Experience Detection

For one reason or another, I have spent a fair bit of time playing “Two Truths and a Lie” with my friends and family. Couldn’t really tell you why, specifically. I know I don’t have any great love affair with the game, myself. Maybe because it’s one of those games that requires no advance prep, materials, or score keeping, and I’m an unapologetically lazy person during my free time.

In any case, I’m always amused to note that any conversation that involves lying invariably devolves into a competition about who is the “best” liar in the group. And, despite the fact that we all have reasonably intact moral compasses, we are also all actively competing to convince the rest of the set that we are the best liar. As though that is a skill to be proud of.

Now, skill with lying is, as with many things, judged on a curve. You are a good liar if the person you are trying to lie to is convinced. By contrast, you are not a good liar if the person you are lying to catches you in the act. So, one person could be judged a good liar if he/she tries to lie to someone who has lived under a rock for the last ten years, and that same person with the same lie and the same delivery may be judged a bad liar if he/she tries to lie to someone whose job it is to catch people lying on a daily basis.

Someone like me, for example.

I get that job hunting is a challenge for those looking for a job. You are, quite literally, trying to convince a total stranger that you have value equal to the amount of money they are willing to pay. Because of that, I also get that certain folks feel the need to…shall we say…inflate their value.

But those same folks should understand I’ve seen it before. I’ve heard it before. And you are not going to get your poorly thought-out work experience inflation by this recruiting agent. No, sir.

With that, let’s talk specifics.

Soldering, for example.

[I know what you are thinking. Who the heck knows anything about soldering? Trust me, on this, though. You are going to be awed by how I figured this one out…]

The candidate in question applied to a position that requires at least 6 months of soldering experience, preferably on medical devices (but not required). The applicant's resume indicated he had medical device assembly and machine operation experience, but nothing indicating soldering. There is a bit of a difference between a candidate trying for a promotion (e.g., he has 3 months of soldering but feels he is equivalent to the average 6 month candidate) and outright unqualified (e.g., no soldering when you need to be something approaching mid-level to skilled), and I had mentally dropped the guy into the latter bin: Unqualified for the job he applied for. But, we have a variety of positions that do not require soldering, so I decided to give him a call to see if he would be a match for anything else we had on the roster.

The whole ‘lack of soldering’ thing naturally came up:

Me: The position for which you applied does require soldering experience. Do you have any experience with soldering.

No Soldering (NS): Yes.

Me: Please tell me a little more about that. What company was that for as it's not listed on your resume. What kind of components did you work on?

NS: Medical devices. Soldering things. (mumble mumble)

Me: (eye roll) Ok, that's not much of an explanation. Please give me more details.

NS: I, uh, soldered things together (mumble mumble). Like, made them with solder.

Me: Ok. Without being able to provide me with specifics, this position won't be a match.

NS: I have experience.

Me: Obviously not with soldering as you're not able to give me any details.

NS: (mumble mumble) We used the solder to make things.

Me: Ok. Again, since you're unable to give details, I assume you don't have soldering experience. If you did, you'd be able to tell me what components you worked on, the heat level of the soldering iron you used, what kind of soldering weld was required depending on the components you were handling, etc.

NS: I used a solder iron (mumble mumble) weld parts (mumble) for assembly.

Me: Alright. Even if you do have experience, your inability to give any specific details will not make you a match for this particular position. Let's move on.

Ok, fine. Maybe this guy isn’t going to fall into anyone’s definition of good liar, and maybe I didn’t demonstrate anything overly impressive with my human lie detector performance in this instance.

But, sarcasm aside, it is reasonable to assume we do know when you are getting a little too creative with your work experience history. Even if we aren't subject matter experts in a particular requirement (eg. IQ/OQ/PQ), you should appreciate that we are, in fact, subject matter experts in lie detection.

Think about that before you decide to re-invent yourself as an additive manufacturing expert.