Faking retail sales experience?

[senpaiofthenorth]

I've been consistently trying to land a retail sales job in the cellular phone industry for some time as my friend is doing incredibly well for himself at AT&T as a sales rep, he's currently making over 75k and has purchased a new BMW and lives on his own. He simply started his first job at best buy, eventually got put into the mobile phone sales department, then got hired at at&t after a couple of years.

He's recommended me to apply for one of the major carriers as I have some sales experience, though no retail, but it pales in comparison to what others apparently have as I have rarely been getting callbacks though I did manage to land a interview at at&t but received no offer. I can only assume that my experience is not as competiteve or relevant as other applicants.

At this point I'm looking into "padding," my resume a bit and adding some additional experience that I don't have. From what I've researched so far people seem to have some great success doing this by essentially landing incredibly high paying jobs by lying about their experience. Of course this is inherently risky if you were to be caught somehow but I'm desperate to land a job in this industry and am willing to take that risk. All I've seen regarding what to add for experience to minimize your chances of getting revealed is to include a business that was recently shut down. I looked up all of the businesses that shutdown in 2016 but they were in random states and the retail stores that were in my state, CA, were far in distance from my location.

My question is how can I best go about adding a period of employment that shows that I have retail sales experience without raising any red flags? One of my past jobs was a parcel delivery gig that required 1 year of tractor/trailer driving experience of a vehicle that weighed 10k lbs or more, I didn't have this experience but did have general transportation experience, myself and quite a few of my fellow colleagues simply used a fake reference which worked seamlessly.

What would be the best way to do this?

[D3Boost]

Here in Canada, all retailers and big companies offer training once you get hired. So really it's just about getting hired and then you're good to go because you're going to get all the training you need.

Not sure how it works where you live but yeah, almost everyone uses fake references and it's hard to get caught because you can just use a friend's phone number and ask him to vouch for you if he ever receives a call (most companies won't even bother to call your reference unless it's for some high position).

Although, I don't know if $75,000 is a realistic number for a sales rep in the mobile phone provider industry unless you're extremely competent.

Besides, there are a ton of sales rep positions out there for different companies.

[senpaiofthenorth]

Here in Canada, all retailers and big companies offer training once you get hired. So really it's just about getting hired and then you're good to go because you're going to get all the training you need.

Not sure how it works where you live but yeah, almost everyone uses fake references and it's hard to get caught because you can just use a friend's phone number and ask him to vouch for you if he ever receives a call (most companies won't even bother to call your reference unless it's for some high position).

Although, I don't know if $75,000 is a realistic number for a sales rep in the mobile phone provider industry unless you're extremely competent.

Besides, there are a ton of sales rep positions out there for different companies.

Yeah I feel if I was just able to get hired I'd be completely able and willing to do the job, seems like getting to that point is a challenge if you don't have a resume that stands out against the other person applying next to you.

Fake references seem almost necessary to either qualify for the job or appear more relevant than others, like I mentioned I used it to successfully get a recent job and I performed it well as did many others admittedly.

75k in the mobile sales industry is actually quite standard for top reps, if you don't go the extra mile to make sales you can generally expect to make at least 50k starting out which it the number, the company you work for also has some effect on your salary, at&t is one of the better ones to work for in CA.

I suppose I'm most familiar with the mobile sales industry since my friend works in it and has told me quite a bit about it.

Would you say that I could essentially fake working for any major company, say best buy for example, and have a friend act as a reference for me? You don't think that a major retailer would be able to investigate past the legally obtainable information that a reference is supposed to only provide; date of hire/leave and rate of pay? One of my biggest concerns is that I'm worried about the ramifications of already applying multiple times to these companies, would they already have my current resume and information on file? Even if I signed up with a new account I wonder if they would be able to look back and see my older resume and ask why it suddenly had new experience on it but I guess I could say I forgot to add it?

A friend acting as a reference for you only has to reveal date of hire/leave and pay correct? They would simply refuse to answer any other questions besides identifying themselves and answering those two things?

[D3Boost]

Yeah so the main questions that a company would ask your reference is things such as:

- When did you start working with them?
- When did you leave?
- Why did you leave?
- How would you describe him as an employee?

I don't think faking a reference for a major company is a good idea. Just use any small company. Keep in mind, no company is obliged in any way to comply and provide details to your new employer.

But again, a sales rep doesn't need a PhD, anyone can become a sales rep so I highly doubt they would investigate your references at all.

If you applied online then chances are your application is stored somewhere in their database.

[senpaiofthenorth]

Yeah so the main questions that a company would ask your reference is things such as:

- When did you start working with them?
- When did you leave?
- Why did you leave?
- How would you describe him as an employee?

I don't think faking a reference for a major company is a good idea. Just use any small company. Keep in mind, no company is obliged in any way to comply and provide details to your new employer.

But again, a sales rep doesn't need a PhD, anyone can become a sales rep so I highly doubt they would investigate your references at all.

If you applied online then chances are your application is stored somewhere in their database.

I'm confused on how I can go about finding a appropriate small company to use, would they ideally be out of business or is one still in business okay to use? If they were still in business I can only see them calling the actual business instead of my references number to give me away.

Becoming a sales rep does seem to be almost entry level which is one of the reasons why I've considered it for so long. That plus the higher than average pay have tunnel visioned the role for me.

Now I'm wondering if applying online might have done me in, I can ask my buddy maybe if his company stores such applications.

[DvASystems]

I'm confused on how I can go about finding a appropriate small company to use, would they ideally be out of business or is one still in business okay to use? If they were still in business I can only see them calling the actual business instead of my references number to give me away.

Becoming a sales rep does seem to be almost entry level which is one of the reasons why I've considered it for so long. That plus the higher than average pay have tunnel visioned the role for me.

Now I'm wondering if applying online might have done me in, I can ask my buddy maybe if his company stores such applications.

Several people are putting Blockbuster in their resumes, you can lie out your ass and put any position since they went defunct.

Edit: If you aren't old enough, try putting Game instead. I've heard they are running out of business.

[Sychotix]

That plus the higher than average pay have tunnel visioned the role for me.

I've known a few people that were a "sales rep" that didn't make great money. All depends on how good you are at selling things I guess. There were also tons of quotas that needed to be met... and meeting those quotas could reset in your quotas being increased.

[senpaiofthenorth]

Several people are putting Blockbuster in their resumes, you can lie out your ass and put any position since they went defunct.

Edit: If you aren't old enough, try putting Game instead. I've heard they are running out of business.

I was actually considering using Blockbuster since they were so wide spread and essentially closed all stores, my only concern is listing a store that is relatively close that hasn't been shut down for too many years so the experience looks somewhat recent. Do you mean Gamefly? Iirc they are affiliated with blockbuster? Does blockbuster have any commission based sales? I'm thinking they are mainly just retail sales.

I've known a few people that were a "sales rep" that didn't make great money. All depends on how good you are at selling things I guess. There were also tons of quotas that needed to be met... and meeting those quotas could reset in your quotas being increased.

Your mileage varies greatly by the company, store volume, and your personal hustling. I've heard of reps that work at low volume stores that simply can't make as many sales even though their commission rate is higher, that alone is a huge difference. Other than that I believe the best to worst companies are Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, where only sprint is doing noticeably worse off than the other three. Quotas are certainly a thing that will affect your ability to thrive or just get by, my friend is a natural tech guy who's really approachable and easy to talk to which I feel is why he's doing so well.