6

A friend who wants to get into software development asked me to refer him to my company. I had a look at his CV and he is unlikely to even get an interview ( lack of skills, lots of spelling mistakes that he won't correct ). Is it ethical for me to just not forward his CV and tell him he has been rejected ? We had a recruiter send over an unqualified interviewee before and I remember my boss giving them a stern talking because it was a waste of time. If the same thing happens with my friend that will be viewed as lack of judgement on my part

Jenks
  • 69
  • 1
  • 2
    Why not just tell him you won't refer him because he's not good enough? – Erik Jul 21 '18 at 13:38
  • 2
    I see him everyday, that would be too harsh, also I previously told him we hire people without experience all the time so he thinks he has a shot – Jenks Jul 21 '18 at 13:42
  • 6
    Why won't h e correct the spelling mistakes? – Upper_Case Jul 21 '18 at 16:31
  • Do you want to know how to tell your friend? How to talk with the recruiter/boss? Helping your friend get an interview in your company? In another company? – arieljannai Jul 21 '18 at 16:35
  • 3
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because asking what's ethical or not is not suitable for this stack, as it is basically the same as asking if something is right. – avazula Jul 23 '18 at 08:01
  • 1
    Asking whether something is ethical or not is primarily opinion based and therefore off-topic here. Instead, you could ask how to tell your friend that his application is unlikely to be accepted without risking the friendship (which is what most answers are about anyway). – kscherrer Jul 23 '18 at 08:01

3 Answers3

10

Being able to tell friends unpleasant truths and do so in a way that does not end your friendship is a very valuable interpersonal skill. In response to your question: no, it is not ethical to lie to your friend.

Let's start with facts. The resume is what I would call unprofessional. In this day of available spell-checkers, there's just no reason for bad spelling. Additionally, you feel that your friend doesn't have the skills necessary to have an interview. Facts are generally things people can agree on, although interpretation of facts can differ.

I'd start with this: talk to your friend about his resume. Let him know that you've looked at it, and the resume does not meet the standards for your company -which it really doesn't. Explain to him what your company expects in a resume and how his doesn't meet those expectations. Then, if he's unwilling to fix it by gaining requisite experience and making edits, it's on him and not you. You've told him what your company needs; now it's up to him to meet those needs.

In that discussion, I'd include these facts: although you hire inexperienced people, they still have certain qualifications, which your friend lacks. That can be education, volunteer work, hobbies, or something else. Additionally, resumes in the corporate world (at least everywhere I've worked in 30+ years) are expected to use proper spelling and grammar. Let the decision be the company's and not yours and focus on the resume and not your friend. That should enable him to understand what is needed before you refer him to a job.

Kat
  • 5,891
  • 2
  • 19
  • 35
baldPrussian
  • 32,406
  • 14
  • 82
  • 120
4

If your friend is unwilling to correct his spelling mistakes then he seems like a person you definitely do not want to be working with; however, I'm assuming you still want to be friends with him.

If this is the case, the approach I would take is to let him down easy. Say something along the lines of:

I'd love to work with you but unfortunately, my company is looking for someone with a little more experience.

Then you can guide him to some online courses or and perhaps help him look for other jobs. The idea is to guide his thoughts away from your company.

aaaaa says reinstate Monica
  • 2,165
  • 1
  • 11
  • 18
Luke Xu
  • 177
  • 2
2

I'd suggest a two-pronged approach:

Offer your friend help with his CV.

It's evident he needs it; it's quite likely your friend really has no idea how to approach job-hunting or resume-submission. If just by looking at their CV, you can see multiple problems, the kindest thing you can do is help him improve.

You can extend that to broader advice, as long as you can manage to be supportive, not admonishing. "Let me tell you a bit about what the job's like... let me tell you what the application process is like... Here's the things my company is going to be looking for; I'm afraid this is going to be a longshot without more relevant experience..." You're not trying to convince him he's bad; you're trying to convince him the bar is high. The more accurately you describe the bar, the more obvious the issues will be.

Be honest when you forward the CV.

Evaluating candidates is not your job; it's HR/recruitment's. It's also their job to turn them down -- which is much better, in a million ways, than you being the one to bring him the news.

The thing to avoid, then, is giving a false recommendation. And that's pretty easy -- when you forward the CV, you frame it as "he sent his CV in through me" rather than "I am endorsing this person." You can write something like:

Hi, my friend asked me to send in his CV. I don't know if we have anything appropriate for him, but I thought I'd check.

Another helpful one is:

Hi, my friend asked me to send in his CV. I should mention I haven't worked with him professionally; we're friends socially.

Your HR, if they're any good at all, will understand that they should treat this application like any application, without the "added weight" of an endorsement. They'll probably send him back a "Thank you for your application; we do not have any appropriate positions at this time" email, and that will be that.

Ideally, you will either talk your friend out of applying for a job they're not qualified for, or you will help them get their CV up to a point where it won't be embarrassing for you to merely forward it (sans endorsement). If that's not happening, you can even say, "Friend, I'm happy to send in your CV, but I'm not going to do that when it's got obvious errors; that would do nothing for you and reflect badly on me."

The big remaining issue is this: Is your friend expecting you to "get" him the job. He might be, particularly if he's not willing to correct spelling errors!

That will inevitably put a strain on your friendship, because you, OP, are not going to get him that job. But that's going to be on him, not on you, and dealing with that is somewhat larger than the scope of this question :)

Ziv
  • 131
  • 2