A viral Reddit post led to a lively conversation this week after one user admitted he faked a college degree on his resume, and said the lie changed his life. In a now-deleted post on r/TrueOffMyChest, u/FlamingoCreepy1884 confessed he added a fictional bachelor’s degree out of desperation. Four years later, he says he’s thriving at the job, has been promoted twice, and manages a team. And although he lives with “constant anxiety that it will all come crashing down,” he doesn’t regret it.
Reddit users commenting on the thread debated the role of degrees in the workplace and the ethics of lying on your resume ("at this point—who cares"). Many shared advice for diffusing the anxiety OP described. But the high EQ Reddit users of the sometimes sensitive TrueOffMyChest sub might save their breath—a comment with nearly 500 upvotes said the post was AI-generated.
“You can add “expert at faking Reddit posts with Chat GPT” to your resume too!”
Commenters debated whether it is unethical to lie on your resume
The original post from June 16 has been removed from Reddit, but it was shared a day later by @BoringBiz_ on X where it has 1.2 million views.
The text reads:
“I lied about my resume and it changed my life. I was jobless, depressed, and running out of time. One night out of pure desperation, I added a fake degree. Just a little stretch. A bachelor’s from a local university I never finished. They hired me. That was four years ago. I worked my a** off. I’ve been promoted twice. I manage a team now.
Nobody’s ever questioned it. And honestly? I don’t think I could’ve gotten this job otherwise. I had the skills, I just didn't have the paper to prove it. I live with this constant anxiety that it’ll all come crashing down. But I also know that I was always capable. I just needed someone to believe in me. So yeah. I lied. But I became the person I was pretending to be. And I don’t regret it. Not one bit.”
@BoringBiz_ quoted the post, and added, “You can just do things.” The account’s business and management-minded followers responded to the story without questioning its integrity.
“Most companies do a background check so this will work very few times.”
“Integrity is a valuable asset that now many possess.”
“It’s sad that people without a degree who’d have the skills don’t even get the chance to prove themselves. Most of the time I can imagine getting filtered out right off the bat because of the lack of a degree.”
Dead internet theory: "It's bots all the way down"
While some advised FlamingoCreepy1884 to apply for a new job with an accurate resume that details his experience, hard work, and success, without a bogus bachelor’s degree listed—others had a different bit of advice for FlamingoCreepy1884: “You could also not write this obviously fake story with AI.”
Reddit users accused the post of being AI-generated. Many shared comments that echoed this sentiment and said the r/TrueOffMyChest sub has been a target for AI-generated posts masquerading as personal stories.
“Finally someone else recognized too, dead internet theory is becoming so real it's scary.”
Dead Internet Theory is a concept that describes an internet increasingly generated and manipulated by bots and algorithms that is no longer shaped by human interaction and creativity.
Bot or not, here’s one more hot take on the situation worth mentioning:
@the_UrbanWolf likened the situation to “immigrants coming to USA without papers,” and went on to say, “I am reinforcing the need to sometimes break rules with another. If laws/ practices are unjust, you need to fight them peacefully.”
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