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I Got Catfished by a Candidate

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Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#131
post #92
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's no code. If they say they were great, they were possibly great. There are so many reasons for a terse confirmation of employment. Foremost would be that you're talking to HR and they're following a fixed process. A process that exists for a reason: Even a positive review with good intentions could be framed as injurious to the candidate's prospects.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#132

Does being a catfish really matter if they passed the rest of the interview process?

It's a sign of massive disrespect. Do you want a close relationship with someone who doesn't respect you?

I don't know a potential employer. Why would I respect them to start? I have expectations, they have expectations and we try to meet in the middle. That's society.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#133
post #86

sigh > 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…

In California at least, looking at an applicant's social profile can reveal information the company is not allowed to ask for or use in the hiring decision. LinkedIn wouldn't qualify since it's a public resume, but checking out an applicant's Facebook page or Instragram would likely give rise to actionable legal claims if the applicant is rejected. This doesn't mean you'd lose, but you'd pay out a chunk of money to d…

LinkedIn isn't public. It is inaccessible to people like me who haven't accepted the LinkedIn Terms of Service. The formerly porous auth wall has recently been made tighter.

I wonder how this affects whatever California law you were referencing? (Honest question. I have no idea as to the answer.)

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#135

Out of all of the possible people to choose as your fake manager, this person chose one out of the two people that I knew from Acme Corp Someone who I had interviewed and who turned out to be a terrible employee (we fired him after 9 months of trying to find something he could do right) listed me as a reference on his resume. Problem for him was that the hiring manager at the next place where he applied turned out to…

Well I mean, friend or no, you wouldn't have exactly been able to provide a glowing review. Of course, you can be slightly more candid with a friend.

Or did the candidate provide fake contact info for 'you' ?

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#136

> However, I am glad that I caught it early before we hired him. If we had hired him, tough to say what could have happened. Maybe he would have been great and our best performing AE. Maybe he wouldn’t have even known how to log into Salesforce. When you make it to the top by lying, you're considered a winner: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-goldman-gary-cohn-got-to-... > "I lied to him all the way to the airport,…

Everyone lies, because the interviewing process itself is a fucking joke, ESPECIALLY in the Bay Area.

If the person can answer all my questions and they have a good attitude, I honestly don't give a shit what got them to that point.

If someone doesn't work out, you can fire them. Yes it's "exhausting", maybe if it's so difficult to manage or run a business you should find a different role for yourself.

I really enjoy hiring personally. I treat it like a two way street instead of "I'm the big boss man with all the power". I remember how I was recruited out of college, I show that same interest in the employee as I want them to show in their career (note, not my company, I'm 100% okay with someone just coming in and doing a good job, not being in fucking love with my product, industry or anything else all these bullshit companies seem to offer).

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#137

Maybe the author should evaluate _why_ they got catfished. Recruiting processes are so convoluted and hard to break through, that someone who apparently otherwise would have been a great candidate, had to lie to get an interview. Was a good candidate really only one that had worked at the managers previous employer? How many great candidates are companies missing out on because of arbitrary filters?

>someone who apparently otherwise would have been a great candidate Dishonesty is an intolerable trait. This person clearly wasn't a great candidate. Lying at work is just about the only thing I'll always fire somebody for.

So you've never lied at work?

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#138

Maybe the author should evaluate _why_ they got catfished. Recruiting processes are so convoluted and hard to break through, that someone who apparently otherwise would have been a great candidate, had to lie to get an interview. Was a good candidate really only one that had worked at the managers previous employer? How many great candidates are companies missing out on because of arbitrary filters?

>someone who apparently otherwise would have been a great candidate Dishonesty is an intolerable trait. This person clearly wasn't a great candidate. Lying at work is just about the only thing I'll always fire somebody for.

Everyone is lying at work to some degree. That's what office politics is all about, even though it is not straight lying.

How many times did my managers not "lie" to me by telling me that it is impossible for the company to give a raise or anything as a policy right now, while my colleague gets one one week later (sharing salary information is beautiful!)

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#140

Does being a catfish really matter if they passed the rest of the interview process?

It's a sign of massive disrespect. Do you want a close relationship with someone who doesn't respect you?

Do you think management at this company respects their employees? Or maybe they refer to them as "resources", treat them as disposable, fungible, commodities, and deserve no more respect in turn?

Not saying that is the case, but the question deserves asking. Respect is a two way street.

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