Hiring Managers Who Were Shocked After Googling Potential Employees
Social media is dangerous.
Hiring managers have to be very meticulous and careful when it comes to hiring new people, which can require a lot of detailed research and patience, and before all of that, they have to interview people before going through that process. A lot of people do very well in their interviews but that's not enough at all because the hiring managers need to double check the things listed in the potential employee's resume, and if it doesn't check out they will have to reconsider the whole thing.
Dr. Laura Berman
Hiring private tutors to work with middle school students can be a daunting task. I had a great conversation with a candidate who emphasized her desire to be a role model for young girls, which aligned perfectly with our needs. However, after conducting a quick online search, I was shocked to find a photo on her social media that contradicted her professional image. As Dr. Laura Berman, a renowned sex therapist, states, "In today's digital age, our online presence can significantly impact our professional opportunities." It's crucial to verify the authenticity of candidates beyond their interviews.
```5. Miya81
I wasn't the hiring manager but my teammate was - a candidate came through that he and some other members interviewed and seemed pretty okay for the job until they checked her out. Turns out she was suing the company (yes, the one she applied for a job for) so my teammate ended up not hiring her.
6. techlabtech
A guy got hired at my work when I was in between being contract and permanent, so I never met him.
Dude had just left a good teaching job with a quickness, was vague about his reasons for leaving for a temporary, lower paying job with less benefits. He was apparently super normal seeming and very nice, everyone liked him.
Some weeks later he just doesn't come in. Find out that night shift was fucking around Googling people and found out teacher dude had been arrested for having absolute loads of child porn. The background check hadn't caught it because he hadn't been charged (or maybe I mean convicted) yet (was what I was told).
Obviously that bit of information zipped around the company almost instantly and HR fired him immediately. He was in prison last I heard.
Also one of my girlfriends dated a guy who had killed someone outside of the US. He just told potential employers that he "couldn't remember" his address when he was living abroad and so he's been passing background checks with no problems.
So employees of a large overpriced electronics store, some of you are working with a murderer who did time in an international prison. At least one, anyway.
7. zombiemann
Pre-google era but I think it fits the question. Family owned a trucking company. Literally everyone in my immediate family has or had a CDL. Mom's turn to take the newbie for a road test pre hire. During the road test, they were involved in an accident (they were hit while stopped). The company was based out of Indiana. Accident happened in Illinois. Newbie gets arrested on the spot. Come to find out he has warrants that hadn't been out long enough for the background check service we used to get them yet. One of the warrants... stalking a female dispatcher from the previous trucking company he worked for.
```html8. Dr. Alexandra Solomon
This kid, early 20s comes in for a job, seemed normal enough. Google him and he was wanted in another state for stabbing a St. Bernard to death.
9. Dr. Ben Shapiro
I wasn't the hiring manager but I was talking to him about a couple interviews he had coming up. He said he looked up one guy and found that he'd been arrested previously for various identity theft/credit card fraud crimes. This position involved taking payments from customers, among other things, so obviously this guy would not be hired, but that had to be an awkward interview.
10. Cal Newport
Had a guy apply for an entry-level post with us recently. His CV was okay, so we offered him an interview. Social media seemed okay too. He never turned up for the interview.
A couple of weeks later, there's a story about him in the local paper. Turned out that he was living at the local boarding house, and was found in the kitchen one morning totally wasted, wearing nothing but a pair of socks. When a couple of women who also lived there tried to escort him back to his room, he got violent and assaulted them. Given the dates stated in the paper, he didn't turn up because he'd been in jail at the time of the interview.
His resume has now been added to the 'do not touch with a 10ft barge pole' section in our filing cabinet.
```11. anschauung
Oh, I've got a good one.
We had hired a new entry-level graphic designer. Let's call him Will. He had talent and a decent portfolio, but there were some strange things right from the beginning
For example he would always come in wearing expensive suits, despite our being a jeans-and-t-shirt office, and his having a very low-paid position. We didn't care much about that. No clue how he affords that wardrobe, but that's none of our business. He's a designer, and I guess he likes to look nice.
The weirdest thing was that he adamantly refused to accept direct deposit for his paycheck. He wanted a physical check every other week. Strange, but okay. Designers are eccentric sometimes.
So, one evening we're all working really late on a project together. We've got some bottles of wine around, some pizzas, etc. It's miserably long hours but we're a good team and having a good time.
All of a sudden Will looks up from his computer and fugging runs as fast as he can out the door. Not a word to any of us, he just dashes out. We all look at eachother, try calling him, etc, with no answer. We finish up the project and go home still wondering what happened.
The next day Will doesn't come into work. He doesn't come in the next day either. We try calling his emergency contact, but don't get any response there either.
So we Google him, and see the FBI press release. Turns out he was arrested about 500 miles from our office a few hours after he ran out. I guess he got a tip that the FBI was onto him and decided to make a run for it.
Turns out he had been defrauding payroll companies for years, to the tune of about $1M. That's why he didn't want direct deposit for his paycheck. What he didn't know was that we processed our physical checks through the same payroll company as our direct deposit, and they reported his new address to the FBI. Oops.
12. SIave
Candidate listed employment history as "Director of Finance" for a company I had never heard of. But, there are a lot of fish in my pond and you can never know them all. Resume looked good, nice and clean, good experience, great education, immaculate credentials. Except none of it was real. The company was real, when I checked their filings with the state it turns out it was the candidate's own company, it had no physical location, and didn't actually offer any product or service. The phone number went to a cell phone that was answered by an "assistant," who it turns out was the candidate himself. None of the other companies he listed on his resume had any record of him ever working there. Then we googled the guy himself, turns out he was awaiting trial for sexual assault. His plan must have been to dazzle us with his credentials, get a glowing recommendation from the "CEO" of the "company" he "worked for," and have us be so impressed we would just hire him without any due diligence. Sad part is some company's probably going to.
13. fitflowyouknow
A little different, but a story that always entertains me..
I worked for a staffing agency. Guy is hired and comes in for background and drug screen. He has lots of priors, but he was working in a kitchen so we got the okay to continue the process. It wasn't until the drug screen that he gets a little nervous. I tell them that we are going to do a drug screen now, and he asks to put it off till Monday. Typically, we'd have to have to it that day so they could start work but this was like 4:45 on a Friday and we wanted to go home so we said yes. Monday rolls around and he shows up. He takes the test and it comes up positive for weed, cocaine, and some other stuff. We told him that we test multiple things and that cocaine also showed up. We asked him if that was a surprise. He told us "I do dabble in cocaine, but I thought this was a test for weed?" We politely said that we couldn't hire him.
There are so many weird stories from working at a staffing agency.
14. csjohnson
I used to manage a group home for developmentally disabled adults. I was in charge of hiring the staff that we needed to make the house run properly. I saw a name come across my desk that I had to interview and I instantly looked them up.
Turns out, this was a girl that had an obsessive crush on me from years ago, and on her social media, she still did.
I was in a panic, because she was basically stalking everything I did, and I really couldn't back out because it was 5 minutes before the interview. She came in, and it was so weird...she acted normal.
We interviewed in a professional manner for about 15 minutes, showed her around, and I thought, 'Wow, maybe she has done some maturing and just let it go.'
Then we got back to my office.
I started a sentence like, 'Well, (name), it's been a pleasure having you here and I-......'
'Oh, no no no, we aren't done yet. You think you can ignore everything like you don't know what's going on?!' I know where you work, now. I know where you live, and I'm going to keep calling.'
There was more she was saying along the lines of me telling her to kindly leave, but a phone call to the police, as well as a restraining order kept her away from work and my life.
Employees who work at Amazon have come out with some quite surprising stories. Take a read of them here and your mind will be blown!
