Noticing You're Confused
That is a uniquely scary story. I have only had the displeasure of hiring one person who effectively lied their way into the position. It was really obvious after they started that they had grossly overstated their skills and experience. My point of &#x27;confusion&#x27; was that their reference checks were people who had worked with them, liked them but not for very long because they were leaving when that person joined, Etc. I had asked about many short tenures in their resume but as an individual contributor they passed it off as &quot;finding a challenge they could bite their teeth into&quot; and basically working their way up the pay ladder.<p>At Google people got &quot;starter projects&quot; I liked this idea to get an idea of what they could do, and its an opportunity to understand what they are good at. I gave the person an assignment that, given their experience, should have been well within their capabilities. They kept not delivering and kept up a steady patter of &quot;knocking down the barriers&quot; communications which, valid or not, got me wondering what was going on with this person. At the one month point I gave them a pretty clear deliverable and worked with them for a timeline for when it would be done. They were &quot;almost&quot; done at the agreed upon time two weeks later, so I asked them to present it one week from that date to the group. The presentation was an epic disaster in terms of not coming close to meeting the deliverable, not showing any development in understanding the problem, and generally being something a new hire could have come up with in less time.<p>At our 1:1 that week we talked about the deliverable, my expectations given the experience they claimed to have, and what we got. I got a lot of &quot;I just need x, y, and z and then it will be done.&quot; kind of discussion. Delving into those needs became &quot;waiting on p, q, and r to deliver this part.&quot; kinds of discussions.<p>At the end of our 1:1 that week I asked them if they were satisfied with their performance. They felt it was ok and would get better with time. I told them I didn&#x27;t feel we could afford that time and that Friday would be their last day. I was bummed that we wasted nearly 2 months on this person. I don&#x27;t think anyone in the organization was surprised to see them go.