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.

Any advice to act unprofessionally when you’re representing your employer is bad advice.

Why are you suspicious? We ask our candidates to send in their lesson/Presentation plans in advance of their interviews so our IT department can create log ins, load their content on the laptop ready to use on the day. Much better experience for candidates and less stress for staff. We don’t accept USBs.

Our interview days are so full on, literally like a full assessment day. If you work in my field it’s a blessing to be this organised ahead of interviews.

Let us know what the chair says. I had similar once. A junior member of staff writing something up as if they had developed it. Male junior member of staff.

Many years ago I watched a presentation at a training day, presented as his study and presentation.

I had worked on that study and my colleague had presented it.

I spent the entire time asking questions I knew he couldn’t answer.
at the very end I asked him ‘what was the role of x and y in this? Cue faffing and murmurs that yes they where important…
my reply ‘do you know my name? Im y’

Slightly off topic perhaps but surely these slides are actually the intellectual property of your former employer? So no-one should be sharing them in external interviews regardless of who prepared them.

I had a similar case with a former colleague years ago (minus the slides). I’d moved from company A to company B and a few years later was part of an interview/recruitment evening on behalf of B. I was actually holiday that day but went into the B’s office that evening to be part of one of the interview panels. On my way in I bumped into someone I used to work with at company A and he said he was going to an interview evening and I thought hmmm. B is a huge company so he could have been interviewing for a myriad of roles but I checked my list once I got inside and he wasn’t one of mine so that was fine.

But….turns out between interview rounds that all of the panels got together to discuss the candidates they’d just seen so he was one of the candidates discussed. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered he talked all about the project he’d managed so successfully at company A. Except he wasn’t the project manager, he was one of the IT developers. The actual project manager was me!!! And yes I did tell everyone there and then (I was so shocked that not saying something didn’t even cross my mind). And no he didn’t progress to the next round.

that linkedin is a most excellent tool and yes he should of matched the names but then thats presuming he knew your on the panel etc

if its ok to ask, what is the intel about ?

I wouldn't hesitate to share that the candidate is presenting your work as his own. I would expect his interview offer to be withdrawn.

Yes, if I were you I would absolutely share this information before the interview.

Years ago when I was a consultant for the government, a senior minister asked for some information to help him put together a presentation for an important meeting. Since I had a lot of the information in a presentation that I had used a few times, I sent him that. Imagine my surprise when attending the meeting he gave my presentation verbatim with no acknowledgement to me.
The guy is still a senior advisor to the government, and I think he is a dick.

I’d tell the chair in advance. I’ve had colleagues use work i’ve done as examples for their own job interviews. One even asked me to look at her form. Can’t get over the cheek. Guess this guy has no idea its your work he’s passing off as his own.

Let the chair know and find another candidate to interview! On the other hand I would quite enjoy watching Billy boy squirm.

Wouldn't pass our cyber controls either.

People are sometimes incredibly oblivious.

I once watched someone give an entire talk plagiarising someone else's research. She knew perfectly well the author of the original research was there; she referred to her during the talk. Afterwards everyone was just a bit stunned - she genuinely seemed to think she'd contributed something new when the whole thing was a paraphrase of someone else's stuff.

No I was never allowed to use them at work and that was some 17 years ago. They are still in use in general though

Not really the point. He HAS been caught out. No way would I pick him for the job.

Is he definitely passing it off as his own though? Or just using it to highlight the project?

When my last Head Teacher started his campaign of undermining me he criticised my maths planning (primary) without telling me what was actually wrong. He did tell me there was some very good maths planning on the school server that I should look at - guess who put it there.

It isn't necessarily unprofessional though. I've spent years in senior exec positions, and it is what I would do.

First question I ask a potential candidate talking about their prized project is… how long ago was it? And his answer being 7 years, my thought would be… your best example of a project is from 7 years ago??!

I’d tell the chair but agree specific questions that you can ask each of the candidates so you can make it equal but also ensure you are probing him.

It is easy to put on paper you have led a project, but harder to explain your role in it when asked. Then you can gauge his response and score accordingly.

Unlikely, but he might come to the interview and come at it in a way you don’t expect. If he doesn’t remember you and outright lies about his involvement and takes the credit for the work you did, then it is false representation. Either way you will have given him the benefit of the doubt first before making a decision

Bizarre. What a waste of time and energy.

I would be inclined to stay quiet, wait for the interview, wait until it’s your turn to ask Bob a question and say ‘Well, well, well! Bob Johnson! I thought your name sounded familiar, long time no see. Love this deck, I couldn’t have written it better myself.’ Then give a little wink.

Watch dodgy Bob squirm.

Then say to the rest of the panel when his interview has finished ‘Bob is a definite no, I wrote that deck word for word’.

Oh no, Bill is so unlucky! 🤦‍♀️

Have you ever worked in a professional al environment @Moveoverdarlin?

genuine question