4 ms·

In he-said-she-said situations, have a good story. Deflect: > Ha, yeah, I did no such thing, but they certainly want a scapegoat, don't they? So, when I was th

In he-said-she-said situations, have a good story. Deflect: > Ha, yeah, I did no such thing, but they certainly want a scapegoat, don't they? So, when I was there, lemme tell you about their data security practices... Gain empathy: > Right, it's understandable that they'd want to blame somebody. And who better than me, walking out the door, going to spend more time with my family? And minimize: > But yeah, there's no real meat to their complaint. No attorneys or anything. They're just upset that they got caught shirking their legal responsibilities. You might be able to hand-pick a reference from your old team, but you're right to not automatically volunteer your old manager's contact information. I have to be good at telling stories like this. My first employer used legal strongarm tactics to disenfranchise me of thousands of commits of code, and my second employer tried to pin a sexual-harrassment claim on me and then fired me after I asked their head of HR to follow the law. Employers are dicks. Tell a story that lulls them to sleep.

matt_the_bass 7y ago
I disagree with your 1st suggestion. When hiring someone, I expect them to have a clear, concise, mature explanation. Gossiping in response with “lemme tell you about their...” is a big red flag to me. I don’t want to hire a blabber mouth. I think an appropriate answer is more in line with your second and third comments. I think it is fine to say “I left months before they had this problem. Perhaps they are looking for a scape goat and I’m convenient. I’d be happy to discuss my opinions of security design in general, but I won’t discuss specifics of what was done at that company while I was there. I may not have agreed with their choices. I’ve made the choice to leave there”
klyrs 7y ago
> lemme tell you about their data security practices... Yikes. As a sibling comment notes, this is a red flag. It actually makes you sound guilty -- especially if you share details about weaknesses in your security. That alone might be criminal, depending on circumstances.

matt_the_bass 7y ago

I disagree with your 1st suggestion. When hiring someone, I expect them to have a clear, concise, mature explanation. Gossiping in response with “lemme tell you about their...” is a big red flag to me. I don’t want to hire a blabber mouth. I think an appropriate answer is more in line with your second and third comments. I think it is fine to say “I left months before they had this problem. Perhaps they are looking for a scape goat and I’m convenient. I’d be happy to discuss my opinions of security design in general, but I won’t discuss specifics of what was done at that company while I was there. I may not have agreed with their choices. I’ve made the choice to leave there”

klyrs 7y ago

> lemme tell you about their data security practices... Yikes. As a sibling comment notes, this is a red flag. It actually makes you sound guilty -- especially if you share details about weaknesses in your security. That alone might be criminal, depending on circumstances.