Yahoo CEO Apologizes For Fraudulent Resume

Resumes are often most important in landing entry level jobs. As such, a lot of applicants falsely beef up their applications in order to get their feet in the door. At some point while moving up the chain however, it becomes less about what you did in school and more about what you’ve accomplished since. Unfortunately, a lot of those same morons who pad their resumes initially never correct the information. That mistake led to George O’Leary being fired as Notre Dame’s football coach in 2001, and now it could well cost the Yahoo CEO his job too, at least if you believe he did it on purpose.

Scott Thompson was hired by the Internet company in January to help right the ship. On his resume, he claimed degrees in business administration and computer science. He successfully earned the former but not the latter. The discrepancy was discovered by Daniel Loeb, the CEO of Third Point which owns almost six percent of Yahoo. In a letter to the board of directors, he questioned Thompson’s character and ability to lead before demanding his termination. It’s unclear whether that firing will come, but in an effort to move past the controversy, Thompson sent out a memo to all Yahoo employees apologizing for what happened.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, the CEO’s letter didn’t address why the discrepancy may have been on his resume, but it did take responsibility for what happened. More than likely, he’ll have to go in front of the board of directors and explain his actions, but in a perfect world, he probably wouldn’t have to do so publicly as well.

By most accounts, Thompson has really done a wonderful job since taking over earlier this year. Unfortunately, whether he stays on or not, this resume fiasco will likely kill the momentum created, which is the last thing the struggling company needed.