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The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

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Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#21

Post by icedchai »

kabes wrote: post #6

How can something like this ever work out? If you're an okay-ish candidate and you hire someone better to do the interview, you might get away with it. But if you don't even know the basics of the job as the post claims...

If you're "interviewing" at an extremely large and likely dysfunctional organization, it can probably work out. You might get placed on a random team completely divorced from those you interviewed with. I've known guys who've taken jobs and done nothing for months and months. It's sad. I've also seen people quit after two days!

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#22

Post by jimmaswell »

simmanian wrote: post #5

Practices like this are hilariously common in the industry. Right out of college I accepted a job offer at a small consulting company on the east coast. They promised they would give me free housing at their luxury apartment for the first few months and give me all the training I need to excel in areas of my interest. I flew across the country and found out the whole thing is not as advertised. Their luxury apartment…

> They promised they would give me free housing at their luxury apartment for the first few months and give me all the training I need to excel in areas of my interest

My training at a consultancy company, first job out of college, was like this but actually legit. Nice hotel with a free breakfast, transportation to their facility, and actual (paid) training on a few things, lasting a month. At the end I was put on a client to work for. Pretty good salary for a first job too.

So if a company offers this stuff, it's not necessarily a red flag, just do some research on them. It can be a great springboard if you don't have any better offers.

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#23

Post by jonnycomputer »

throwaway9191aa wrote: post #7

But... is the interviewee proxy doing this as a side gig? If they are good enough to get paid (presumably) for taking interviews, how can that be more valuable than just taking one of the jobs they successfully interview for?

Sure. OTOH lots of good coders don't do well in interviews; some good interviewers aren't really dependable employees long term. So here we have a case of specialization. Someone making good money doing what they are good at: technical interviews.

Not defending it. I think it sucks (and this happens for college admissions too).

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#25

Post by probablyexists »

defen wrote: post #11

While I don't doubt this sort of thing happens, the following line leads me to believe that this is an exercise in creative writing by someone: > In the meantime, legal approved security to put a trace on John’s computer to review if there have been outside messages or if his work is being completed with outside help or on a different computer altogether.

Agreed. This reads like those memes about men writing female characters..

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#26

Post by bitwize »

It's not just a thing, for some crooter firms it's a business model.

Gonna name and shame here, there was an outfit that was once called Unbounded Solutions, then BrighterBrain. God knows if they're still around or what they're called now. Anyhoo, their whole deal was this: they offered free IT training and job placement, but there was a catch! Oh, boy, was there ever a catch. They would put you through 2 weeks of iOS programming training, and then have you sign a 2-year contract to be at their disposal to go to client sites. As part of this, they would make up a fake CV for you with fake experience and -- crucially -- a fake telephone number. When companies called to interview you, they would be directed to a call center in India where one of the call center drones would do the interview in your place. Only once they had passed the phone screen for you could you show up at the client site. They may have sent a fake you to the client site for the in-person bit as well, I'm not sure.

As part of the contract you sign, you had to agree to all of this. If you refused to sign, or tried to skip your contract before 2 years was up, you had to pay for the training they gave you which they valued at $20,000.

One of the scummiest things I'd ever seen or heard of in this industry.

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#27

Post by foobarian »

I was wondering about this after running across a couple of people who I have no shadow of a doubt could not code a fizzbuzz solution that all our screens use. They did end up on PIPs and let go but I always wondered how they got in to begin with. (This was before Covid, too, but still unless you did biometrics and had in-person friends who could recognize a person I could see a stand-in coming in to help with the on-site interviews).

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#28

Post by markstos »

kabes wrote: post #6

How can something like this ever work out? If you're an okay-ish candidate and you hire someone better to do the interview, you might get away with it. But if you don't even know the basics of the job as the post claims...

The person who showed up for work was described as "timid". Perhaps he hired a confident extrovert to do the interview, believing he'd be fine at the job once that stressful part was out of the way.

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#29

Post by mig39 »

defen wrote: post #11

While I don't doubt this sort of thing happens, the following line leads me to believe that this is an exercise in creative writing by someone: > In the meantime, legal approved security to put a trace on John’s computer to review if there have been outside messages or if his work is being completed with outside help or on a different computer altogether.

If it's a company computer, they might have been able to screenshot or record the screen.

Re: The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed

#30

Post by geodel »

kabes wrote: post #6

How can something like this ever work out? If you're an okay-ish candidate and you hire someone better to do the interview, you might get away with it. But if you don't even know the basics of the job as the post claims...

I have seen these things closely. It kinda works out fine in big companies with large/slow IT departments. It takes ~3-6 months to figure out that person hired is not really up to task assigned. But still works in candidates favor because usually low level IT consultants are hired for 3/6 months + extension up to year or so. This means there is no point to proceed with firing that person as by then contract is about to be over.

Also I do not have latest info on this. The stories I have are from 2006-2016 period. So maybe with agile and all it is no longer possible.

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