Lies Get You Jobs

On my way in to work this morning I read an article in the Chicago Redeye, a free spin-off of the Chicago Tribune aimed at shoving as much advertising as possible in front of public transit commuters. The article was about the many faux pas committed by job hunters and covered topics from poor dress at the interview to using text speech in resumes and email communications. While most of the things mentioned in the article made complete sense they were also pretty common sense: don't answer your cell phone in an interview, don't have your phone on in an interview, etc. There was one, however, that annoyed the piss out of me and I simply disagree with.

Rule: "Never say anything remotely negative about a former job/employer."
Me: "Why the fuck would I be job hunting if I LOVE my job so much??"

I get it, you probably should not walk into an interview and call your former boss a complete prick or that the office just smelled bad so you couldn't work there anymore. However, expecting people to lie through their teeth during an interview just seems ridiculous and can't possibly set things off on the right foot. Instead, you are asking that the interviewee simply pretend everything is honkey dory and expecting the interviewer to overlook the obvious. If someone is leaving their job, then there is something about it they do not like.

And you should want to hear what that is! You should want to know what it is about the interviewee that makes them want to leave their job. Maybe they are having a legitimately negative experience at their current workplace or maybe they are just whiny or maybe they really are enjoying their gig and think they can get more money from you, but if you set the expectation up front that they should just plain-out lie, then you'll never know. If instead you set the expectation up front that you want real, honest answers, you might be surprised at what you get. If someone left every job they had because their "boss sucked" then you can make some inferences from that, but if they left one job because of a particular reason that they think is negative you can use that information to see if the interviewee is a good fit. Does you office have the same stifling silence that drove him crazy? Then it probably won't go well. But maybe your office plays Muzac over the speaker system so you think that this person will make a better fit at your company. But you wouldn't know that if you expect a bald faced lie up front.

The whole interview process is pretty much BS though. We're expected to fluff up our resumes before we apply to a position, which we know the company fluffed up the job description to because as soon as we start as the new Senior Account Manager For Media Relations we know we'll be licking envelopes to mail out for 4 hours a day and trying to pretend to do work for the other 4 hours. We're then expected to dress up all perty just so we can wear cheap slacks or jeans on the first day…. It's all built on lies. And then the recruiters wonder why they can't find quality candidates and everyone comes in with stock answers. It's not the interviewees fault that they followed in the company's footsteps and embellished about their skills and experience.

Of course at this point, that is all irrelevant. Corporate culture is far too wrapped up in this game to really make a difference. If some company variates they will be seen as a weird, possibly unstable choice for the candidate, and if the candidate variates they are seen as lazy, unfit, rude, etc. Welcome to job hunting!