Colleague lied on CV/at interview and got job - do I say anything?

[Waferbiscuit]

A member of my team, who I will call 'Dave' applied for a role as a Senior Mgr in a different arm of my organisation. I sat on the interview panel (but not the chair) so was 1 of 4 people reviewing and scoring the applications. Panel members scored Dave highly and he was invited to interview.

Dave has been in my team for 5 years in a relatively junior/asst role. He is very good and we get along well. In the last 3 months he was upgraded to a management post, which was a big jump. So to be clear he worked for 4 years 9 months in a Asst role and 3 months as a Manager.

On Dave's CV he stated that he worked as a Manager the entire last 5 years. He never stated that he was an Assistant, he just put Manager on his CV with dates covering the last 5 years. I was very surprised to see this on his CV as it suggests he's much more senior than he is. However, I didn't want to 'out him' to the whole panel as a liar (because it would have repercussions on his reputation and future opportunities) and so I asked to talk to the Chair privately about it after the interviews. Dave did well in the first interview but came in tied for 3rd so I didn't think he would progress further. However I still asked the Chair for a conversation in private.

The Chair didn't contact me despite me asking for a call a few times, specifically saying that I wanted to talk to him about Dave. And as agreed the Chair set up second interviews with different panel members. Turns out a number of people pulled out of the interviews and Dave ended up being invited to interview and was their first choice. Dave got offered the job. Dave agreed to the job, contract is signed and Dave has resigned from his current post.

I can't change that Dave has been offered the job but (a) do I say something to the Chair or (b) do I say something to Dave? I appreciate that it's a done deal but I do feel lying isn't on and doing so put me, as a panel member and his manager, in a difficult position.

people on mumsnet are so judge-y!!!

what about the OP being wholly inappropriate for initiating this thread and posting about a very unique and confidential HR situation on MN. Added to the other clusterfuck, I'd say "people on MN are so judge-y" is very very wide of the mark.

I wouldn’t waste anymore headspace on it. What’s done is done…it is in nobody’s best interest to do anything about it now. He clearly interviewed well they appointed him based on that. He may well excel in a management role. He might be rubbish at it and end up a poor performer. If he’d been appointed to a role as a brain surgeon or a CEO then I would suggest you should probably still intervene…but a manager role….put it in perspective…over-promoted managers are so common they are practically the norm!

“Clusterfuck” is so much of an exaggeration. It’s a mistake, but really not that huge a deal.

You have to bring it up because otherwise you're complicit in his lies so will look incompetent at best and fraudulent at worst

You have to mention it

Yes, you're doing something wrong. If you joined as a junior and then were promoted, you should be listing your experience as:

September 2017-January 2021 X Company Junior analyst
January 2021 - Current X Company Senior Analyst.

They are two separate jobs. It just happens that they were at the same organisation.

You should have something in writing that tells you when you were promoted.

In @Waferbiscuit's case she says that Chancer was only promoted 3 months before, so I expect he remembers!

OP raising it now doesn’t reflect well on you. You should have read his CV properly and raised it immediately not waited for the Chair to meet you or hope that Dave won’t get it.

I recently interviewed and the nr 5 person shortlisted got the job in the end!!

Dave got the job and signed the contract. If you raise it now, it looks like sour grapes and generally doesn’t reflect well on you (didn’t review CV properly in first instance).

Well, yes.

But there's a massive difference (legal, regulatory) between a mandatory qualification for a role (like being a doctor) and saying you worked at a higher level than you did (not mandatory).

Ethically, it's an issue.

But if a candidate has successfully got through the entire recruitment process, they have recourse to argue that the process should have identified the issue before offering them the job. If it wasn't mandatory that they have this particular experience, it's hard to argue for retracting an offer subsequently. Which is why OP needed to have been clear, earlier.

Frankly you had your moment at the first interview stage to air the whole issue with the panel. That's what I would have done. Especially if I had worked as his line manager.

It depends how it was worded on the CV I guess.

However you should have mentioned it at the time. I feel you will look a bit of a tit for bringing it up now, especially if he can do the job well.

Unless you're doing something very serious like brain surgery, you should let this slide.

Dave's a cheeky fucker, but god loves a trier

The time to mention it was at the interview, that would be professional.
So it wouldn't look good on you now....sort of sour grapes.
I would let it go , it wouldn't be fair on Dave now ....and to be clear, it's quite common to exagerate at an interview.
And I'm willing to bet he will good at his job as he has the confidence.

I think this is why it can be tricky to get an internal promotion - external candidates can polish up their experience as much as they like, but an internal candidate will get caught out. Although not this time!

PS. This thread had some delightful echoes of the US ‘The Office’ with Dwight describing himself as Assistant Regional Manager and Jim happily reminding him that he is actually ‘Assistant to the Regional Manager’. 😂