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Comment by natchy | Hacker News Reader

I created a fake linkedin account a couple years ago using one of those AI face generators.

Made myself a Senior Director of Engineering at a major company with an impressive background.

I've had lots of recruiters reach out to me from most major companies and I've even had some conversations just for kicks.

The unexpected outcome... I swear doing this made me more confident.

I see so many FAANG recruiters wanting "me" to run a team that I don't even open the message because I'm decensitized. It gave me a glimpse into someone 10 years ahead of me. I've been meaning to make a compilation of my conversations.

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It would only be interesting if you survived an interview round. Which obviously didn't happen.

Getting a callback based on fiction is called Salesmanship. Translating that callback into a profitable deal/gig is what separates the wheat from the chaff. So nothing to see here. Don't kid yourself that you got a glimpse into anything.

HR is just doing their job finding people with impressive backgrounds.

Your faith in the human ability to avoid priming bias is unwavering.

In my case the big tech interview was simultaneously harder and easier than I expected. As long as you are somewhat smart, I think it should be doable with enough preparation and a lot of it has to do with nerves. I made it to the committee but wasn't extended an offer. I know which two problems tanked me and it was a mixture of nerves, bad attitude by one interviewer and lack of preparation on my side. Fun experience tho.

For FAANG I’m not even sure it’s HR, at least as far as F and G the recruiters are semi-independent, definitely not part of HR IMHO

It’s all perspective. It changed my perspective which changes confidence.

But I am at a profitable company, in a senior role. I’ve been at a handful of unicorns. I just turned down a faang 2 weeks ago after getting an offer.

It's a known phenomenon for people to gain confidence by temporarily pretending to be someone else.

interestingly someone suggested similar thing in reddit/ILPT where one could create a fake but highly esteemed profile to lure recruiters and later decline for that job and refer his real friend (one behind this fake profile)... it seems to work because in corporate world referrals goes a long way!

We did this for P&G in undergrad. Friend from Cincinnati really wanted to work there - so we packed the interviews. Of 8 invites back to corporate, 7 of us were part of that group. 3 got jobs including him! He was there over 10 years.

How did you get the invites? Was this a job fair?

Yes - it was. We had to get through a few rounds to get the invites to Cinci. It was good planning and lucky execution on our part!

> I created a fake linkedin account a couple years ago using one of those AI face generators.

Created an obviously fake profile 6 months ago as part of testing something for $JOB and, if the emails are to be believed, it consistently gets more search hits than my real profile.

Please do this, I'd love to read it.

> Made myself a Senior Director of Engineering at a major company with an impressive background.

Is that even legal?

It’s the internet ....

As long as you don't lie on the CV and the application you send in, it should be at least not illegal. Also, if you don't take a job. Would still get you fired so, I would assume. Not that OP has any of these risks, so.

I’d guess it’s as legal as including random big company names in the company’s front page, while promising interesting problems to solve with a culture valuing good life/work balance.

As long as there are no serious effects/money changing hand/contracts signed solely based on those, shouldn’t it be fine ?

Is it legal to lie? Obviously yes.

It depends on the platform's EULA.

no it doesn’t

EULA doesn't define legality. That's stated by the state.

I don't think it's illegal because I know a lot of people are doing the same thing. Mostly from marketing sectors. I have couple of clients who makes a lot of fake profiles.

>I don't think it's illegal because I know a lot of people are doing the same thing.

Illegal how? LinkedIn is no more official than fortnight.

Just posting false information isn't. If you actually went through with conning someone into giving you a job or some other material benefit based on false information, it would be.

It likely violates the Geneva Convention.

How don't recruiters see through this? I mean, you need some network of friends. It seems to me that this account didn't have many connections.

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