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How to hire an idiot

nukemanbill.blogspot.com

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Re: How to hire an idiot

#71

Post by 3pt14159 »

rcthompson wrote: post #45
3pt14159 wrote: post #40

Dude was a psychopath. I've been tricked by them before, cost me at least $20k. They lie. Straight to your face. They are often terrible at spelling, grammar, and just general "this document should look right" skills.

Does that mean he was also faking his regret when he finally got "caught" so he could get off scot-free?

Possibly, I only know my situation. The guy I knew coiled up into contract speak. "You signed something that said that I received 10 percent of gross sales" etc. But it would depend on the situation. I can only say that the parallels between the guy that fucked me over and this guy are huge. So many 10% truths (as opposed to half truths) so many ass covering statements. If you have never dealt with a psychopath you have no idea what you are in for.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#72

Post by DavidAdams »

m0nastic wrote: post #55
thwarted wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interests and Hobbies seem to be boilerplate resume sections too, but no one with any significant experience should include them.

The "art" to resumes (as I'm now in the process of learning, after not looking at mine for ten years), is to figure out how to best portray yourself to the exact person(s) you're submitting it to. That should inform what sections are appropriate. Sometimes having interests and hobbies is beneficial. I've seen numerous folks at startups talk about how they like seeing things like interests and hobbies, as they feel it…

I hire a lot of people, so I see a lot of resumes. My opinion on interests and hobbies is that you're making a statement by including it, so you need to be smart about it. If they're mundane and not salient to the job, then you're padding a thin resume, or just being dense by including them.

On the other hand, they have the ability to make you stand out or advance your "story" then they can make a big difference. For example, if I'm hiring an engineer, and they mention that they've been working on an interesting open source project, or they co-founded a local hackerspace, then that's a mark in their favor. I hired an intern, who I later hired on full-time, largely because he described a scrappy and interesting local entertainment directory website he had been working on launching. He'd been basically living as a ski bum for three years and working as a waiter, but his ambitious hobby made up for that.

This wasn't on his resume, but a another guy I hired recently let me know in the interview that he plays hockey seriously, and that was good to know, because honestly some engineers need to get out of the house more.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#73

Post by 3pt14159 »

wisty wrote: post #52
3pt14159 wrote: post #40

Dude was a psychopath. I've been tricked by them before, cost me at least $20k. They lie. Straight to your face. They are often terrible at spelling, grammar, and just general "this document should look right" skills.

The word "psychopath" is getting waaaay overused. Not every bullshit artist is a psychopath. Just like not everyone who frowns a lot is clinically depressed, and not everyone who washes their hands before lunch is OCD. He was probably incompetent, and didn't realize he was incompetent. People don't realize their limitations unless they are actually hit over the head with them. In a big company, people would just poli…

Either you haven't dealt with one or the one you have dealt with is much more crafty than the one I dealt with.

They have no morals. That's a psychopath, by definition. What you describe is a more intelligent psychopath, but they are still a psychopath. The lie to your face. You trust them because they are often charismatic, but it makes no difference. When push comes to shove they screw you.

I'm not over using the term. The person that I've dealt with (whom sounds strikingly similar to the $100m "vp" except for the reveal portion) was a class A psychopath. He lied to me before he even noted that I was useful to him. That is a psychopath at work.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#75

Post by natrius »

daeken wrote: post #46
Bartlet wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think an "education" section is a boilerplate resume item. If it wasn't there, I'd at least ask for details.

I don't have an education section on my resume, as I'm a high school dropout myself. Last year I was looking for a new job and shot my resume to probably a dozen different companies. Of those, the only company who asked about the lack of an education section was Bloomberg (of the ~8 people I had in-person interviews with, at least half of them asked me about it, in fact, which told me a lot about what the company was…

I always ask, not because it's required, but because the answer is often enlightening. Judging companies for asking isn't reasonable.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#76

Post by xnxn »

alanh wrote: post #59
jwallaceparker wrote: post #41

Wow a similar thing happened to a friend of mine in what he calls the "flying dragon" story. About 5 years ago my friend Bob (not his real name - real name is Andrew) started an entertainment business to do shows like Cirque du Soleil. He advertised on websites looking for acts. A man came in saying he was an agent that represented a flying dragon. Bob was incredulous. He asked to see the dragon. The agent told him t…

> Bob (not his real name - real name is Andrew) Uh. What?

I've identified this as a form of humor. Homines sapientes react to it like this: Ho! Ho!

Re: How to hire an idiot

#77

Post by jarek »

tptacek wrote: post #61
jarek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if a generic HR/manager reference would tell even the salary. But now I'm genuinely curious: 1. how do you make sure references presented aren't extremely cherry-picked - does it just come out as obvious in the conversation? 2. what about more junior employees, who may not have much of a network for an employer to hit up?

Do not use HR people as references! You're better off cherry-picking your references than you are trying to be "honest" about them and not knowing for sure what your reference is going to say about you. As long as you actually worked with the person who's giving your reference, you're fine.

Follow-up: 3. Is this situation like resume/cover letter advice, where everyone has their own favourite system and each person's advice for the perfect application is different?

Re: How to hire an idiot

#78

Post by nl »

jarek wrote: post #77
tptacek wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not use HR people as references! You're better off cherry-picking your references than you are trying to be "honest" about them and not knowing for sure what your reference is going to say about you. As long as you actually worked with the person who's giving your reference, you're fine.

Follow-up: 3. Is this situation like resume/cover letter advice, where everyone has their own favourite system and each person's advice for the perfect application is different?

No - being confident that your referees are going to say good things about you is always good advice.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#79

Post by mattdeboard »

sunsu wrote: post #37
coenhyde wrote: post #31

Everyone pay attention, this seems to be one of those lessons everyone learns the hard way. I'd made a similar mistakes with my first hire. Basically I hired the first guy who said he was awesome at php. Great I said. Do this, this and this. You can do some work from home, set your own hours at the office etc. He stopped coming into the office to work from home instead. I was so over capacity that i didn't check on h…

I'll second the "watch new hires carefully". You can save yourself a lot of problems if you just keep an eye on your new people for the first month. Obviously you don't need to be overbearing, but at the end of that first month you should do a detailed work evaluation (code review if a programmer). If the employee shows signs of producing crap in their first month, get rid of her/him then. Do not wait unless there is…

Yep, I have been very surprised in recent weeks at how bold people will be in their lies about their professional capabilities and/or history.

Re: How to hire an idiot

#80

Post by stevewilhelm »

lotharbot wrote: post #36
tptacek wrote: post #27

The moral of this story, which virtually every startup founder in the history of the universe has heard or told a variant of, is: CHECK. REFERENCES.

Further, "check references" needs to be deeper than just asking if the guy actually worked there. Ask about his role and responsibilities. Ask how he helped the company's bottom line. Ask real questions.

If you are hiring someone for a sales position, talk with their customers not their former employer.
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