Job candidate has presented my work as his own

[PurplePirate]

Will try to keep this short. Have also changed some details for privacy.

I am on an interview panel tomorrow (via Zoom). The chair has just emailed through the pack which includes the slides prepared by the three candidates for their presentations. We ask them to send through their slides in advance in case there is a problem with the Zoom link on the day.

One candidate, I will call Bill, worked at the same company as me about six years ago. When I was there I led a project and I created a distinctive and rather lovely slide deck as part of my work.

FF six years and Bill has submitted my slide deck. The presentation task is something like "Describe a project you have led and your approach to organisational transformation". So do I assume Bill is going to pass my work off as his own? Do I tell the chair now? Wait until the interview and watch him twig?

Bill may not realise I am on the interview panel. We do tell candidates the names of the panel beforehand but I am a last minute replacement for a colleague who is ill so I don't know if HR updated the candidates. I was not involved in shortlisting Bill.

Grrr...! TBH I don't believe his excuse for not turning up. It's too, too convenient.

Bill’s wife is on MN and told him that he’d been rumbled.

he has someone who knows someone and has connections ?

Did he know you were on the panel @PurplePirate ? Maybe that spooked him.

He saw OP’s email address in the Teams invitation and shat himself.

It will be interesting to see whether he does indeed change positions in the next few weeks!

Doesn’t Linked In tell the person who has looked their profile? I’m guessing that when OP looked up Bill on there he received a notification, realised his mistake and shat himself.

@PurplePirate Check your Linked In. Has Bill checked your profile in the past day or two?

He won't!

depends on the settings if you have it in private mode then no but if public then yes

Well, bullet dodged OP 😂

Thing is, I suspect this isn't that uncommon. I used to work in a large public sector organisation and, frankly, it was quite disturbing to see and hear the 'claims' made by some career-climbing senior folk - CV embellishments, and plain old lies, were not uncommon.

Good on you for challenging and checking this

I know you say your HR is risk averse but they were right in this instance, you can't assume anything until it actually happens. If you'd pulled the interview that could open up a can of worms with him saying he would have credited you/was going to say he was involved with but didn't lead the project/attached the wrong slides/insert any other bullshit excuse here.

As it happens he's most definitely twigged you're on the panel and saved you the time and hassle. It's the ideal solution all round I'd say!

in terms of protecting the business
Yeah

I really don't miss this crap

I say that because every so often I think I should go after a fixed job - not sure if I could even get one now - instead of being freelance - because you know benefits etc (most mostly private health and pension seem very exciting)

I just struggle with all of the politics.

Probably the simplest explanation, it would also explain why it was last minute because he was prepping to join the meeting, saw the OP was on the panel and knew he had fucked up.

I find it a bit suss that someone would accept an offer literally minutes before an interview unless it was such a spectacular package no other job could ever come close

He totally found out somehow 😀

You seem to be giving a lot of advice confidently based on a complete and misunderstanding of protected characteristics.

Everyone has protected characteristics (plural), such as sex, which includes being a man. Being a man = having a protected characteristic.

So it wouldn’t be risky to assume someone has no protected characteristics, it wouldn’t be downright bizarre.

Anyway OP alls well that ends well. I agree with others that he likely found out you were on the panel and dropped out accordingly.

I don’t believe Bill, he’s full of shit.

Totally this!

I'd ask him how he formulated the content of the slides? Ask him what potential pitfalls were involved? See what he makes up.

Kill Bill!

He'd probably tell you to read the thread.

@PurplePirate Then - Bill was a no-show! He emailed HR 40 minutes before to say he was withdrawing his application as he had just received another offer which he had accepted. We didn't get the message until just as his interview was due to start, so by that point I was a nervous wreck.

Ha! Bill is so on Mumsnet! 😂