‘Uni­versita per Stranieri’, a lan­guage school. He also did a few in-house nightschool courses at GEC Mar­coni, though these were spun as hav­ing atten­ded “Dunchurch Col­lege of Man­age­ment” on his CV. Is this legit­im­ate cre­ativ­ity to pro­duce dis­tinc­tion in an over­crowded labour market?

Although in Bril­liant CV by Bright and Earl, poten­tial employ­ees are reminded that “lying about any aspect of your life dur­ing recruit­ment can be grounds for dis­missal if uncovered” (2001: 246), it’s pos­sible that under the new Duncan Smith regime there’ll be more scope for poten­tial recruits to cre­at­ively embel­lish their job applic­a­tions. After all, if the man at the top can do it…

Ref­er­ences

Bright, J. And Earl, J. (2001) Bril­liant CV: What Employ­ers Want to See and How to Say it. Pren­tice Hall.