Job interview shenanignans (got catfished)

[funksouljon]

So couple weeks ago my group held a video conference job interview. Upon reflection, the video was a little sub par, but sometimes things happen. The audio was a little off as well, but again, not a huge red flag lets just assume bad conn with India.

Guy interviews very well, seems like a rock star. We want to move forward with him and offer a position. He starts a couple weeks later. On day 1, it's pretty clear he is VERY clueless but seemed to be such a rock star during the interview. On day 5, my development manager returns from vacation and goes, "Hey, that guy's voice is VERY different that the interview, as if in, thats NOT the same voice."

Turns out the guy had a friend answering questions for him during the interview and the poor video was to hide the fact he wasn't actually speaking but someone was off camera.

I wasn't part of the interview process but he went to a team for one of my peers. This was reminiscent to people having others take there finals in school. What the hell was he thinking, other than he was trying to get in, so he could get through the 3 month period and then be hired by the staffing firm we use. Anyone else heard of or seen something like this in the professional world? The guy who ran the interview is in shock, he freaking got catfished at work!

 

[seminoledq]

First I have heard of that but now that I have read through it, I am sure it would be easy to do, especially for a job like you are hiring for. Did they record the interview so you could go back to compare voices?

 

[Nolomite]

.

 

[NoleLizards]

It's a new adaptation of the Cyrano de Bergerac tale.

 

[Nole Lou]

That is a crazy story, never heard anything like it.

 

[funksouljon]

That is pretty damn funny, though to the hiring manager it's a total pain in the butt since he's got to start the interview process all over again.

Did the candidate think he could just wing it once the job started? Was he angling for a month's salary or something? So strange!

So he was hoping to ride in and be the quiet new guy for a month. Then slip along until month 3 when he would be hired, but basically, yeah, any money to be gained would be an improvement. He had ZERO technical skills, apparently not a lot of basic computer skills even so it wasn't like he was just going to us OJT to get up to speed.

Yeah on it being a PITA. This is also getting escalated up pretty high considering we have a contract with a staffing firm and they were pushing in someone they were sub-contracting to. Who likely lied on his resume to them but apparently they didn't do a F2F validation.

 

[Fijimn]

Sounds like a real go-getter with upper management written all over him.

 

[NoleLizards]

Sounds like a real go-getter with upper management written all over him.

 

[funksouljon]

First I have heard of that but now that I have read through it, I am sure it would be easy to do, especially for a job like you are hiring for. Did they record the interview so you could go back to compare voices?

Yeah, especially with conducting no F2F validation and us, as well as many, being in a very distributed work env and the contractor subcontractor etc chain of distance. No recording, just the interviewers hearing the interview voice vs the on phone voice. Will be moving to required video conference and possibly forcing the interview to be in a known location with a known person in the room. He also couldn't get names correct, couldn't send a meeting invite, etc so it was obviously fishy from the get go.

I am oscillating between shock and amusement of the absurdity.

 

[OrlandNole]

So he was hoping to ride in and be the quiet new guy for a month. Then slip along until month 3 when he would be hired, but basically, yeah, any money to be gained would be an improvement. He had ZERO technical skills, apparently not a lot of basic computer skills even so it wasn't like he was just going to us OJT to get up to speed.

Yeah on it being a PITA. This is also getting escalated up pretty high considering we have a contract with a staffing firm and they were pushing in someone they were sub-contracting to. Who likely lied on his resume to them but apparently they didn't do a F2F validation.

This is pretty damning for the staffing firm, considering their ONLY job is to bring you qualified candidates. I hope they're kissing your butt and giving you free cherry squishees.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Nobody you can hire locally?

 

[OrlandNole]

Nobody you can hire locally?

You can only pick two:
1. Local
2. Cheap
3. Qualified

 

[funksouljon]

Nobody you can hire locally?

You can only pick two:
1. Local
2. Cheap
3. Qualified

So theres a lot of truth to OrlandNole's reply. We do look for SOME positions to be filled by employees who are local (US based near any number of offices and work remote), but our staff model is directed by C-suite decisions and the decision is for IT to be >50% offshore.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

What exactly was the position and what were his required duties?

Im still at a loss on how he thought he could get away with it. You would think that he would be figured out in less than 5 mins if not qualified in IT right?

And am I correct in that you said he did this to get to the US from India?

 

[nynole1]

Ive been doing IT staffing for 15+ years, this is not all that uncommon in varying forms when dealing with Indian candidates.

 

[Finance85]

I'm in the tech industry. It's fairly common for certain sourcing companies to provide "expert" developers at a low cost to clients, then see those developers on the phone in stairwells getting help from their sourcing company when they don't know how to do something.

Awhile back I worked for a company and we had a developer that would only work remote, supposedly because of family obligations. We got in a bind on a project and needed the guy on site. He refused to travel, and my VP ended up firing him. Shortly after that, my VP got a call from a company asking about the guy. He went on vacation and they needed to look something up on his PC and found a trail where the guy was working for us, as well as them. Double dipping. They called back a couple of weeks later after confronting the guy. He was actually triple dipping.

Oh, H1B visas require a US sponsor.

 

[Fijimn]

What exactly was the position and what were his required duties?

Im still at a loss on how he thought he could get away with it. You would think that he would be figured out in less than 5 mins if not qualified in IT right?

And am I correct in that you said he did this to get to the US from India?

Isn't it the American dream to do just enough at your job not to get noticed.

 

[62Nole]

I had an Eskimo talk to admissions when I broke into FSU.
I was too scared.

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

Hiring by video interview = bad idea. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your group seems like it might be vulnerable to other kinds of cons. The still-in-8th-grade part of me is thinking “that’s actually pretty clever.”

 

[Gonolz]

 

[Nolomite]

.

 

[mcgrawfsu]

Hiring by video interview = bad idea. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your group seems like it might be vulnerable to other kinds of cons. The still-in-8th-grade part of me is thinking “that’s actually pretty clever.”

A lot of companies hire by video when hiring contract or contract to perm. They really don’t have anything to lose other than a few hours of their time. The way the IT job market is, you’ll lose out on a lot of candidates if you require them to come in for face to face interviews for non-locals

 

[funksouljon]

What exactly was the position and what were his required duties?

Im still at a loss on how he thought he could get away with it. You would think that he would be figured out in less than 5 mins if not qualified in IT right?

And am I correct in that you said he did this to get to the US from India?

Nope, working remote in India. Ramp up time (to be productive) is shockingly slow for some corps, esp with offshore having limited kit computers that have to be initialized when a new person starts. He was trying to pretend to be a UI developer.

 

[funksouljon]

Hiring by video interview = bad idea. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your group seems like it might be vulnerable to other kinds of cons. The still-in-8th-grade part of me is thinking “that’s actually pretty clever.”

I am not taking it the wrong way, I am thinking you simply don't don't understand the big picture of hiring in a global environment. We are not flying to India to interview every person that is submitted as a candidate by our staffing agency. And we aren't flying each of them to the US for a free trip. Pretty much standard for every major corp I have worked with in IT for the last 14 years that leverages offshore development.

 

[funksouljon]

I'm in the tech industry. It's fairly common for certain sourcing companies to provide "expert" developers at a low cost to clients, then see those developers on the phone in stairwells getting help from their sourcing company when they don't know how to do something.

Awhile back I worked for a company and we had a developer that would only work remote, supposedly because of family obligations. We got in a bind on a project and needed the guy on site. He refused to travel, and my VP ended up firing him. Shortly after that, my VP got a call from a company asking about the guy. He went on vacation and they needed to look something up on his PC and found a trail where the guy was working for us, as well as them. Double dipping. They called back a couple of weeks later after confronting the guy. He was actually triple dipping.

Oh, H1B visas require a US sponsor.

Yeah, we've had plenty of people that were oversold. This case he straight up had no clue.

Your triple dipping scenario makes me think of this article.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21043693

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

I am not taking it the wrong way, I am thinking you simply don't don't understand the big picture of hiring in a global environment. We are not flying to India to interview every person that is submitted as a candidate by our staffing agency. And we aren't flying each of them to the US for a free trip. Pretty much standard for every major corp I have worked with in IT for the last 14 years that leverages offshore development.

You are correct that I am not hiring Indians that come to me through a staffing agency. Sorry I misunderstood your business model. Sounds like it is working well, and that an occasional scammer helps break the monotony. Carry on.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

So theres a lot of truth to OrlandNole's reply. We do look for SOME positions to be filled by employees who are local (US based near any number of offices and work remote), but our staff model is directed by C-suite decisions and the decision is for IT to be >50% offshore.

Why do they hate America?

 

[nynole1]

The indian staffing model/practice is a major league scam in many cases. I have heard some crazy stories about their practices,but I can't see how it changes anytime soon. I personally know of stories involving major companies like Verizon and BoA that we're knowingly fleeced by global Indian staffing companies, and they literally didn't care.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

Even knowing that this is the norm in IT and customer service, Im still amazed this is common practice. Are they that much cheaper?

 

[squiffynole]

I once interviewed a candidate over the phone who turned out to be a former UF football player named Baron or something like that, he arranged it so he called in to me.

Later a reference I'd known for many years told me the guy was doing time in the Alachua County jail for bad checks.

I kid you not this is a true story.

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

Even knowing that this is the norm in IT and customer service, Im still amazed this is common practice. Are they that much cheaper?

The practice enables some egghead in management to write more self-congratulatory memos featuring words like “efficiency,” “diversity,” “globalization” and “seamless.” That is the Grand Slam of corporate gobbledegook.

 

[OsceolaNole]

I once interviewed a candidate over the phone who turned out to be a former UF football player named Baron or something like that, he arranged it so he called in to me.

Later a reference I'd known for many years told me the guy was doing time in the Alachua County jail for bad checks.

I kid you not this is a true story.

Did the interview take place while he was incarcerated?

 

[squiffynole]

Did the interview take place while he was incarcerated?

Exactly - he was in jail - sorry if I was not clear .

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

Exactly - he was in jail - sorry if I was not clear .

Disappointed that you could not see your way clear to launch this young man’s story of redemption.

Trying to imagine what he must have really been guilty of in order for Cervone to prosecute him. Had to be somehing 10x more serious than “writing bad checks.”

 

[GwinnettNole]

It’s not that uncommon in software engineering. It’s usually done by people from India. Which is a shame because I like a lot of these folks—- nice, work hard, etc. Proves that there are scammers everywhere.

One thing I wonder about is the qualification requirements for technical degrees in India. Is University XYZ in India on the same level as a UGA, FSU and UF? Are the requirements close to being the same? Is the rigor the same?

 

[Random_John]

Ive been doing IT staffing for 15+ years, this is not all that uncommon in varying forms when dealing with Indian candidates.

I'm in IT staffing as well. While not very common it does happen.

 

[mcgrawfsu]

Even knowing that this is the norm in IT and customer service, Im still amazed this is common practice. Are they that much cheaper?

Cost isn't really a factor in most cases with my customers. It is more about availability of a particular skill. Someone in leadership gets suckered into buying some new technology without discussing it with his IT folks. They end up with a system nobody knows how to work on. They figure they'll go out to hire someone, only to realize there are only a handful of people with this skill in the entire country.

Usually when we get a sense of a "catfish" during and interview we include a guarantee from the supplier of 24-40 hours. They'll usually back out at that point knowing they aren't going to be paid.

 

[nynole1]

I'm in IT staffing as well. While not very common it does happen.

What market are you in?

 

[NotGuiltyNole]

What market are you in?

I have been in staffing since 2002. Running markets in ATL, Boston, and Philly. None of the above surprises me. The current shortage of IT talent in this country is shocking. Boston right now is out of control. We placed a LOW level App support kid last week for $55K. Basically, it is a kid with a mediocre Comp Sci degree, and we got him hired to start 2 weeks after graduation. The company knew they would have to train and built in a comp plan to reward him for growth. We got an email from him last week that he received an offer from another company for $80K. They took out the milestones and just paid up. This is what it takes to hire unskilled labor, the stories on skilled are just crazy.

 

[funksouljon]

I have been in staffing since 2002. Running markets in ATL, Boston, and Philly. None of the above surprises me. The current shortage of IT talent in this country is shocking. Boston right now is out of control. We placed a LOW level App support kid last week for $55K. Basically, it is a kid with a mediocre Comp Sci degree, and we got him hired to start 2 weeks after graduation. The company knew they would have to train and built in a comp plan to reward him for growth. We got an email from him last week that he received an offer from another company for $80K. They took out the milestones and just paid up. This is what it takes to hire unskilled labor, the stories on skilled are just crazy.

Not a surprising story at all. I have been trying to get 2 EMP positions filled for 6 months. Definitely a premium if you can find an onshore quality people.