The new hire who showed up is not the same person we interviewed • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by giantg2 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:32 PM UTC

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…

"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."

Huge red flag. Nobody provides training, especially not for one's own interests.

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

#62

Post by kordlessagain » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:32 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #55

"John is talking extensively about working in a garage because his three children and wife are home. In the interview, he made references to being single and was visibly in an indoor desk area." If John is reading, you now have documentation that marital status has played a part in the decision process (even if not the sole issue) should they decide to let you go.

If John is reading this, remember you quit.

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

#63

Post by petesergeant » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:33 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #59

linsomniac wrote: post #46

I once hired a guy who had no experience, but seemed like a good culture fit for our company and seemed very interested in learning. We interviewed him and made e-mail communication a large part of the interview, because it is a critical part of our business. And his communication was great! After hiring, a recurring problem we had was his e-mail to us and to customers were terrible. Bad grammar, bad spelling, uncorr…

My (professional) written communication is a strong point for me. What kind of job has mostly sending emails as the work?

Recruitment

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

#64

Post by savrajsingh » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:34 PM UTC

This exact scenario played out at a friend’s company a few months ago. Fortunately someone had a screenshot of the “you’re hired!” Zoom call so they could quickly confirm their suspicions and take action.

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

#65

Post by Vrondi » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:35 PM UTC

kurthr wrote: post #16

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…

And people wonder why managers like hiring in person workers? It's not that you can't fake some stuff like this in person, but it's both harder (more expensive) and a lot more obvious.

Perhaps the most secure way forward is to make working remotely a "senior perk" that you earn after 6 months or a year of working in person.

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

#66

Post by jollybean » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:35 PM UTC

ljm wrote: post #17

I've been involved in more than a handful of interviews where it was clear that the candidate was wearing an earpiece or getting answers from someone else. Never hired an actual impostor like in TFA, but the signs of someone cheating the interview were pretty clear. All we had to do was go off script and we'd have a good idea about how genuine the candidate was being.

This one might be a little bit different though.

It's one thing to have outright fraud, or people who want to screw over your company for a free paycheck.

Having someone early in their career, really nervous and wanting to succeed ... I can just see a college dorm buddy saying 'hey man, I'll get you the answers from Google!'.

It might have a kind of 'immature prank' element to it as opposed to 'nefarious intentions'.

If this happened to me with a kid just out of college, and they were visibly nervous, I'd actually ask them to take it out and have conversation with them about what that kind of behaviour implies, why it's wrong, that they are lacking in self awareness to think they are going to get away with it.

I also feel that some people grow up in cultures and family / community situations which are just completely toxic. They have no faith, belief or understanding of how people get along in normal, productive societies. They've never remotely been exposed to a professional environment.

In fact, professional behaviour is a hallmark of well organized civilizations and hiring people from any place that is not '1st world' you get these kinds of issue quite often. It happens everywhere obviously, just more often in places with zero exposure to certain kinds of social socialization.

Finally, I believe that these kinds of problems are going to be more common with remote work as one of those issues for which we have yet to contend with. Anyone who's worked with offshore teams understand the struggle, now we're going to have those issues with greater preponderance in remote orgs.

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

#67

Post by giantg2 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:35 PM UTC

petesergeant wrote: post #63

giantg2 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My (professional) written communication is a strong point for me. What kind of job has mostly sending emails as the work?

Recruitment

Ok, thanks

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

#68

Post by giantg2 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

kordlessagain wrote: post #62

giantg2 wrote: post #55

"John is talking extensively about working in a garage because his three children and wife are home. In the interview, he made references to being single and was visibly in an indoor desk area." If John is reading, you now have documentation that marital status has played a part in the decision process (even if not the sole issue) should they decide to let you go.

If John is reading this, remember you quit.

Oops, missed that part.

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

#69

Post by ct0 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #59

linsomniac wrote: post #46

I once hired a guy who had no experience, but seemed like a good culture fit for our company and seemed very interested in learning. We interviewed him and made e-mail communication a large part of the interview, because it is a critical part of our business. And his communication was great! After hiring, a recurring problem we had was his e-mail to us and to customers were terrible. Bad grammar, bad spelling, uncorr…

My (professional) written communication is a strong point for me. What kind of job has mostly sending emails as the work?

HR

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

#70

Post by vultour » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #40

I've been a hiring manager for remote positions for a long time. If your recruiting channels are good, most of your candidates are going to be honest and good intentioned. But interview enough people, and you'll start encountering people trying to abuse remote work. They're not interested in contributing to your company. They're only interested in collecting paychecks while they do as little work as possible for as l…

What you described can just as easily be done on-site. Remote work merely lets these people actually do something they might enjoy instead of sitting in a chair and pretending to work for 8 hours. I’ve met people likely this and they’d rather pretend to be busy than actually do something.