I Said I Had a Master's Degree on My Resume Four Years Ago. I Just Got Promoted to VP.

Four years ago I applied for a mid-level analyst position at a logistics company. I have a bachelor's degree from a state school, which is completely fine for that job. But I panicked during the application because the posting said 'Master's preferred' and I was desperate. I'd been unemployed for seven months. I just typed it. I put 'M.S., Operations Management, State University' right under my bachelor's and submitted it and told myself I'd probably never hear back anyway.

They called me two days later.

The interview with HR lasted maybe twenty minutes. The woman, Dana, never once mentioned the degree. Neither did the hiring manager, Phil. I got the offer on a Friday. I accepted it the same day. I kept waiting for a background check to surface it and blow everything up. There was a background check. It checked criminal history and employment dates. It did not verify education. I found this out after I'd already stress-eaten an entire sleeve of crackers over three days waiting for an email that never came.

So I started the job. Analyst. Totally fine. I was good at it. Within eight months Phil told me I was the strongest person on his team and asked what my goals were. I said I wanted to grow into a senior role. He said, quote, "With your background, I don't see why that wouldn't happen."

I smiled and said thank you.

The promotion to Senior Analyst happened fourteen months in. Nobody asked about the degree again. It just lived on my employee profile in the HR system, quietly, like a carbon monoxide leak.

Here's where it actually gets bad though. Two years in, the company started a leadership development program. My manager at the time, a woman named Reese, nominated me. Part of the application was an internal form where you list your credentials. I stared at that form for a long time. And then I filled it in exactly the same way I had on my original resume because what was I supposed to do, correct it? Tell Reese, hey so actually I've been lying to everyone including you for two years? I couldn't. I just couldn't. So I hit submit.

I got into the program.

During one of the sessions another participant, a guy named Marcus who actually has an MBA, made a joke about thesis hell and looked at me and said "you know what I'm talking about" and I laughed and said "god, don't remind me" and then went to the bathroom and sat in a stall for four minutes.

Three weeks ago I was told I was being considered for VP of Operations. I'm thirty-one. This is a real job with a real salary that made me cry in my car. I told my mom. She cried too. She told her friends. I am so proud of you, she said. You worked so hard.

I felt like an absolute fraud but I also wanted this so badly I couldn't think straight.

They offered it to me Monday. I accepted Monday.

This morning HR sent a company-wide announcement. It included a short bio. "[My name] holds a bachelor's and master's degree from State University and brings over four years of operational expertise..."

My co-worker Jamie forwarded it to me with a thumbs up emoji. My actual college roommate, who knows exactly what degrees I have, works in a different department at this company. She's been here since last spring. I forgot. I completely forgot she was here when I read that announcement and then I remembered and I had to put my phone face down on my desk and breathe through my nose for a minute.

She texted me twenty minutes later. It just said: "Master's degree?"

I typed and deleted six different responses. I finally sent: "Can we talk later?"

She said: "Yeah. We definitely can."

I don't know what she's going to do. Kelsey is a good person. She's also someone who actually finished a graduate program while working full time and I know what that cost her because I watched it happen. I don't think she's going to blow this up. But I also don't know that. I've spent four years not knowing that about a lot of things and just continuing anyway like if I kept performing well enough the original lie would eventually become irrelevant.

It did not become irrelevant. It became a VP bio on the company intranet.

I don't have a clean ending to this. I haven't talked to Kelsey yet. That's happening in two hours. I have no idea if I'm going to tell the truth or keep lying or some middle option I haven't thought of yet. What I do know is that I'm genuinely good at this job. I know that doesn't make any of it okay. I just needed to put that somewhere.

If you're in HR and you're reading this: please verify education credentials. Please. Do it for people like me who apparently cannot be trusted to not torpedo our own lives one panicked checkbox at a time.