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From: Richard Fangnail on 25 Mar 2010 14:08
My friend is a software designer and he says he interviewed some guy
who claimed to know a programming language but didn't. Why do people
do that, knowing perfectly well they will get fired after a few days?

Are there people who go to a lot of trouble to get a job even if they
will get fired right away? It sounds silly, but there are all types.

Have you generally found that people often apply for jobs they
couldn't really do?

I worked in an office where we used Word and Excel and people always
said they had advanced skills. But in fact they had just used those
for a long time, but only the most basic features.
From: Rod Speed on 25 Mar 2010 14:37
Richard Fangnail wrote:

> My friend is a software designer and he says he interviewed some
> guy who claimed to know a programming language but didn't.

Not uncommon.

> Why do people do that,

Because if you are any good, it isnt hard to pickup a new
language quickly if you are already fluent in a number of others.

> knowing perfectly well they will get fired after a few days?

Because that doesnt necessarily happen.

> Are there people who go to a lot of trouble to
> get a job even if they will get fired right away?

Sure, because that result isnt guaranteed.

> It sounds silly, but there are all types.

There are indeed, particularly when jobs are short.

> Have you generally found that people often apply for jobs they couldn't really do?

Depends on what you mean by often. Plenty do believe they can work out how to do most jobs.

A few even believe that with surgery etc and have managed to fools others too.

> I worked in an office where we used Word and Excel
> and people always said they had advanced skills.

Its more advanced than using a manual typewriter.

> But in fact they had just used those for a
> long time, but only the most basic features.

Hordes claim that they are better than they actually are.

One feller I know had himself photographed in front of lots of advanced
equipment that he knew nothing about, and claimed that he was responsible
for the maintenance of all of it, when applying for another job.

Another was sacked as lecturer in computing in a community
collegs and when they were cleaning out his room, they found
'Learn Basic in 5 days' book, back in the early 70s. Plenty
applied for jobs in computing and claimed that they had done
a lot of programming on their Commodore 64 at that time too.


From: BigDog1 on 25 Mar 2010 14:45
On Mar 25, 12:08 pm, Richard Fangnail <richardfangn...(a)excite.com>
wrote:
> My friend is a software designer and he says he interviewed some guy
> who claimed to know a programming language but didn't.  Why do people
> do that, knowing perfectly well they will get fired after a few days?
>
> Are there people who go to a lot of trouble to get a job even if they
> will get fired right away?  It sounds silly, but there are all types.
>
> Have you generally found that people often apply for jobs they
> couldn't really do?
>
> I worked in an office where we used Word and Excel and people always
> said they had advanced skills.  But in fact they had just used those
> for a long time, but only the most basic features.

Yeah, it happens. But why doesn't your friend use proficiency testing
as part of the hiring process? It's neither hard nor expensive to
screen out the pretenders. Like every company, we occasionally got a
new employee who didn't work out for one reason or another, but not
for lack of the requisite technical skills.
From: Clincher on 28 Mar 2010 12:24

"Richard Fangnail" <richardfangnail(a)excite.com> wrote in message
news:2bd9d05f-62e2-45aa-8bd4-3b4011178e43(a)f13g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
> My friend is a software designer and he says he interviewed some guy
> who claimed to know a programming language but didn't. Why do people
> do that, knowing perfectly well they will get fired after a few days?


Probably people accustomed to government or union jobs where it's all but
impossible to fire someone (and "inability to do the job" isn't a permission
reason.)

Even outside these realms, it's tough, expensive and litigationally risky to
fire someone. In this time of unemployment, labor laws arguably make this
kind of fraud profitable.





From: SMS on 29 Mar 2010 11:46
On 25/03/10 11:08 AM, Richard Fangnail wrote:
> My friend is a software designer and he says he interviewed some guy
> who claimed to know a programming language but didn't. Why do people
> do that, knowing perfectly well they will get fired after a few days?

Many of the job descriptions are written in a way that there is no one
on the planet that could meet all the requested skills.

A well written job description, for a job that actually exists, will
include absolutely required skills as well as preferred skills. I've
found that it's beneficial to be honest in the cover letter, admitting
the criteria you don't meet, while emphasizing those that you do meet.
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