Is it embarrassing to be an accountant?

What’s your CV like? Now I’m not talking about what you’ve actually done. No, I’m talking about a more basic issue here.

Namely, is it factually correct?

We’ve all stretched the truth a little bit on our CV’s (or to put a more positive spin on it, we all tend to emphasise our strong points).

If you’re the CEO of the powerhouse that is Yahoo, what do you think your CV looks like?

According to Yahoo investor Dan Loeb there is a pretty major error in the CV of Scott Thompson, Yahoo’s CEO.

Mr Loeb pointed out that Mr Thompson’s official company biography and the filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission noted that he held degrees in both accounting and computer science.

After a pretty “rudimentary Google search” Mr Loeb pointed out that the computer science degree was pure fiction and Yahoo’s CEO did not in fact have a computer science degree.

As at the time of writing this blog entry, Mr Thompson has apologised for the false CV but has not made any explanation as to why he lied. He also still has his job as CEO of Yahoo.

This raises some interesting questions.

For example, was it just a simple case of him being embarrassed that he held an accounting degree and the only reason he said he had a computer science degree was to hide this embarrassment?

Perhaps a more serious question to ask though is whether an individual who has lied on his CV is suitable to lead such a prestigious quoted company such as Yahoo?

It’s not clear at this stage whether Mr Thompson will retain his job as CEO of Yahoo. My view though is that even if he loses his job his up to date CV will say that he left Yahoo as he had “grown out of the position and wanted new challenges”…