Unfair competition - application for a semi state job

beer enigma

limnam wrote: »

Did you have to sign in or get a badge before the interview?
They could have just looked at the guest log book if they knew "someone" was in been interviewed?

No sign in or badge, both of my interviews were held in a hotel with just the four members of the Board. I was met in reception by the chair of the board, so even the hotel didn't have a record.

4ensic15 wrote: »

It is still a breach of the Data protection Regulations if such a record was left available. The interviews were also held offsite.

Absolutely. The agency are due back this morning and once I see what they come back with i can decide on the next step, but HR of the governing body & data protection now seem the logical next steps.

TheAbstracter

Is it possible that you popped up in the LinkedIn "people you may know" list for that other person? Was the job listed on LinkedIn and you viewed it? Or had you searched for the company on LinkedIn? Could be something as simple as the LinkedIn connection suggestion algorithm suggesting your profile for the other person, if you had recently started looking at the company which they were currently working as the interim manager. I think in LinkedIn is says how they found you, e.g. "from their newsfeed" or "through search"or similar.

beer enigma

TheAbstracter wrote: »

Is it possible that you popped up in the LinkedIn "people you may know" list for that other person? Was the job listed on LinkedIn and you viewed it? Or had you searched for the company on LinkedIn? Could be something as simple as the LinkedIn connection suggestion algorithm suggesting your profile for the other person, if you had recently started looking at the company which they were currently working as the interim manager. I think in LinkedIn is says how they found you, e.g. "from their newsfeed" or "through search"or similar.

Again, not possible, I've pretty much covered every angle here.

Its a state body so doesn't have a LinkedIn profile and I had no prior warning of who the volunteer board was made up of. To be honest i was working away and had no time to access LinkedIn. When I did go to LinkedIn a week AFTER the 2nd interview, I saw the other candidate had viewed my profile 2 weeks earlier 7 there are no common connections between us.

malkmoose

To make an official complaint about the recruitment process, I would first ask for their complaints procedure, If this does not work or they do not have one then I would contact the office of the ombudsman https://www.ombudsman.ie/

beer enigma

malkmoose wrote: »

To make an official complaint about the recruitment process, I would first ask for their complaints procedure, If this does not work or they do not have one then I would contact the office of the ombudsman https://www.ombudsman.ie/

Actually having looked at the site, that seems a fairly good one stop option

CeilingFly

What harm has been done. Obviously you did well enough in the interview to warrant being checked out. Very easy for someone internally to say someone called "Ber Enigma" applied for the job in a casual way.

Now you have a situation that you are looking for information and possibly looking at filing a complaint.

Ask yourself - will the agency be looking at putting you forward for positions with other clients of theirs?

storm in a teacup imo.

IITYWYBMAD

CeilingFly wrote: »

What harm has been done. Obviously you did well enough in the interview to warrant being checked out. Very easy for someone internally to say someone called "Ber Enigma" applied for the job in a casual way.

Now you have a situation that you are looking for information and possibly looking at filing a complaint.

Ask yourself - will the agency be looking at putting you forward for positions with other clients of theirs?

storm in a teacup imo.

This really is the type of comment that stinks of somebody with no ambition.

In fairness to the OP, he/she has put forward their argument very well, and answered some well made points and "alternative theories" with regards to the knowledge gained by the other candidate.

In my world if it quacks and walks like a duck, it's a duck. It's obvious that the internal candidate was given the OP's details. The fact that the internal candidate did not have the sense to hide their activity on Linkedin in their problem. But this does stink of the "old boys network" and at it's very basic level.

I'm sure that the OP approached the interview in a fair and even manner.

Is He/She not entitled to a level playing field when going for an interview? Isn't everybody?

If you're happy having your prospects hackney'd when you apply for a job, belt ahead. Or better still, don't bother.

The OP is more than entitled to pursue the grievance, and should be supported by both the agency and body concerned. I know I'd be p***ed off also.

beer enigma

CeilingFly wrote: »

What harm has been done. Obviously you did well enough in the interview to warrant being checked out. Very easy for someone internally to say someone called "Ber Enigma" applied for the job in a casual way.

Now you have a situation that you are looking for information and possibly looking at filing a complaint.

Ask yourself - will the agency be looking at putting you forward for positions with other clients of theirs?

storm in a teacup imo.

Very easy for you to say so, but when I'd queried whether this would be a level playing field i was assured it was. Twice I flew back from Lisbon for interview and then returned to Lisbon to continue the work at my own expense.

Unless one of the board members or Secretary mentioned my name to a very small team then there's no way this would have been made public.

This is a sister company to the Money Advisory Bureau, I'm sure you can appreciate the implications if they are equally as lax with regards to their client information under GDPR

I think i have a legitimate right to know how this information was disclosed to another candidate and if you read my posts, you will see that not only did I say the internal candidate may well have been the best choice, but I've also made it clear that i will only take this further if I don't get a satisfactory reply.

Very easy for me to have escalated this already, but its been over 3 weeks since this came to light and I'm patiently asking for a simple explanation but struggling to get a reply.

Maybe you would treat it as a storm in a t-cup, but for me its just slightly more than that.

GhostMutt30

beer enigma wrote: »

Actually having looked at the site, that seems a fairly good one stop option

The Ombudsman can't look at recruitment or semi-state companies, it's possible the cpsa could help http://www.cpsa.ie/en/

weldoninhio

Deleted User wrote: »

if you could so easily identify the internal candidate then their data protection rights have been breachef

Also the agency should be in bother for confirming who the second candidate was, to you, when you asked.

beer enigma

weldoninhio wrote: »

Also the agency should be in bother for confirming who the second candidate was, to you, when you asked.

I agree totally - I suspect it slipped out when I mentioned i had a screenshot of the candidate on my LI page, but its shabby all round.

beer enigma

Ok just had a call from the agency and gave them permission for the organisation to contact me directly.

They told me that following their internal investigation, the individual had claimed that she'd seen my name in their internal Health & Safety sign in book that the board use for visitors and in a moment of madness she had used the information to look me up.

I was just about to point out this was not possible when they added that that they appreciate this could not be the truth as the interview had taken place away from the workplace and that the lookup on LinkedIn was prior to the 2nd interview date.

They are writing to me directly following further investigation, so I'll hold my breath a bit longer.

AlphaOmega1

Following this for the drama, hope you get the truth OP

Thud

It stinks and likely shows the interview wasn't done on a level playing field, if they were given your name they clearly had someone on the interview panel who favored them or was looking out for them.
What other info were they given prior to the interview, did their connection sway the other members of the panel into hiring them??

At very least you were wasting your time from the start.

TheBoyConor

unlikely an FOI or GDPR investigation would reveal any evidence of wrongdoing. And it certainly won't if she found out your name via by means of conversation.

skallywag

Just an aside, but it was pretty dumb for her to be looking at your Linkedin profile before the interview if she was not in anonymous mode setting ...

KevRossi

TheBoyConor wrote: »

unlikely an FOI or GDPR investigation would reveal any evidence of wrongdoing. And it certainly won't if she found out your name via by means of conversation.

She already lied about where she got the name from.

So far they have found out that she's a liar. An FOI or GDPR would likely reveal more. If it starts to get too hot for those responsible, then it'll be race to see who splills the beans in an effort to try to save their reputation.

*Following

beer enigma

Just want to make one thing very clear on this thread.

I really don't want this to be a witch hunt. However the internal candidate got my details, they made an error of judgement. They had been interim manager for a while and nobody knows what the position meant for them and their family. Given the information I'm sure a lot of people would have bee tempted to look. Naivety in not covering their tracks.

My gripe is that I feel the interview process was not on a level playing field especially given the time and cost I incurred flying in and out for interviews. I'm 53 and a Senior Ops manager for 25 years.

I also feel the nature of the organisation is 100% confidentiality and this shows there are weaknesses.

Yes im angry because I feel played but it also shows a potential huge weakness in the confidentiality this body is built on.

If I'm asked whether I want action against the employee my answer would be no, naivety can be managed. Culture has to be changed though

gordongekko

let it go and move on

beer enigma

gordongekko wrote: »

let it go and move on

No comment......

Yawns

At this stage you can choose to follow it up or let it go. Now I'm not saying which is the right or wrong thing to do. However if you do choose to follow it up, it's pointless saying you don't want any action taken against the employee as you know they will need to do something about it. They did **** up.

I completely understand and agree with your point of view btw, I'm not against what you are doing by following it up. This employee made a major **** up and now that GDPR is in full swing, they really should know better as it was a huge topic of discussion very recently.

d9oiu2wk07blr5

It can be quite common unfortunately. I worked for a state funded organisation and a couple of days after the post was publicly advertised, the manager sent an email around telling us that the position was being advertised, an internal candidate was applying & the grant funder who was going to be on the panel was quite happy to recommend her. It hadn't even been next to near the closing date for receipt of applications.

beer enigma

Yawns wrote: »

At this stage you can choose to follow it up or let it go. Now I'm not saying which is the right or wrong thing to do. However if you do choose to follow it up, it's pointless saying you don't want any action taken against the employee as you know they will need to do something about it. They did **** up.

I completely understand and agree with your point of view btw, I'm not against what you are doing by following it up. This employee made a major **** up and now that GDPR is in full swing, they really should know better as it was a huge topic of discussion very recently.

I'll follow up because the process is just wrong. They have already asked if I want to make a complaint against the candidate and I've said no, but I do want to know how the process failed.

gordongekko

beer enigma wrote: »

but I do want to know how the process failed.

That none of your business so just move on with your life

Yawns

beer enigma wrote: »

I'll follow up because the process is just wrong. They have already asked if I want to make a complaint against the candidate and I've said no, but I do want to know how the process failed.

Understandable. I'll take a stab at it.

It's most likely they are friendly with the person responsible for setting up the interview board and that person has probably simply told them the names of who's being interviewed. Chances are the other candidate has asked around her contacts to see if they know who each applicant is and no one knew you, so they looked you up online.

Of course it's a complete guess on my part and absolutely no way of being proved if this is what happened. The other candidate won't want to "snitch" on the person organising the board so perhaps lied to say they saw the sign in sheet which has already been de-bunked by yourself and the company.

Yawns

gordongekko wrote: »

That none of your business so just move on with your life

Meh, whilst I would probably move on, to say it's none of his business is incorrect. These things happen because no one challenges them when they arise.

The fact he had to fly over for interviews would add to his frustration which is understandable.

Yawns

Another avenue of complaint that may be open to you, is to see if the company has a data protection officer. A complaint to them about a breach of your personal information should kick an investigation into matters as they would be required to report the breach and show the steps taken to rectify the situation and prevent it happening in future.

gordongekko

Yawns wrote: »

Meh, whilst I would probably move on, to say it's none of his business is incorrect. These things happen because no one challenges them when they arise.

The fact he had to fly over for interviews would add to his frustration which is understandable.

Frustration yes. But the internal processes of any company are none of his business. Just move on. Nothing to be gained from this.

The probable answer is that the other candidate was browsing linkedin and came across the profile

Yawns

gordongekko wrote: »

The probable answer is that the other candidate was browsing linkedin and came across the profile

Far more probable that a bit of chin wagging and curiosity getting the better of the other applicant than randomly stumbling across the linkedin profile.

runawaybishop

gordongekko wrote: »

Frustration yes. But the internal processes of any company are none of his business. Just move on. Nothing to be gained from this.

The probable answer is that the other candidate was browsing linkedin and came across the profile

Read the thread, they searched his name before the interview occured, which was also off site.