The Code To Getting The Job Is Honesty

I work for a huge entertainment company on a software development team. Recruiting is hard; even though we use agencies that take a hefty percentage, we get a lot of applicants who have clearly borrowed someone’s CV.

I can see the sense of this; if they can blag their way through the interview, then we will pay them literally hundreds of pounds a day. Even if you get sacked on the first day, you get paid for that day. £300 is not bad for a few hours of work when the minimum wage at the time is around £5 an hour. And I know my manager; he would give them more than a day because he wants his staff to be successful. Luckily, none of them make it through the interview. 

Because of the way we work, we can use anyone who has some basic programming skills if they are smart and willing to learn. Indeed, our best recruit had only done an introduction to programming course, and we were his first job. We only quiz people about skills they claim to have; if they demonstrate a good working knowledge of something they have used, we can feel confident they can learn the new skills they need. 

The most egregious liar I remember was [Candidate]. The young man’s CV ticked all the boxes, and I was excited to interview him. I did not notice my boss wildly (but covertly) signalling me not to bother when I went in to ask [Candidate] the technical questions at my allotted time, halfway through his interview.

Me: “So, your CV says you know Java.”

Candidate: “Yes, I know Java.”

Me: “How would you create a constant in Java?”

Candidate: “I don’t really know Java”

Me: “Ah, okay. Then I see you know SQL”

Candidate: “Yes, I know SQL.”

Me: “What command would you use to print all the entries in a table?”

Candidate: “I don’t really know SQL”

Me: “All righty, then. Do you MS-DOS?”

Candidate: “Yes, I know MS-DOS.”

And so on. He just kept on lying and didn’t seem to recognise the pattern. I am afraid I went through every skill he claimed to have while my boss was in agony; he had already discovered [Candidate]’s complete lack of knowledge in the first few minutes but had not been able to wrap it up before I came in.

Final hiring decisions are made in consultation with Human Resources, so we are not allowed to tell a candidate they have not been successful during the interview, even if it’s 100% obvious to us (and them). My boss couldn’t find a way to stop me that wouldn’t have told [Candidate].

After this interview, we came up with a test. Candidates who failed did not proceed to the interview portion. It saved us hours of time.