This founder was hours from hiring a VP Product—turns out, he was a total fraud. Here’s what he learned.

It's the first time I see a candidate BS his way through interviews with multiple people, impress each one of them, and ultimately end up being a complete fraud. But the biggest learning wasn't that you should watch out for fraud-- it was that you shouldn't trust interviews nearly as much as you'd think.

While fake candidates are rare, candidates who are 10x better at interviewing than they are at the job are quite common. In fact, the only thing you know about candidates with great logos is that they know how to interview. Otherwise, they wouldn't have worked at Google in the first place.

What you don't know is if they're truly great. Here's how to find out.

Takeaways

• Don't rely solely on interviews when hiring
• Hire based on referrals and conduct thorough reference checks
• Former founders are often the best hires
• Logos and impressive resumes don't mean as much as you think

Keywords
founder, hiring, fraud, interview skills, backdoor reference checks, referrals, former founders

Send me a message to let me know what you think!