}

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Adventures in Recruiting: Part I: The Alias

The other day I had a really funny experience which I posted on Facebook.  It got so much response I thought I would post it here for my readers to enjoy.

I received a resume through my website.  I opened the email, read the cover letter and then opened the attached resume.  I instantly got confused.  The name on the resume, while similar to the one on the email, was not the same.  I emailed the candidate telling him that I was confused.

To be clear (and I am making up the name to protect the guilty), the email name was Joseph Smith.  The name on his resume was: Steven Joseph.  I asked for an explanation.

Before you read the punch line, I have to tell you that in all my years of recruiting, this is a first.  Here is his verbatim email to me:

"Name is [Joseph Steven Smith] - when i [sic] initially put this resume together I was freaked out about having my name out there as looking for a job, since this industry is quite small and incestuous!"

Think about this for a while. 

I have heard of people changing their resumes:  They change their college degrees (I had a candidate once change his college - and he got caught), I have seen people change employment dates, I have even seen people change the accounts that they worked on.  But I have never seen someone change their name.

Would love your comments.

7 comments:

  1. This brings to mind your blog about people being afraid and reinforces the crazy things they do because of fear.

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  2. Pass - he doesn't get the job. Lack of detail orientation. To be thorough he should have used a pseudonym on his email, too!

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  3. Actually a few creative people have changed names a few times. It was never for a good reason.

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  4. Well since he knows the ad community is small and incestuous why use a pseudonym name. Bad strategy in my humble opinion

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  5. Better yet he should have called himself Ann O'Neemus

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  6. WOW! was this for an account management position?

    ReplyDelete
  7. These days, anything is possible. People really do not think we (HR) do our jobs... sad truth!

    ReplyDelete

I would welcome your comments, suggestions or anything you would like to share with me or my readers.

 
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