The MIT Incident

Yesterday I came across the story about the Dean of Admissions at MIT being fired for lying about her credentials. Ms. Marilee Jones apparently listed several advanced degrees on her resume when in fact she never graduated from any of the schools mentioned. In fact, she didn't finish her undergraduate education either. What struck me the most about the article was that from all appearances, she was an excellent employee with a great track record. She worked for MIT since 1979 and was appointed Dean almost ten years ago in January 1998. In this case while Ms. Jones lied, I don't believe she should have been fired. I went back and researched the announcement of her promotion. In it, the school official stated, ""The Dean of Admissions is a key position at MIT. Marilee Jones has been chosen for this position after a long, sometimes arduous and extremely thorough national search by a distinguished and hard-working search committee....She has worked hard at developing her staff and is well known as a fine supervisor who emphasizes team-building. On the road, she can reach audiences as few others can, serving as a superb spokesperson for MIT from coast to coast. I am delighted she will be part of the leadership team.." She had been working at the school since 1979 in various admissions roles. The ironic thing is that she worked very hard to ensure that women and minorities could get a better shot at getting into this prestigious school. She beat out PhD's and other highly qualified candidates and actually did what she was hired to do. And all for what? Mysteriously, somebody (anonymous of course) turned over her background information recently and this is what prompted the firing. Only someone really jealous of her would do that...and it probably was somebody really close to her. It always is that way. I use to send out what I called my "DD" version of a resume...the dummy down version. I did this because when I actually list my true chronological, factual information I usually get the same response...you are overqualified for the job. In other words...something about my skill sets and manner would make the boss feel threatened about their job status. While on my DD version (or any version for that matter) I have never lied, on that particular resume I would simply leave out large areas of important responsibilities that I had to do. If I was responsible for a multi-million dollar NBC feed, I simply would put down that I "handled several client satellite feeds". I stopped sending out my DD version two years ago because I thought about it and know that I shouldn't be ashamed that I actually have experience and like to learn from those willing to teach. Not everybody shares this philosophy. Oops...my ride is here. I have to go. Will revisit tomorrow to finish the thought.