Lying on your resume isn’t a new tactic to land a competitive job — in fact, a December 2022 survey by StandOutCV found that more than 55% of Americans lied on their resumes at least once and a January 2023 survey But lied. The most common lies about education history were found by ResumeBuilder.
But a TikToker is going viral after revealing a novel way candidates can pull the truth when looking for a job.
In a video that has been viewed over 1.4 million times, Alex Perlman tells a story about how the former electronics chain Circuit City went out of business during the 2008 recession. During this time, many of his friends were either out of work or had major gaps in their resumes. So instead of looking for entry-level positions, her friends had a better idea.
@Pearlmania500 Honestly going to Circuit City was a net positive for all my friends’ income. #circuitcity #grift #recession #elonmusk #twitter #pearlmania500 #itsgettingworse #resume #2009 ♬ original sound – Alex Pearlman
“So what did they do? They all got together and they started covering each other’s resumes that each of them had held at Circuit City in different positions,” he explained. “Did he ever really work there? No. Was he a busboy for the last five years? Yes. But now on paper he was the floor manager at Circuit City. Boom… Nobody could prove otherwise, calling There was no human resources department, and there was nothing you could do to corroborate this information,” he said.
Pearlman then theorized that other companies that have either been dissolved—or have disbanded their human resources departments—could be used in much the same way as his friends used Circuit City.
Enter Twitter.
“It’s time for all of us to be ex-employees at Twitter,” Perlman told the audience. “Don’t like your job? You’re not doing that job. You worked for Twitter for four years, you were the director of ad sales. They’ll never really respond to any request for verification because even Even Twitter doesn’t know who works there anymore.”
Perlman cited the example of disgraced Twitter employee Haraldur “Halli” Þorleifsson, who accused Musk of firing him because of his incompetence. Perlman explained that Orlefson had to tweet publicly at Musk to confirm or deny that he was fired because there was no way to contact the human resources department.
Some comments were loving Perlman’s idea.
One user said, “I mean, with the massive attrition of all levels on Twitter, no one would think twice as to why there is a massive influx of ex-Twitter job seekers out there.”
“As someone who actually worked at Circuit City until the very end, I definitely have a higher position on my resume than I actually held,” acknowledged another.
But others were wary.
Another warned, “Don’t do this if you apply for a large company because they can do a background check and look at your taxes.”
“Just make sure your age ranges match. Beware of closed businesses with open parent companies,” agreed another.
Neither Musk nor Twitter has commented on Perlman’s video.