

How Not to Fuck Up a Perfectly Good Chance to Hire Someone - zerotolerance
https://medium.com/@allingeek/how-not-to-fuck-up-a-perfectly-good-chance-to-hire-someone-cd546f35cb6f

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mathattack
Very good post, though I disagree on reference checks. I've seen hiring
mistakes where a good reference check would have caught issues.

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zerotolerance
Thanks. I appreciate the discourse. I'd actually love to hear more about what
you would have discovered with the a reference check. Would you mind sharing?

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mathattack
Let's start that I agree with your base position: Asking someone they have
prepped should not get you much information. However, if you can even get good
information 10% of the time, it's worth doing. (Most interview techniques are
worthless, as you have alluded)

What instances could I have turned up with a reference check?

1 - We had a salesman who wouldn't pick up the phone. We could have gotten
some clues on if his performance to quota what the resource claimed. During
the sales interview it's ok to ask for precise performance against quotas, and
it's fair game to confirm with references.

2 - We had an engineer with extreme personality conflicts, who actively
subverted his coworkers. It was to a level that it would have turned up
previously, and we may have been able to suss this out.

How would I have gone about this?

1 - Asking "Given the opportunity, would you hire this candidate again?"
(Every once in a while you won't get an enthusiastic "Yes!" and this question
won't get the reference in legal trouble.)

2 - Asking very specific questions about specific contributions that the
candidate claimed.

3 - Going to a mutual friend during the reference check. (Note: You can't
ethically do this if you are poaching someone who is not public about their
job search)

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zerotolerance
Those are all fair. However, I think they are also unethical. If a "reference"
contributes anything that gives you cause to pass on a hire they can be
successfully sued for damages. As I understand it, this liability is the
primary reason that most companies no longer let their employees act as
references, and instead ask you to direct reference queries to the HR
department. If I know that calling a reference and prodding for negative
information may result in that person getting into legal trouble, I have a
difficult time justifying that act.

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mathattack
There are questions that you can ask without getting them in legal trouble.
Asking "Would you hire them again?" is a way to do this.

Also, the recipient of the call doesn't need to answer anything they don't
want.

I think the bigger ethical issue is asking references who the candidate hasn't
prepped. (You can hurt them if they're interviewing in confidence)

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ectoplasm
This doesn't work in the case where the reference is the candidate's former
superior and the superior is the kind of person you want to avoid dealing
with. I can't have been the only person to deal with manipulative bosses who
are sweet at first but turn on you when you assert yourself.

