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.

This happened to me. Although I wasn’t on the panel I met the candidates before their interview I was an adviser on the topic of the role . One of them I d worked with on a protect I devised and wrote up and this was exactly what she was using in her interview presentation and passing off as her own. I waited til after the interviews and before they chose anyone and told the chair of the panel. They thought she’d done a good interview and were going to offer her the job until I told them what she’d done and they decided not to offer her the job

I would definitely discuss your concerns with the chair but it would be great to see how he handles the interview, especially if after his presentation you can say that you know it well seeing as you created it !

No, it was commercially sensitive so I didn't keep any electronic files from my last job. So actually I couldn't prove straight away it was mine. But I am still in touch with my old colleagues who would vouch for them being mine.

@WTAFIsWrongWithPeople I don't know him well enough to know how much he could bullshit his way through the presentation and questions. We operated a really transparent project though so if he was so motivated to read all of the project documents he could probably get by.

You have to tell the chair. If you don’t and tries to pass it off as his work, and you then raise the issue after the interview, then that reflects badly on you, because potentially you have wasted their time by letting this candidate be interviewed when you knew he was not presenting his own work.

I have no idea why you be unsure, it’s pretty clear.

It was a PowerPoint I had prepared to raise awareness of a significant annual event. Let’s say I am a butcher and it was about National Sausage Week!

He sent “his” slides to various national lead butchers passing them off as his own about four years later. I emailed everyone in the Confederation of Butchers that I was mates with (not just a blanket email to all) saying oh look! Johnny Jones has resurrected my old National Sausage Week presentation! Remember when I circulated it four years ago!? lol!

It just made him look really foolish but I was steaming. Especially as a rare woman in a very male dominated field (not actually butchery!🤣)

I think your situation is different because of the job application. I would tell the other panel members and let them draw their own conclusions.

Of course you tell the chair. Conducting interviews is a serious business that costs your company money and your colleagues time. I'd be very annoyed to be on a panel with someone who used it as an opportunity to make someone 'squirm' when they could have saved us a couple of hours interviewing a clearly unsuitable candidate, and may have cost us the opportunity to offer an interview to someone else.

Oh I hope this is real
very entertaining if so!

Does your employer have any policies around bringing in commercially sensitive information from old employments?

I’d be sacked for even having a presentation like that saved on my laptop, never mind if I was sharing it around or intending to present it to colleague.

You don’t know that they are unsuitable, and you don’t know that other candidates aren’t doing the same. And the OP can’t prove it.

They will need to give a reason to cancel the interview. “One of the panel said that you didn’t deliver this project” is likely to be followed up with SAR requests and all sorts which will waste far more time than the interview. The interview gives the opportunity to decline and give other reasons and feedback, which could include “the panel weren’t convinced that you had the role you implied on the X project”, which is far far neater.

Surely you'd need to tell the Chair of a potential conflict of interest anyway that you previously worked with this person? That you know them?

Can you click the info on the slide deck and see if your name is still on the slide data?

I'm taking it as a compliment. It was a dream project and a very, very beautiful slide deck. For people who run projects, you will know that these come along once in a lifetime - the perfect team, working on the perfect opportunity, at the perfect time. Seven years later I still use elements of it in my work.

It was commercially sensitive 6 years ago when I left. Now you could probably argue it isn't anymore. A lot of the information is in the public domain now.

I'm not sure you should remain on the panel and believe it's that which should be cancelled not his attendance. You do not know at this stage how he will present the work.

The reason why you should contact your other interviewers before the panel isn't because he might be lying but because you have insight into his past which may make the interview unfair for him or others. You can share this with the rest of the panel without looking like a dick, for example:

"I know candidate X from when I worked at Y. I led the project I believe he's intending to discuss his involvement with. I want to offer that it may be unfair for me to be part of the panel for his interview due to my prior knowledge of him and the project."

It's not accusing him of stealing your work, but it's also saying that anyway. At least then you've been up front so if the other panel members want you present, that's fine but also if he's later rejected and you've not been open, that could lead you to some hot water.

but still the panel will know in advance?

As my Nan once said "Be sure your sins will find you out"

For those of us who run projects I cannot think of a single one where I wasn't about to throw myself off a cliff by the end. I do not recognise that description in the slightest nor can I think of anyone who would share that.

I know this seems unlikely, as he has used your complete slide deck, but is it possible he has delivered a similar project in the interim and used your beautiful slides?

I didn’t suggest she tell the panel in advance.

A memory stick? It's 2026! The computers in our meeting rooms don't have any ports accessible to put a memory stick, and even if they did it's strictly prohibited by our cyber security protocols.

I'm confused about why Bill hasn't done anything impressive in over half a decade and has been selected for an interview?

I'd be embarrassed about presenting such an old presentation! Why wouldn't you just speak to the Chair? 🤣

This whole scenario is just really weird! Are you public or private sector?

A memory stick! Blast from the past!!

To be fair the other 2 are probably doing the same. Don't we all say or do what we know will get us the job. At least you know whether he is a good colleague and he's keen to get the job.