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.

I once received a job application for a post requiring specific qualifications. The cover letter read ‘whilst I have no qualifications or experience, my husband, working in x (unrelated field), believes I would be very good at this job’. 😮

I’m sure the OP will declare her authorship of the presentation, work on the project, and potential conflict of interest as part of this panel.

The chair can decide what to do with that information, giving the candidate right of reply, which would be fair practice.

We also ask for presentations in advance to avoid IT glitches. We’re more interested in assessing critical thinking and what candidates choose to articulate verbally than the slides. I’ve never retained or repurposed one either.

🥱

because I have been around mumsnet long enough to know it’s not worth my energy trying to respond 🤷‍♀️

It was quite clear to me that this posters comment was in response to the post she had quoted. Much like this post is a response to your comment, and your comment is a response to the post you quoted.

Context is important.
Professionalism is important.
Schadenfreude, however thrilling, is unprofessional.

The slide deck is work product, and who should be using it, where and in what context is not possible for this forum to guess (even if you did pull together the slides way back when ).

What is fact however is that you have a potential (I would say, clear) conflict of interest as a panel member.

Note to Chairman

'Candidate X is known to me, as a work colleague for several years. They were not a direct report. The submitted slides suggest they will be talking about a project I, in fact, led. I am aware this knowledge could impact my impartiality and lead to unfair advantage or disadvantage for X or indeed other candidates. On this basis I recommend I recuse myself from the panel for this candidate interview, although I am happy to feedback on the substance of their curriculum vitae should the candidate move forward, if that would be helpful. Please advice'

The candidate might stand up and say while I am currently working on Project B, I wanted to talk to you about an exemplary past project that has been my inspiration, and how I have applied the learnings to my current project'
Or he might indeed be a chancer, desperately floundering for something to send in. Exactly the same applies to the other candidates.

Based on your post, I would say the possibility of your impartiality is low.

That’s literally all people do on here. The threads move away from just the OP and become discussions about other people’s terrible advice.

There are lots of very good reasons why they can't bring them on a 'memory stick'.

My organisation won't even let it's own employees use USB memory devices or any unknown USBs like portable fans into company equipment due to the security risks they present. They certainly aren't going to encourage some random candidate there for the day to do it.

Plus it's 2026 - they are mostlt entirely unnecessary these days with all the available cloud storage.

I have no idea what all the deletions are about.

People, read the OP. It’s an interview over zoom. No one is walking in with memory sticks. And as others have said, our laptops don’t accept memory sticks because of cyber security risks.

I had a long talk with the chair and we have both gone away to read the extensive recruitment policy and guidance. She is going to speak to HR first thing in the morning. We have an horrendously risk averse HR and this is a sensitive/senior appointment so it is complicated.

I did the right thing by raising it with her but was left to feel like I was part of the problem. Fucking hell Bill, how hard was it just to put your own slides together!

Haha, thanks for flagging the edit. What a cock!

@PurplePiratewhen Bill sees you at the interview tomorrow (via Zoom), do you think he will panic and think, ‘oh shit, I’m rumbled-I stole her project’ or is he likely to have completely rewritten this in his own head as 100% his own?!

Oh to be a fly on the zoom wall!!!

Not sure what’s so odd! But hey ho

He's not going to be an impressive candidate for a senior leadership role if his interview is going to rely on an 8 year old slide deck. Very one dimensional.

Presumably you'll be able to pick up anomalies between when he claims he was involved in the project (2018) and what his CV actually states. Misalignment in dates will be difficult for him to justify.

I had a much smaller version of this happen to me recently, in my case the applicant knew I was part of the panel which made it even stranger.

I mentioned it after the interview and it was one of the reasons they weren't appointed.

Still baffled though.

I hope it all goes well for you today.

Strange. Really odd that they wanted slides in advance as well considering it's via zoom. (Who is still using zoom?) Also as these slides are commercially sensitive, which you've already said, but also really old, there are many ways to not see this presentation positively. (I.e. he's sharing a deck from another company, he's sharing other peoples' work and also he's sharing old work.)

Anyway. The more important thing after the interview is to go back to the Chair and talk to them about it. Thank them for listening to your concerns and being so reasonable about it (even if you don't think they were). Ask their opinion on what they would have done in your situation and if there's anything you could or should have done to handle it better? That shows maturity and gets the Chair to reflect on the fact you were between a rock and a hard place. It also gives you the chance to sense check as often we all think "oh they're not happy with me" when it might be they were simply unhappy about the situation not you per se.

You are kind of overthinking it I think. You were definitely right to raise it, but personally I would have flagged it by email, and then wait until after the interview had gone ahead for a deeper conversation with HR and the chair.

You don't know yet how he will be presenting the project, and whether he will even be considered for the role after this round. The question of whether or not it matters that he using someone else's slides is only relevant if you seriously consider recruiting him.

You also have no idea what the circumstances around it are. Or if other candidates are doing the same thing.

If he is re-using the slides but presenting the project from his department angle, then it's not such a big deal.

I think the chair was just stressed. She needs to appoint quickly and the process has dragged on. Then one of the panel was ill last minute and she had to scramble around for a replacement (me). Now I have brought this problem to her.

Interviews are this afternoon and we are hoping to have a meeting with our HR bod this morning. I probably won’t be able to update until the end of the day.

I’m itching to message my old colleagues who I am still in touch with to get the lowdown on Bill!

Very interested to see how the interview goes.

Good luck today. I’m sure you know already but be super careful what you discuss with old colleagues. No mention of his application obviously-GDPR. 🙏

Don't do that. Don't contact the ex colleagues.

Maintain professionalism. Because this really could end up biting your bum more than anyone else's.

I'm slightly confused why the Chair needs quite so many interviewers. But also why they need HR advice on this. The obvious thing to do is to kick you off the panel as you can't be objective, if the panel is then only 2-3 people, so what? The second obvious thing is to allow the interview to proceed but to raise questions in the interview about the timing of the project and his involvement but to do the same with all interviewees.

There is no way I'd put any of this in writing. If the interviewee is later rejected, he could put in a SAR on any communication around the interview, in which that email would then be shared.