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How Some Companies Are Scamming Job Applicants
By EconMatters
After posting our latest piece about getting hiring now takes longer, we learned a disturbing trend in the current company interview practice (we are talking about Fortune 500 companies) from some of our reader friends. What we are about to describe is probably more often seen in the sector or city experiencing large layoffs such as the energy sector or City of Houston.
Top Talents Floating Round
As Zero Hedge previously reported, the new 'lower for longer' oil price environment has brought the State of Texas the worst job recession in 80 years. Indeed, the graph below from Reuters (updated through May 12, 2015) shows a clear inverted relationship between oil price and U.S. energy sector layoffs.
This has lead to a lot of good talents (typically higher-paid and high-skilled workers) now available in the job market within the energy sector and Houston, the Energy Capital of the World.
'Scenario Analysis' For a Free Consult
What we've found is that companies, unwilling to pay for an external consult, are increasingly using actual work project(s) (that they don't know how to deliver) packaged as 'scenario' or 'Case Study' in job interviews phishing for 'free' advise and insight from qualified industry veteran applicants. The hiring manager typically would ask for very specific info and/or 'work samples'. The applicants are usually only too eager to share thinking it'd mean certain advantage of landing the job.
Guess What? You Were Never Meant To Get The Job!
After spelling out how he/she delivered the exact same project described in the 'scenario' or 'case study', the applicant, in most cases, would not get the job. Why? Companies using this kind of tactic usually cannot afford or are unwilling to offer competitive compensation for top talents. The only reason these high-skilled (and most likely out of pay-range) applicants have even made it to the interview process (picked by the hiring manager) is so that the hiring manager could glean some useful knowledge from an industry veteran.
The New Breed of Hiring Managers
As we discussed before, the current prevalent push for youthification within Corporate America has created a new generation of middle management (i.e. hiring managers) with a very different set of values and ethics from the boomer generation.
With far less experience, the new breed of middle managers thus favor standardization and banding together with the like-minded in solving problems and delivering projects.
The team approach, while maybe necessary in the modern corporate environment, is very ineffective in non-routine projects and tasks requiring a high degree of judgement and creativity. That is, project or problem will not get solved without the necessary experience and knowledge in the first place no matter how many like-minded people band together.
Hiring someone more experienced (or even more talented) would certainly disturb the 'homogeneous' team. So the next best thing is to get some free consult by interviewing a highly qualified candidate with a resume and experience in delivering the project(s) that the hiring manager finds 'challenging'.
Classic Catch 22
This is a classic Catch 22 for job applicants - Damn if you do, damn if you don't. So what is a job seeker to do to protect his/her own 'intellectual property'?
- DO NOT leave behind any hard (or soft) copies of 'work sample". Let the interviewer(s) know you need the copies back and ask to review thoroughly during the allotted interview time.
- Give only the general frame work, avoid discussing the project specifics during the interview. Perhaps say something like "I will deliver a step-by-step project plan the day after I start the job."
While this kind of interview practice (or technique) is probably as old as history itself, we do find it disturbing that it seems to have become more of a standard operating procedure in the current job market and hiring process.
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Got you beat... Position for a programmer (PhD required), and had to know a very long list of programming languages (20+)/ Salary $70K... I told them over the phone, not only was I not interested, but they would never fill the job at that salary.
That's an old hustle that's been around for years. I've heard of a similar con in the construction management business years ago.
Cheaper than consulting, but what if your "ringer" is just a high caliber bullshit artist?
You could be in even worse shape than before.
Millenials have nothing to do with this, or more likely, they learned it from the Baby Boomer mentors. It's not even confined to the private sphere, either.
One trick governments are increasingly using is having people write up proposals for RFPs. Then the RFP is closed.
Bad faith employment interviewing has been par for the course in the IT sector for the better part of a decade now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
The other big trend in hiring over the past 10-15 years has been the removal of autonomy from the actual managers of the future employee, with most actual decision making vested with 'hiring managers' who are usually HR professionals trained in the legalistic aspects of hiring rather than any sort of technical domain of the business. Its like basically going to a cheesy used car lot where the salesman uses the "I have to go ask my manager" trick. Managers have been dis-empowered by highly structured HR schemas which force brutal standardization and processes into what should be a process full of creativity to attract and retain creative high performing people.
Companires have been pulling this horseshit for years.
PHB, DHCEO, RatBert, DogBert, Mordac, etc.
This article isn't necessary, just read Dilbert.com every day, without fail!
This tactic is the very foundation of the clothing and fashion industries. Fresh talent shows their design portfolio to top designer hoping to impress and land a minimum wage slave labor job in their dream industry. Next season fresh talent sees their designs as the top deisgners new line. It would cost the fresh young designer too much money to litigate.
Rinse and repeat season after season.
Oh, yes, the same applies to IT. I don't think there is one senior level programmer or admin to whom this situation didn't happen - an interview where obvious real design or system problems were asked to be analyzed and solutions provided.
Or more commonly known as BRAIN RAPE.
china did the same thing with high speed trains, played France and Germany off against each other to obtain all the details then built their own.