Professions, allegedly, where you can spoof your credentials

Tonight, RTÉ investigates explores the phenomenon of bogus psychologists who, according to Adam Harris, can merely put up a brass plaque and declare self as a psychologist .

This is the current example under scrutiny. A very serious example. How many other bogus “professionals” are there out there? I can think of the phenomenon of Nutritionists.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Depends on how good you are at the job in question. Fake qualifications are probably easy. but once you're on the job, you'll be found out pretty quickly if you don't know what you're doing.

In answer to your question, though: probably finance.

Hungry Burger

Pest Control is a good one.

Leg End Reject

Life coaches and fitness instructors.

billyhead

Instagrammers.

T-Maxx

My boss. Spoofer extraordinaire.

pgj2015

web designers.

kirk.

Painter Decorators

Gorteen

Counsellor

Security Advisor

Management Consultant

Human Resource Specialist

Fitness Instructor

Politician

Gusser09

HR

For all their talk and diplomas they never seem to walk the walk.

"We'd prefer if you'd sort that out at a local level"

HeidiHeidi

Physical therapists

Ubbquittious

Psychology is hard to get into. There is actually a special council that meets in Dublin twice a year to decide which foreign psychologists are eligible to have their qualifications recognised here. It's a long and painful process to get in

Also if you study psychology in Ireland you have to do a certain amount of volunteer work for Brothers of Charity or similar organisation "for your sins" before you can get an actual job

Xander10

TV & radio presenter

A job in RTE. Any idiot could do it and get overpaid. Nepotism helps.

I'm awaiting the Prime Time investigates special on it.

Weatherman. Any gobshite these days, just be able to maybe do a song or dance.

callaway92

‘Performance Coach’ in sports

Basically watch a match and give your thoughts on it

Mrs OBumble

Art therapist.

Music therapist.

Reflexologist.

Homeopath.

Chiropracter

brokenbad

The GAA is full of them - especially the bloated backroom teams of Inter County GAA...

"Performance Analyst/ Consultant"

"High Performance Director"

"Team Liaison Officer"

"Statistics Analyst"

In other areas.....

"Lifestyle & Wellness Coach"

"Social Media Manager"

"Influencer"

"Security Consultant"

"Psychotherapist"

TagoMago

Marketing - as long as you've your encyclopaedia of buzzwords and acronyms learned, and can talk the most shite on Zoom calls you'll be earning a fortune in no time 😎

Donald Trump

US President

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323397#Comment_120323397

That is only if you want to work in the public services. You can call yourself a psychologist and work privately with no oversight or qualifications required.

People are mixing up woo-woo wellness stuff with jobs that you have to have a qualification in, nobody is becoming director of HR without a degree in HR and possibly a master's.

Do people have no responsibilities themselves for checking qualifications of anyone they consult?

monseiur

Dietitians without doubt (They should carry a government health warning😊)

Heard one on the radio recently and she was spoofing it big time. She recommended that we all should drink a minimum of 10 litres of water a day. She was called out on this by a medical doctor who spoke so much common sense - he basically said that 10 L. is way too much for a human, OK perhaps for a cow or horse ! that it would overload the kidneys and could cause serious long term damage. Drink water when thirsty not because some self appointed expert tells you to force yourself to do drink ! There is no minimum or maximum as no two people are the same or have the same metabolism etc.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324024#Comment_120324024

that is often easier said than done.

Wibbs

I've known a couple of psychologists who've put in the grind and have the qualifications who were rightly pissed off that any muppet with enough woo and a neck as hard as a jockey's bollocks can set up shop and claim they're a "counsellor". Never mind the inherent dangers of that to people they're "treating".

Same for actually qualified dietitians and so called "nutritionists" going around telling people they're [insert fashionable foodstuff here] intolerant.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324019#Comment_120324019

Wrong.

In plenty of smaller companies,the finance manager is also the HR manager. No prizes for guessing what they're qualified in.

Leg End Reject

Interior designer

Xander10

Wedding Planner

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323884#Comment_120323884

In regard to the analysis titled you’ve mentioned above - why do you think these roles are spoof roles?

A performance analyst is an entry level job anyway. Even at that, the title of ‘analyst’ is generally incorrect in GAA. It’s usually somebody that does data coding rather than analysis itself.

It’s not like some wizard is needed for them

PopePalpatine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323884#Comment_120323884

I wonder how many of those GAA middle manager/consultant types got in through nepotism, you can't spoof that. Same with politicians.

Wanderer78

i was made aware of this woman a long time ago, some have been well known about for years.....

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0306/1360656-psychologist-bogus-long-read/

Oscar_Madison

Carpenter, plumber, building contractor, roof specialist, , - these are all sought after skills but in reality do we really know the skills and qualifications of the people we employ to maintain and redevelop our homes?

I guess that’s why these “professions” rely on word of mouth and who you know- we know not to do electrical work or gas work ourselves and only with a registered contractor but after that, you could be paying a complete imbecile and many a time you are.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324517#Comment_120324517

Seriously dodgy woman.

Site still up....twitter gone private...Facebook no comments allowed.

http://carolinewardgoldsmith.com/

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324593#Comment_120324593

yea apparently shes been at it for years, i was warned by a therapist a couple of years ago, that profession really is the wild west, and most people/families are in a desperate state when it comes to such services....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324345#Comment_120324345

Odd and very strong reaction to a post, Im talking about HR as a profession, any one can call themselves anything they want but there is a vast difference between having a degree/professional qualification in an area verses deciding to say you are something. I have a degree that in my opinion was 50% waffle however the other 50% was not.

kirk.

Seems to me like most of the biggest spoofers don't need any qualifications outside of paying registration and membership to join a "club"

Thinking of auctioneers and estate agents and the like

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324998#Comment_120324998

an enormous amount of fraud is committed within the fire sectors....

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325064#Comment_120325064

Expand on that ?

I'm familiar with some of the nonsense from my work experience namely the issuing of "Fire Certs" but that was a few years back

Gregor Samsa

There's a big difference between not legally needing a specific qualification to do a job (which is most jobs) and lying about having a qualification you don't have to get a job.

The issue around "protected titles" is different again. "Psychologist" should definitely be one.

Hard to know exactly what this thread is about.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325077#Comment_120325077

fire is an acronym used in the economics profession, it stands for Finance, Insurance and Real Estate(fire), theres an enormous amount of evidence to support widescale fraud in these professions in general, of course not all employees engage in such behaviors, but these sectors seem to be very susceptible to such, then you add other complex human behavioral patterns such as 'Gresham's dynamics', and before you know it, the whole sector is behaving as such, tis complex stuff, but interesting none the less....

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325141#Comment_120325141

My bad 😁

tastyt

Definitely personal trainers , some absolute spoofers out there

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325126#Comment_120325126

Its one of those mixed bag threads

Posters hating or answering the question or wondering what the question is

Nermal

Most of the non-trivial results of psychological research are not replicable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

Spoofed and 'real' credentials in psychology are of equivalent value.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324998#Comment_120324998

auctioneers and estate agents require a licence to practice as such.

brokenbad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324571#Comment_120324571

Good point - the Celtic Tiger was the catalyst for a lot of cowboys and so called "handymen" to jump on the bandwagon.

I personally know a few individuals who never served their time in a trade and wouldn't know one end of a trowel or handsaw from the other - and yet were hired by contractors on large developments during that era.

No wonder there is such shoddy workmanship in housing estates built during the boom....

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324611#Comment_120324611

I haven't seen the programme yet, will catch it later but yeah therapy is a big one. It's a disgrace. People are coming at their most vulnerable. It's not regulated at all.

brokenbad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324454#Comment_120324454

Just look at the shenanigans up in Donegal GAA Academy - apparently a not unreasonable question was asked regarding job description and was met with a mass resignation of Academy staff.....

brokenbad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324998#Comment_120324998

Throw in Solicitors into the mix there also and you have a good old boys network going on......

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325202#Comment_120325202

Not everyone knows how to exercise correctly. If you have been involved in sports teams etc. since you were small then you probably take the basics for granted. When I went abroad though I met people who had never really done any kind of organised sport or exercise until their mid-late 20's and they just didn't know where to start.

tastyt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120325425#Comment_120325425

I agree and a good personal trainer is a huge help to people and worth the money

Problem is guys / girls doing a few weeks cert and promoting themselves on Insta etc as experienced professionals. Easy to fool people if they are young and attractive too

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120324019#Comment_120324019

I heard a rumour once that there was someone who was working in HR somewhere who wasn't an absolute thundering cunt.

Not sure whether it was one of those urban legend things though.