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I Got Catfished by a Candidate

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Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#71

Post by jdietrich »

salvar wrote: post #60
notyourday wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is fairly standard. Most of the companies would only verify if someone worked between the two dates and what was the position to avoid lawsuits.

Standard in the US maybe, but I've never even heard of anything like this in the UK. I'm sure it happens, but I will eat my hat if it's fairly standard.

Most larger companies require references to at least be checked by HR. Employers have a duty of care to provide accurate references for their former employees. There's a non-trivial risk that a manager could provide a bad or indifferent reference simply because of a personal grudge, which the company could be held liable for.

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1994/7.html

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#72

Post by andrewstuart »

I'm a recruiter.

Three anecdotes come to mind for this topic:

#1

I once sent out a coding test email to a candidate.

Not long after I got an email back from this candidate saying "Hey bro could you do this test for me please." or words to that effect.

Obviously mistakenly forwarded it back to me instead of to his bro who he wanted to do his coding test.

#2

I definitely got catfished but it was by another recruiter who was fishing to try to find out who my client/employer was - he was hoping I'd call the number so he could pretend to be a valid candidate and I would reveal the name of the employer. I took the issue to the job board that the resume came from, and they threatened to ban his company from advertising on their board. Never happened again as far as I know.

#3

I've got about 150,000 resumes in my candidate database. One thing I'd be interested to do is run some sort of duplicate text detecter over my candidate database.

I've definitely received resumes that duplicate text from other resumes.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#73

Post by Arcsech »

briandear wrote: post #10

I really hate the so-called term “catfished” it’s a completely contrived word that came from a 2010 movie that probably 50 people actually saw. “Ghosting” is another one, but at least you can use context to sort of figure out what people are actually talking about. A bit off topic, but this adulteration of language — from an obscure pop-culture reference, is a bit silly. Obviously the author agrees that most people d…

It's literally in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish

> "2 : a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes"

Hard to get more "real dictionary" than that.

Edit: For that matter, "ghost" is also in the M-W dictionary in the sense of "suddenly cut off all contact with", you just have to scroll down a bit.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#74

Post by noobermin »

evrydayhustling wrote: post #16
deedubaya wrote: post #7

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?

This doesn't hold up. Unless a candidate is single-mindedly targeting the author's company -- like, they get rejected and come back with a fake resume -- then they decided to fake a resume before talking to the author. The author can't fix the societal experience the candidate has been having, and you have no sign that they filtered unfairly. I am sympathetic to candidates who feel they have skills but lack credentia…

I don't know about you, but I couldn't finish the article. From the beginning, something irked me and it didn't feel like the author is completely innocent here. One thing that irked me a little is seeing the candidate worked at her previous company made her instantly like him. Once I got to the unnecessary admission the manager uses what even they consider as "unkosher" tactics to learn about the background of potential hires, I immediately closed the tab. I finished it later, but this is the same attitude we see from many managers: they set up poor systems, and get upset when those systems fail, like in this article, and there is no introspection on their part.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#75

Post by trhway »

qaq wrote: post #53

I know a person who has faked a position on resume to get around the whole you need experience to get hired and to get experience you need to get hired thing in marketing field and now he is super successful C level exec in Fortune 50 company so go figure.

>and now he is super successful C level exec in Fortune 50 company

Sleaziness and moral flexibility in general seems to be a very useful soft skill for reaching high management levels.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#76

Post by jimnotgym »

salvar wrote: post #60
notyourday wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is fairly standard. Most of the companies would only verify if someone worked between the two dates and what was the position to avoid lawsuits.

Standard in the US maybe, but I've never even heard of anything like this in the UK. I'm sure it happens, but I will eat my hat if it's fairly standard.

It is my policy in the UK, and is the one recommended by HR experts for liability reasons. HR bods describe it as a factual reference. It is most definitely a recent US import, and I am not sure about it's penetration.

John Smith worked here between x and x as a tea-boy.

Personally I would much rather someone gave me a factual reference in good time, than an in depth reference eventually. Normally it is also OK for a manager to give a personal reference, ie not on behalf of the company.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#77

Post by s73v3r_ »

notyourday wrote: post #50
crescentfresh wrote: post #33

The place I'm at now forbids employees from being references for past employees (or current employees discreetly seeking other employment). Is this normal? It would have prevented "Jim" or anyone else at ACME Corp from being a reference to catfish-er, so requests for a reference from the company would have been denied right off the bat. That would have made it harder to spot the fake.

It is fairly standard. Most of the companies would only verify if someone worked between the two dates and what was the position to avoid lawsuits.

But this sounds like if Sue comes up to me and asks me to be a reference, I would have to turn her down.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#78

Post by maxxxxx »

I don't think we should use such stories as a reason to make the hiring process even more paranoid. In general people are pretty honest so I wouldn't like to see them having to jump through even more hoops because of a few fraudsters.

Advice number 1 is probably best : "Trust your gut". If something doesn't make sense it's worth clearing that up.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#79

Post by maxxxxx »

qaq wrote: post #53

I know a person who has faked a position on resume to get around the whole you need experience to get hired and to get experience you need to get hired thing in marketing field and now he is super successful C level exec in Fortune 50 company so go figure.

There is a very thin line between "hustling" and outright fraud. The same behavior can result in a good career or jail time depending on luck and ability.

Re: I Got Catfished by a Candidate

#80

Post by kbar13 »

evrydayhustling wrote: post #16
deedubaya wrote: post #7

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?

This doesn't hold up. Unless a candidate is single-mindedly targeting the author's company -- like, they get rejected and come back with a fake resume -- then they decided to fake a resume before talking to the author. The author can't fix the societal experience the candidate has been having, and you have no sign that they filtered unfairly. I am sympathetic to candidates who feel they have skills but lack credentia…

this sounds very similar to a lot of dating advice i've received
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