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did a candidate give me a fake reference?
A reader writes: A while back, I conducted a reference check for a candidate we were interested in hiring. We use a candidate management system that asks for references up-front, and I called the number this applicant had listed for their most recent job with a city government in a neighboring state. After a few […] The post did a candidate give me a fake reference? appeared first on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
A while back, I conducted a reference check for a candidate we were interested in hiring.
We use a candidate management system that asks for references up-front, and I called the number this applicant had listed for their most recent job with a city government in a neighboring state. After a few rings, a guy who was obviously at a loud sporting event picked up, didn’t understand me, and hung up on me. I figured that the candidate had listed her former boss’s cell number and I caught him at a bad time, so I googled the local government office to find the office number, planning to call and leave a message.
The weird thing is, another guy picked up, affirmed that he was the person I was looking for and then gave a glowing review. I thought it was weird but we moved forward with the candidate and she started training shortly thereafter. About two weeks after she started training with me, she quit suddenly via email.
I haven’t been able to shake the weirdness with the reference. Who was the person at the first number? Did she provide a fake number to give a good review? Why would she bother if her actual employer would give her as good a reference as he did? Did I do something wrong in the vetting process — undervalue the reference weirdness?
I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
Other questions I’m answering there today include:
- My coworker throws tantrums and expects women to soothe him
- Emailing on the weekend when you don’t expect a response before Monday
The post did a candidate give me a fake reference? appeared first on Ask a Manager.
