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I Got Catfished by a Candidate

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Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#611

Post by Clubber »

dx034 wrote: post #514
Clubber wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The one test that we gave that most people copied was converting decimal to roman number. I've read some really stupid programming questions, but that has got to be one of the top 5 stupidest. Also, I think you mean to say "integer," as Romans didn't have the concept of "decimal." http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52552.html

Why stupid? As a take-home exercise it doesn't sound too bad. Won't take forever to solve but still requires some understanding of algorithms. Not as easy as FizzBuzz but also nothing you can't solve after work.

1. The candidate must know how roman numerals work to pass. (This was before OP said it was a take home test which makes it a little better, but ...)

2. The question uses the term "decimal," rather than "integer." Roman numerals don't account for decimal numbers, so it's not even an accurately answerable question as posed.

3. When you google Roman Numerals and decimal, the first link tells you this. I assume the writer didn't event attempt to google.

4. The question will filter out candidates who don't know how roman numerals work and / or googled it to research how roman numerals work. Not only are these good candidates filtered out, but now they are telling all their other good candidate friends about that company and their stupid questions.

5. The pool of good candidates that will respond to your opening just temporarily diminished by a few people (depending on friends in #4)

6. For all this, the business didn't even test something that is in any way relevant to what that business does, unless that business is a digital clock face maker for smart watches or something.

If any one of these happened, that's bad. Way more thought and consideration should have gone into this question.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#612

Post by emodendroket »

robbintt wrote: post #376
shepardrtc wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One thing I'd be interested to do is run some sort of duplicate text detecter over my candidate database. You'll probably get a double-digit percentage of hits. I google parts from every resume I receive when I'm hiring for a position. About half have bits and pieces copied from somewhere else.

Don't forget that you're supposed to paste phrases from the job description language into the resume, so every resume should have a very high baseline similarity.

You're not supposed to do that.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#613

Post by ianhawes »

emodendroket wrote: post #529
jmspring wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path to becoming a mason is first by reaching out to your local lodge. The person who responds can help you with the process. Beyond masons, there are the elks, the moose, and in parts of the West Clampers. Each have their lodges, their rituals, and focus. I started the mason path, but life got busy. I’m a Moose member and a Clamper. In all cases, the focus is community. In most cases, and this is what I apprecia…

That sounds like a secular version of a church or something. Am I in the right ballpark?

The proper term is "Third place" [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#614

Post by mrbill »

jacquesm wrote: post #608
mrbill wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rather like this Hale and Pace bit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBnzp4OkDD4

Hehe. Don't screw with the masons (or their daughters).

My last girlfriend's father had been a Mason, and she was heavily involved in the Order of the Eastern Star for a while. It was nice to not have to explain what I did when I went to Lodge, and so forth.. and when she attended our (public) installation of officers ceremony, she knew a bunch of the high-muckety-mucks that were attending :D

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#615

Post by jamiepenney »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #234
jamiepenney wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it handy because most of the time I know some shared connections and I can chat to them about the person (like you said, New Zealand is a small place). I know what you mean, I avoided creating a profile for the longest time, especially because they were doing a lot of shady stuff around sending emails to all your contacts. However I find it to be a genuinely useful tool now. In saying all of that, I'm not goin…

How long should a CV be for New Zealand companies? A friend in Wellington (Andrew Amesbury) recommended that I rewrite mine with more details, even though it's now 7 pages instead of 2. I worked at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare in Auckland while on a Working Holiday visa in 2011-2012. I still have some friends there, but they now outsourced their recruiting so internal references don't help as much. My previous boss (Ma…

2 pages is what I go for. I've started leaving out older jobs in favour of pointing them at my LinkedIn profile for more in depth info for older positions.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#616

Post by nocman »

lovich wrote: post #598
nocman wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually very simple, and not at all mental gymnastics. It's not a lie because I didn't say something that was not true. Again you are saying that me not answering a question is equivalent to me lying, and you are simply wrong about that. They are not the same thing.

Talking to people is not computer code. In this admittedly contrived situation, they are looking for you to say it's good. You give an answer _to a different question_. Either people realize and you've violated the social expectation or they don't realize and you've misdirected them. Avoiding the question in a way that's misleading people has the same result as a lie even if not technically the same thing If you refu…

"Talking to people is not computer code."

irrelevant. I never said it was.

Also, saying "thank you for making it" isn't answering a question at all, so it isn't "answering a different question".

"The entire camp of people in this thread" with my viewpoint simply disagree with you. You attribute dishonesty to things we would say, when we know that saying those things would be honest.

So you can keep reiterating the same viewpoint over and over again, and I'll keep disagreeing with it every time (regardless of whether I spend the time to reply again).

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#617

Post by ThrustVectoring »

f4stjack wrote: post #390

The thing I don't get is, and probably I'll be downvoted to hell because of that, even though this guy lied about his past, his knowledge is solid. Nobody can guess what the interviewers will ask you and from what I've read from the text he aced those. If this is the tech business rolls what I see that it wants developers with a history, with connections, with "clout" so to speak; doesn't matter if you can help their…

Well, there's a big difference between a hiring manager and a company. A company wants to hire the best developer they can get; the hiring manager wants to get praised for making a "good hire" and avoid getting blamed for making a "bad hire".

The glowing references doesn't do anything that skill and personality screening doesn't in terms of assessing actual candidate skill. They do, however, provide a ton of ass-covering for the hiring manager.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#619

Post by quickthrower2 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #566
quickthrower2 wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can do the job != Can convince company to hire you

Right but if it turns out you're a fraud it'll become apparent almost immediately and they'll just... fire you. What would you gain from that?

Not much, probably it's a personality type thing.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#620

Post by emodendroket »

ianhawes wrote: post #613
emodendroket wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a secular version of a church or something. Am I in the right ballpark?

The proper term is "Third place" [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

> In community building, the third place is the social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places would be environments such as churches, cafes, clubs, public libraries, or parks.

Seems too broad to really be helpful in this discussion. The park in Chinatown where people gather to play xiangqi is a "third place" but nothing like a church or Masonic lodge.

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