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The mentality that lying is one of the worst things you can do in the workplace is either there or it's not. If I learn a candidate is casually dishonest in jus

by rm999 14y ago

The mentality that lying is one of the worst things you can do in the workplace is either there or it's not. If I learn a candidate is casually dishonest in just an hour, the red flags are too obvious. Sure, it's a proxy for his character, but it's a really good one.

barrkel 14y ago
You've framed the act in a way that justifies your position. But what if your experience of HR in companies is incompetence and buzzword bingo? In this frame, getting through the HR screen is a hurdle to getting an interview, not an action "in the workplace".
- rm999 14y ago
  I'm amazed my position is even remotely controversial here. Many people here, including yourself, are framing the debate from the perspective of their own experiences as candidates, which is a biased way to look at the perspective of an interviewer. The fact is interviewing it tough, and is inherently a flawed process (I agree with you that ideally the interviewer could get to know the candidate's character, but an hour or a day isn't the correct timeframe to do this). Good interviewers try to find the best fit for their teams, instead of lamenting the fact that the problem can't tractably be solved perfectly.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    No, actually I'm not. I've never had to embellish my CV and every interview I've done has resulted in a job offer. I'm actually attacking the notion of "character" itself. Yes, there is a set of habits and probabilities of certain responses to various scenarios, but I contend that the mental model of "character" (as it is normally understood in Western culture) is a poor predictor because it groups together certain situational responses with labels that have no necessary underlying correlation to validate them. My own judgement when interviewing job candidates mostly comes down to technical depth. I'm primarily interested in competence and demonstrated ability to deal with and get results in a complex technological system. I'm not really interested at all in CV buzzwords - and that's what most of those bullet lists end up being, tags to try and get through HR filters. But my experience is also coloured by working in relatively large companies, and being a technical guy, not a manager making the hire decision.

by rm999 14y ago

barrkel 14y ago

You've framed the act in a way that justifies your position. But what if your experience of HR in companies is incompetence and buzzword bingo? In this frame, getting through the HR screen is a hurdle to getting an interview, not an action "in the workplace".

rm999 14y ago
I'm amazed my position is even remotely controversial here. Many people here, including yourself, are framing the debate from the perspective of their own experiences as candidates, which is a biased way to look at the perspective of an interviewer. The fact is interviewing it tough, and is inherently a flawed process (I agree with you that ideally the interviewer could get to know the candidate's character, but an hour or a day isn't the correct timeframe to do this). Good interviewers try to find the best fit for their teams, instead of lamenting the fact that the problem can't tractably be solved perfectly.
- barrkel 14y ago
  No, actually I'm not. I've never had to embellish my CV and every interview I've done has resulted in a job offer. I'm actually attacking the notion of "character" itself. Yes, there is a set of habits and probabilities of certain responses to various scenarios, but I contend that the mental model of "character" (as it is normally understood in Western culture) is a poor predictor because it groups together certain situational responses with labels that have no necessary underlying correlation to validate them. My own judgement when interviewing job candidates mostly comes down to technical depth. I'm primarily interested in competence and demonstrated ability to deal with and get results in a complex technological system. I'm not really interested at all in CV buzzwords - and that's what most of those bullet lists end up being, tags to try and get through HR filters. But my experience is also coloured by working in relatively large companies, and being a technical guy, not a manager making the hire decision.