Fake interviews. What are they? How can a candidate spot them?

For those of you who don’t know what is a fake interview you should keep reading. If you know what is a fake interview and if you can easily identify one then you should read this article anyway.

Based on my experience I could identify four categories of fake interviews:

1. From the employer to the candidate
2. From the candidate to employer
3. From the recruiter to candidate
4. From the fake recruiter to other honest recruiter- pretending as a candidate to another recruiter

1) From the employer to the candidate

This means that the employer is not really really hiring. He posted a job announcement for three of the following reasons:

• to gather information from the job market. This way they could find out how well people are prepared and they could also create a pool of contact data when they will need it. This is a stupid reason from my point of view. Good people are not available at the drop of your hat. Besides if you have no good reason to reject them, then be sure that they will not work for you any time soon. Spot: The whole conversation is very artificial and it goes like a standardized procedure. They just want some certain information, therefore they will follow precise steps.
• to get solution to their problems for free. We are already talking about cheap scams. They are presenting their own problems that they are having on their tasks and you should find a solution for them since they were unable to find it themselves. The interviewer will try to make you believe that problem is not something that they are currently working on. The most common practice for this is to hide it on technical tests. Keep in mind that you are not paid for this. Spot: The questions either form technical tests or the conversation are very specific. You need to understand a particular context in order to solve the problem.
• a specific candidate must obtain the job, therefor other candidates will be invited, and eventually rejected, so the hiring process will look legit for the upper management. Sigh! That’s sad. I think I’ve said enough for this point. Spot: The interviewers have low energy or an eyesore attitude to you, as a candidate. They know that they are doing something just to be done, with no expected outcome whatsoever and you — the poor candidate, should develop this spider sens in time.

Aftermath: Your reputation will be damaged. Good people are well informed and they talk. A website with company reviews is what it takes to kiss goodbye to the the good applicants. So the whole scheme (or scam) was also a waste of time.

2) From the candidate to employer

What I’ve presented above is creepy and probably a reply to candidates who can also be fake. I am not an employer for the moment so I don’t know how to spot a fake candidate.

Fake candidates are applying, without looking for a job, for the following reasons:

• to see what a specific company has to offer. They could also research it online or offline — with people from their network. There’s no need to waste people’s time including theirs.
• “to test their knowledge”. Yet another dumb idea. If you want a challenge, you can always develop a project in your spare time and see if you can complete it.

Aftermath: Inadequate time usage, if “wasting” is not the appropriate word. You will likely be kept in their records, so you just banned yourself.

3) From the recruiter to candidate

This one is similar to 1) the recruiter is looking for data, or he pretends to do his job. While not all recruiters are the same, I don’t work with recruitment agencies anymore. The spotting hints are pretty much the same — look at their attitude and watch out for technical tests and their phantom clients that “cannot be revealed”.

4) From the fake recruiter — pretending as a candidate to another recruiter

This one is my favorite. People tempt to feel insulted when I say that I don’t like recruitment agencies but here’s another reason of why I think this industry is highly corrupted.

Let’s say an honest recruiter is posting a job for a software tester. A fake recruiter will apply, as a fake tester trying to pull additional (and maybe confidential) information about that job.

I am not a recruiter, so again, I don’t know what to say regarding a spotting hint.

Conclusion

Obviously, fake interviews are no good. The word “fake” itself is eyesore to me. Even if you might gain a quick win, the consequences are bad on the long run.

For real candidates, I would like to mention again the spotting hints, so they will not waste time on fake interviews:

• standardized and procedural approach
• very specific problems that you have to solve
• bored/rushed or any negative attitude

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.