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

#91

Post by NikolaNovak » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:45 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?

In my team, Duty Managers / Service Delivery Managers / Operations Managers. Communication in every which direction is #1 skillset I look for in the team (as well as being organized, disciplined, eager to learn, sense of ownership).

A lot of the job is talking to technical teams, talking to functional teams, talking to business teams, talking to management and executives; translate, summarize, liaison, co-ordinate, plan and inform. Customize medium, format, length, message for each group to enhance understanding. Develop spidey sense of paranoia against assumptions, misunderstandings.

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

#92

Post by linsomniac » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:45 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?

We were a Linux System Administration consultancy. The product wasn't the e-mails, but nearly everything we did for our clients was designed/planned, scheduled, organized, and documented in e-mail. Yes, sometimes we would work on things with the client on the phone, those were usually followed up with an e-mail about what was done.

These e-mails were copied to our internal mailing lists so that they could be peer reviewed and someone else could be cross-trained on it in case the primary wasn't available. Also, every task we did had a one sentence description written up that would be shared with the team, again as a kind of peer review.

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

#93

Post by morelish » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:45 PM UTC

clueless123 wrote: post #33

In my experience, At large companies that hire a lot of contractors, it is not that hard to pull this off. I've seen where the contractors A team do all the interviewing, then you get a C or C- team assigned to work in your project. By the time you "give them a chance", complain up the management chain, go sideways to HR and actually change the team, the contracting firm already got 6 months worth of salary from the…

Haha that PS note is great. "Not only did we abuse you, we're going to tell everyone you loved us"

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

#94

Post by ds_store2387 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:46 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.

No… they have documented evidence that the company noted discrepancies between his interview and subsequent comments. Nothing there states that this was a problem; it’s a diff.

Besides, he quit.

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

#95

Post by cortesoft » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

arbuge wrote: post #71

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…

That sounds to me like it would meet the legal definition of fraud. A lawsuit to recuperate the wages and damage to the business might even be worth looking into.

Unless they were making like $500k a year, it will probably cost more in legal fees than you would get back

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

#96

Post by giantg2 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #91

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?

In my team, Duty Managers / Service Delivery Managers / Operations Managers. Communication in every which direction is #1 skillset I look for in the team (as well as being organized, disciplined, eager to learn, sense of ownership). A lot of the job is talking to technical teams, talking to functional teams, talking to business teams, talking to management and executives; translate, summarize, liaison, co-ordinate, p…

"eager to learn, sense of ownership"

Well, that disqualifies me. The way most organizations tie your hands means one is given all the responsibility without real authority. I'm completely unmotivated because of that.

Edit: Sucks that my feelings are being downvoted.

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

#97

Post by joecool1029 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

arbuge wrote: post #71

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…

That sounds to me like it would meet the legal definition of fraud. A lawsuit to recuperate the wages and damage to the business might even be worth looking into.

There are laws against employer retaliation. If that employer never asked him prior and he never lied, what crime was committed? The employer failed to do their due diligence. As others have said, it's VERY common to request assistance in drafting resumes/emails/letters when pursuing employment.

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

#98

Post by PragmaticPulp » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

vultour wrote: post #70

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.

> What you described can just as easily be done on-site.

You can't get two on-site jobs at the same time. One of them is going to notice that you're not there.

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

#99

Post by giantg2 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:48 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #92

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?

We were a Linux System Administration consultancy. The product wasn't the e-mails, but nearly everything we did for our clients was designed/planned, scheduled, organized, and documented in e-mail. Yes, sometimes we would work on things with the client on the phone, those were usually followed up with an e-mail about what was done. These e-mails were copied to our internal mailing lists so that they could be peer rev…

Ok, thanks. All my Linux skills (which weren't many to begin with) are basically gone since it's all cloud now.

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

#100

Post by Unklejoe » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:48 PM UTC

Out_of_Characte wrote: post #87

arbuge wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds to me like it would meet the legal definition of fraud. A lawsuit to recuperate the wages and damage to the business might even be worth looking into.

Writing your own emails or resume isn't required or expected. Some people have assistants that do a lot of work by proxy of you. Its just very awkward that it becomes noticeable in a negative manner in the workplace.

> or expected

That's news to me. I have always assumed the resumes I have been reading were written by the applicants themselves. I guess I was wrong.