The author is missing the most obvious rule that they should have taken away from their experience: don't use the number and email provided by the candidate. Jim's email or number is probably readily available on the company website or by calling up the front desk at the company.
I Got Catfished by a Candidate
91–100 of 662 posts
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#92The place I'm at now forbids employees from being references for past employees (or current employees discreetly seeking other employment). Is this normal? It would have prevented "Jim" or anyone else at ACME Corp from being a reference to catfish-er, so requests for a reference from the company would have been denied right off the bat. That would have made it harder to spot the fake.
I think this is standard procedure for many US companies; the employee (e.g. your manager) can't give professional references on behalf of the company, mostly because there is nothing for the company to gain. In fact it's loose-loose: You get the job, they loose an employee; you don't get the job, the company could become liable for all kinds of things (libel, lost earnings etc.) However there is nothing stopping a p…
Yes, it's mainly a legal/libel issue. The code is if they just verify someone worked there, it's usually bad (without saying they were bad). If they say they were great, they were great.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
This doesn't hold up. Unless a candidate is single-mindedly targeting the author's company -- like, they get rejected and come back with a fake resume -- then they decided to fake a resume before talking to the author. The author can't fix the societal experience the candidate has been having, and you have no sign that they filtered unfairly. I am sympathetic to candidates who feel they have skills but lack credentia…
I don't know about you, but I couldn't finish the article. From the beginning, something irked me and it didn't feel like the author is completely innocent here. One thing that irked me a little is seeing the candidate worked at her previous company made her instantly like him. Once I got to the unnecessary admission the manager uses what even they consider as "unkosher" tactics to learn about the background of poten…
There is nothing wrong with considering a shared previous employer a "plus"; the hiring manager knows the employer so if a candidate was good enough for them, there's some reason to think they're good enough for you. If the work environments are similar it could also mean getting them up to speed more quickly.
There's nothing wrong with asking the opinions of people other than those a candidate directs you to. With both the references and the others, you need to understand what experience they're speaking from and what their motivations might be for telling you what they do. Anything that seems like gossip (not the speaker's direct experience) should be treated with suspicion, either ignored or backed up by corroboration from others who can speak independently; discussing it with the candidate themselves may be important. I'm more concerned about hearing only good things from official references or not.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#94I was hoping to find out from the story why this catfish lied in the first place. If they passed the interview so well they must be someway good.
In the tech world I would imagine a scenario where you don't have any professional experience in language X, you've been working only in language Y, but you've done some personal projects in language X and would like a career shift. It's hard to get a senior position without any experience.
Just do a project in language X on a professional, senior level and if you incorporate, you can write you worked for that company on that project.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#95sigh > Rule #2: Take a long hard look at a candidate’s social profiles. Is not having a LinkedIn account going to come back to bite me, even when applying for dev roles? I've had even senior devs at popular local dev shops say LinkedIn is a "necessary evil" because it: 1. is easy to grep 2. you can find whether a candidate has similar connections to you 3. recommendations I get New Zealand is small and the social gra…
> Is not having a LinkedIn account going to come back to bite me,
In SF bay area, no. Of course hiring is local so YMMV.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#96I know a person who has faked a position on resume to get around the whole you need experience to get hired and to get experience you need to get hired thing in marketing field and now he is super successful C level exec in Fortune 50 company so go figure.
There is a very thin line between "hustling" and outright fraud. The same behavior can result in a good career or jail time depending on luck and ability.
it all depends whether you roll a 1 or a 20, am I right? ;)
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#97The thing about checking social profiles for number of connections etc is strange to me, although maybe it makes sense in the sales world. I have a LinkedIn but rarely log into it, most LinkedIn emails get filed into spam. Missing good opportunities? Maybe. I dunno, it's just never been my thing. I hope recruiters, at least for developer roles don't use LinkedIn profiles and connection count as some sort of metric in…
I deleted my LinkedIn over a year ago and haven't looked back. It might be handy for sales folks but as a developer it's a cesspool of spammy content and dark patterns.
Yeah, I get the "opportunity of a lifetime" about once a week, maybe once every two weeks.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#98sigh > Rule #2: Take a long hard look at a candidate’s social profiles. Is not having a LinkedIn account going to come back to bite me, even when applying for dev roles? I've had even senior devs at popular local dev shops say LinkedIn is a "necessary evil" because it: 1. is easy to grep 2. you can find whether a candidate has similar connections to you 3. recommendations I get New Zealand is small and the social gra…
You know what? I’d rather die broke on the streets than work for dipshits who care about social media profiles.
Oh! I didn’t blog enough for you? My Facebook vacation pictures aren’t sunny enough? My user profile photo doesn’t smile quite so bright, so as to satisfy your insipid whims?
How about pay me the money I’ll need for the next 18 months, so I can save up enough money, in order to pad all this bullshit fluff walled garden nonsense, to make hiring managers feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never heard of anybody doing this. Sounds pretty messed up to me.
This was the policy when I worked at Rackspace circa 2001-2004, they would only confirm employment. In the bay area, I often can't even confirm employment because the company has gone out of business, my manager was fired after I voluntarily left, etc... Literally everything about this story raises the hairs on the back of my neck except for giving false contact info for a manager the recruiter knew by name - esp the…
There are companies that exist solely to verify employment history, i.e., if you leave Company X, Company Y will confirm your time of employment, titles, etc. to new employer Company Z.
Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate
#100The place I'm at now forbids employees from being references for past employees (or current employees discreetly seeking other employment). Is this normal? It would have prevented "Jim" or anyone else at ACME Corp from being a reference to catfish-er, so requests for a reference from the company would have been denied right off the bat. That would have made it harder to spot the fake.
For professional references, it's not unusual. The company needs to protect itself against what an employee might say when representing the company.
They cannot forbid a personal reference.