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Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

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Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#91

Post by wisty »

sliverstorm wrote: post #40
tomkarlo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, the head of admissions at MIT: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-26-mit-admiss... No question she was good at her job, but it's a real problem when you're in charge of any kind of hiring to ask your applicants to be honest if you're not honest yourself.

Maybe it isn't a problem, but actually something that makes her good at her job? I'd trust a long-time liar to recognize other liars better than an honest person, any day.

People always make this mistake. "Sure, she's a snake, but she'll be our snake". Yeah, right.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#92

Post by TDL »

btian wrote: post #28
fear91 wrote: post #16

Jobs didn't need a college degree to be a good CEO. In my opinion, college degree is not neccessary to be a competent CEO. Leaders are praised for different qualities than those which can be simply taught in a school.

I agree, but honesty is necessary to be a competent CEO, especially honesty to government authority that can close the company down.

It is highly unlikely that the SEC would be able to come anywhere near shutting down YHOO. The CEO could come under criminal prosecution & most certainly would be sued (but most likely settled) by the SEC.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#93

Post by eli_gottlieb »

maeon3 wrote: post #23

His pay package for yahoo is 27 million dollars, i wonder how much of that he will keep after he gets the pink slip? Probably more than I'll ever earn in 5 of my lifetimes. It doesn't seem fair. But I guess demand for ceo's is high and quality ceo's are scarce.

Quality CEO's my ass. Salaries for CEOs are high because they work like the mob's "cleaners" a lot of the time, and because they come from an exclusive club who all hire each other.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#94

Post by TDL »

klbarry wrote: post #9

This opinion is from someone who's been in charge of hiring a few times and will likely do so again: If you can actually do the job described, I don't give a damn about your credentials. I would not fire an employee who I found out fabricated credentials, if they had been working well for a while.

This is a good thread as any to use Buffett's quote on the type of people he looks to hire: "Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy."

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#95

Post by j2labs »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #87
fleitz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It "gave us confidence," says Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson, former commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, who increased purchases of Lotus Notes after meeting Papows. "Jeff was a Phantom driver just like me."" This is exactly why people lie, because it doesn't matter how well your software works, what matters is that the people buying it feel like you're on the same team. Whether the CEO is a fighter pilot or not s…

Another thing too: what does it matter if you lie about the degree if /you can do the work/ ? Sure, it's unethical and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to lie outright about stuff like that to potential employers / boards, but again, if you come out and say "hey, I lied about this, but judge me on my output and not on my credentials"...that's gotta be worth something. That said, Yahoo isn't doing great, and I'm sure peop…

While abilities are important, being able to trust someone is almost certainly more important.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#96

Post by fleitz »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #87
fleitz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It "gave us confidence," says Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson, former commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, who increased purchases of Lotus Notes after meeting Papows. "Jeff was a Phantom driver just like me."" This is exactly why people lie, because it doesn't matter how well your software works, what matters is that the people buying it feel like you're on the same team. Whether the CEO is a fighter pilot or not s…

Another thing too: what does it matter if you lie about the degree if /you can do the work/ ? Sure, it's unethical and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to lie outright about stuff like that to potential employers / boards, but again, if you come out and say "hey, I lied about this, but judge me on my output and not on my credentials"...that's gotta be worth something. That said, Yahoo isn't doing great, and I'm sure peop…

Yes, that's quintessentially the problem, Yahoo is looking for legitimacy while the company fails.

Our system of governance places a huge value on these sorts of papers as it self fulfils the prophecy that the governance tells us. Our leaders cling to legitimacy by pieces of papers to excuse the poor results.

I mean if the guy who could name all the shadows on the cave couldn't run the company, then obviously the crazy guy who keeps talking about the sun should never be allowed to run it, especially since he lied about being able name all the shadows. Let's put him in jail and find someone who really can name all the shadows and prove once and for all that naming the shadows is really really important.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#98

Post by ShabbyDoo »

smoody wrote: post #25

Sort-of off topic: That guy has nothing on some of the other infamous CEO career lies... take the ex-CEO of Lotus (former makers of 123, Lotus Notes, etc). He lied about being a fighter pilot, having a PhD, and being a black belt in tae kwon do. source: http://www.zdnet.com/news/background-of-lotus-chief-under-fi... I think people get to a point where they start to believe their made-up mythology. Or perhaps they rea…

Yeah. This is an uninteresting lie relative to the more grandiose ones told by other executives. He added "and Computer Science" but accurately stated the level of his degree and institution. Any evidence that he has added "and Computer Science" in the past? Perhaps this is just sloppiness on the part of whomever prepared the SEC filings? And, the CEO, busy with trying to right the ship, just signed off with only a brief review? Given that I've never heard of the college and that he actually obtained a bachelor's degree, it doesn't seem like a very interesting lie.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#99

Post by MartinCron »

jrockway wrote: post #34
MartinCron wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying on your resume should get you fired. Lying on SEC filings should get you imprisoned.

Lying on SEC filings should get you imprisoned. This costs me a lot of money, and I don't want to give free money to people just because they are dishonest. Ban the guy from being the CEO or a board member of a publicly traded company for 10 years. Inexpensive and an appropriate punishment for the crime. Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society.

Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society

Are you really making the case that no white-collar criminals should go to prison? I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I personally think that we need more financial fraudsters behind bars. You know, the whole "rule of law" and "deterrence" business.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#100

Post by lanstein »

dpark wrote: post #17
klbarry wrote: post #9

This opinion is from someone who's been in charge of hiring a few times and will likely do so again: If you can actually do the job described, I don't give a damn about your credentials. I would not fire an employee who I found out fabricated credentials, if they had been working well for a while.

> I would not fire an employee who I found out fabricated credentials What company do you work for? I'd like to steer clear of it in the future. It's one thing to say "I don't care about credentials". It's another thing entirely to say "I don't care about dishonesty".

Check profile. Would not worry about that happening.
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