Career Catfishing: Red Flags You Can't Ignore

This transcript has been generated by AI and may contain slight discrepancies from the audio or video recording.

Anne: Hunting for a job can feel like a full-time job in itself. You're going through page after page of listings on various job sites, reading the descriptions, researching companies. And let's not forget, reshaping that resume and cover letter over and over again. All in hopes of finding that right fit for your career.

But what if after what feels like an exhaustive search, you find that needle in the haystack, that dream job posting you cannot wait to apply for, only to find out the job was in fact too good to be true? This is just one example of a growing trend known as career catfishing, which blurs the lines between marketing and manipulation and leaves applicants feeling confused and betrayed.

Today we're joined by Vicki Salemi, career expert from Monster, to explore what career catfishing really means, how workers are being misled, and most importantly, how we can all avoid these red flags to protect ourselves from falling victim to it. Welcome to All Things Work, Vicki.

Vicki: Thanks for having me, Anne.

Anne: We're excited to have you. You know, this is definitely a term a lot of us have been hearing, and if you've heard the term catfishing, you may even associate it with that online dating catfishing where someone presents a false identity to mislead others about who they really are. It doesn't just have to be, you know, I'm six-one when I'm really five-ten. It's more than that and it can be quite dangerous.

But many job seekers might not even realize this kind of deception can really happen in the workplace too, in that professional setting where you might not expect this to happen. So can you help us translate what this looks like in career catfishing, in terms of recruitment and the hiring process?

Vicki: Yes. And it's happening more often than we think, and it happens on both ends. So I'll start with the employer. For the job seekers in our audience that's watching, it's really important to know that some employers may be doing career catfishing, which means it's deceptive. It's where the reality does not meet the expectations.

So, for instance, at Monster, we have data that shows 79% of respondents said they had been career catfished. So what does this mean? It means the job descriptions were not accurate, the roles were inflated. The culture was not really what it was meant to be. The pay was inflated or just deceptive practices that are exaggerated and not truthful. And they're not real from the employer side.

It's when they're hiring a candidate who exaggerates about their former job responsibilities, their education, and they're stretching things that, again, are not reality. So it happens on both ends, but more specifically today, I believe we're talking about for job seekers what to look out for, for employers who are doing the career catfishing.

Anne: We're definitely gonna dive right into that very soon. I wanted to address some research on this term as well. I was talking to our producer, Melody. She and I were having this discussion about our latest research called Help Wanted: Understanding the US Labor Shortage, and I'm gonna connect it here to this discussion.

It found many employers and job seekers are struggling in the labor market due to what we're calling occupational mismatch, or when a job's requirements do not align with the available workforce. In fact, data from the report reveals 32.7% of active job openings cannot be filled by unemployed people with aligned occupational experience.

So let's take a step back away from the intentional catfishing for a second. In light of this new research, is it possible organizations may be unintentionally catfishing applicants when trying to cast that wider net to reach more talent pools and more people because they're kind of desperate to fill those positions?

Vicki: Yes, and I'm glad that you're mentioning this, Anne, because it's important to notice that some employers are intentionally catfishing, others are not. I don't think, you know, I'd like to think that many, many employers out there are incredibly honest, truthful, transparent, and they may be inadvertently doing that.

Just maybe having a broad job description because there is a labor shortage in certain markets and industries, and because they have these hard-to-fill positions, they may have a broad job description that's not super specific, or they may be more open to a variety of skill sets. So they're not necessarily career catfishing, they just have this conundrum of, okay, we have these jobs to fill. Where's the labor that we need to fill them with?

And so in turn, job seekers may think, oh, they're career catfishing me, but really they're being truthful. They just may not have a specific job description as opposed to employers who are intentionally career catfishing with having, you know, jobs that have five job titles within one and doing all sorts of nefarious things.

Anne: So when it comes to the nefarious side, you know, like you said, it's not, it is more often just kind of the misrepresentation or something that's not so nefarious. But what about the situations in which they are nefarious? Do you see that, you know, with job seekers being caught up in that?

Vicki: Yes, and part of it is too, because if a job seeker is looking for a job, if they've been out of work for a while, they may be vulnerable. And it's important for job seekers to know that they are interviewing the employer as much as the employer's interviewing them. So really be critical.

If a job description is asking you to apply and provide your social security number, that's a huge red flag. They should never be doing that. You will only provide that once you're actually hired and they set you up on payroll. So it's really important for job seekers to be critical and to take a step back and be cautious.

Anne: Yeah. And I actually have a friend who, you know, they actually knew someone who got scammed because this person was so desperate for a job and they wanted some money upfront so that they can get the information for a deposit for the first paycheck that comes through. And then hours after that person offered up a few hundred dollars, they never heard back from that company ever again.

And so scams and nefarious acts just like really happen and it really plays to almost that desperate feel people have when they're looking for a job. They sometimes maybe were out of work for several months to even more than a year, and it really pulls on your heartstrings. It's like what a lot of scammers and situations do, even though it's not maybe crazy often that we see that it's happening in general.

Vicki: It is happening. And I think it's really important, again, for job seekers to know that even if they feel desperate and down and out, they should continue to look for job search. And we'll probably get into some of the red flags in a little bit. But just to really be mindful and be aware of not providing, not making any payments whatsoever and just to keep your guard up.

But again, there are some companies that are, many companies are not doing this. I wanna just point out that it's not like everyone, but for those that do, it's just unfortunately, as a former corporate recruiter, it really pains my heart to see job seekers being scammed like this, but also the employers behaving badly because there are so many out there that are above board and being honest and truthful and just exactly what you would expect to be from a healthy recruiting cycle.

But it is important to know that these predators do exist in terms of these employers, and so it's really important for job seekers, no matter where they are in their career, their life cycle, their stage in life, to really just be cognizant of who they're applying to and research the companies as well.

Anne: Exactly. And I love this episode because it feels like we're almost getting like a, you know how you do a cybersecurity training about phishing emails and everything like that. It feels like we're getting that training just for what we would do in everyday life looking for that next job opportunity.

And so we talked about how it's so stressful enough as it is just looking for a job, especially if you've gone a while trying to find one. Then you combine it with that expectation that job postings are being forthcoming. A deceptive job post can really feel like that huge violation of trust.

So what would you say are some pretty straightforward red flags for our audience they should look out for in these job postings to make them look twice before they even apply?

Vicki: You wanna look twice? Number one, do they mention the company's name and or the job title? If one or both are vague, that's a huge red flag. You should also look to see what does the job description say? Does it have specific responsibilities or is it completely generic and very vague?

Also, does the title say something like executive director, but they only require six months of experience? No, because that's an entry level role. Let's be real. And you know, what are they looking for in terms of education requirements?

In addition, some things for job seekers to look out for is urgency. If the job description and or the recruiter or hiring manager talks to you and they wanna hire you like tomorrow, that's a red flag because even though, yes, you wanna start tomorrow as well, get paid, there's usually an interview process. You need to be interviewed. You need to be onboarded. They should be doing a background check. That's not your responsibility for them to do that on you. However, you should just be skeptical about that.

As well as pay. If it's like an entry level role, inflated job title, and extremely high pay, that may sound incredible, but if it's too good to be true, it most likely is.

Anne: Sounds about right. So what about those lesser known red flags? Those seem like a little more obvious, but what about the ones that are a little sneakier? Not so much a dead giveaway, but still helpful to keep in mind.

Vicki: So some things they could look for that are like lesser known are just, you know, are you able to search for the company? Do they have an online profile? And then if they do, because in this day and age with AI and just imaging and stock photos, if they do, does it look a little bit too glossy?

Like if you look at their social media feed, is it the same three stock photos in rotation? What are the testimonials online? Do they have an email address? Is there a physical location of the office? And in this day and age of so many companies being remote, they may not have one, but do they even exist?

So those are some questions you wanna ask yourself as well. And are you speaking to a person when you have an interview? If they don't schedule an interview and they want to hire you without one, run as fast as you can. That is not legitimate. Even though you may be excited, like, oh, this pays really well, and, oh, they don't even wanna interview me. Isn't that great? No. Any legitimate employer should at least conduct one interview with you.

Anne: I'm so lucky. SHRM wanted to conduct interviews with me because when I was applying I was like, wow, this does feel way too good. I'm like, am I sure that this is right? But it was a real, it's a real organization. We're here.

Vicki: And sometimes when the opportunity seems too good to be true and you go through the interview process, it could be your dream job and that's incredible. And then like it sounds like it worked out for you really well, Anne, which is awesome, you know? But again, like if something just has all these check mark boxes, like pays really well, it's like an executive director pays six figures, only requires six months of work experience, no interview. Those are like so many red flags.

Anne: Yeah. And there's probably other ways employers could really push career catfishing to even greater extremes and to continue deceiving applicants in the future even if it's unintentional like we mentioned earlier. But what are some of those other ways they could do that? Can you break it down for us?

Vicki: One thing in particular that may be even unintentional for companies is their titles and their job descriptions are so broad. For instance, there may be a marketing specialist role, but meanwhile, under that umbrella of that title, it's sales, business development, admin support and branding, and in a different company that might be five separate roles.

So they may not even be intentional that they are catfishing you, but it's really important during the job interview then for you to drill down and say, of these five different areas within marketing, what percentage does each bucket fall into? What's a daily responsibility? What does a typical day look like?

Because you wanna really drill down. Based on these, what are the top three skill sets that you require? Based on my experience, you know, you could say, you know, you're selling them as well, but you really need to leverage the interview as a fact finding mission. You are interviewing them again as much as they are interviewing you to really find out are they intentionally catfishing you or do they just have a big job description.

Especially, you know, if it's a startup, many of these startups or companies that are early in their growth stages have broad job descriptions. You'll be wearing many hats at any multiple point, and there's no typical day. So you may get a vague answer and that's not an anomaly for these startups.

But the thing is you do wanna drill down and you know, the more you talk to other people who work there and find out from them how their job has changed and evolved, it's just, it's really important to leverage the interview for asking specific questions.

Anne: Yes, I agree. And also going back to that note of just, you know, checking the job description, also, see if there are other people on LinkedIn. Are they also working for that company? Are those people legitimate? I think that's something I always, one of the first things I searched was, who works here? What are the type of people that work here?

Even if it is a legitimate company, are these the type of people you wanna work with? You know, is this the culture you wanna fit into? So I think that's another big part of it that I know I personally have done that, even when I felt really ready to jump into a role.

Vicki: Smart, Anne. Yeah, you have to also look at like their tenure. How long have they all been there? If a whole department is new, that could be great because that could be a sign of growth and the department is new and it's expanding, or there was just a ton of turnover and they're all new because everyone else left.

Either they were laid off or they left because they wanted to leave. So it's really important to research the company and the people within that company.

Anne: Be curious. It'll protect yourself at the end. Okay, so for our next segment, let's jump into truth or trap. This is gonna be fun. I'll share some common assumptions and scenarios in the job recruitment world. And Vicki, you'll give me your hot take on if you think it's accurate or if it really suggests there's something not quite right here and if it could actually be catfishing or even scamming territory.

So you wanna jump into it?

Vicki: Let's do it.

Anne: Awesome. So jobs that refuse to include pay ranges on job descriptions are probably a scam. How do we feel about this truth or trap?

Vicki: I would say it's more of like in the middle because it depends on where the job is located. If the job is located in New York City, by law, employers need to list the pay range in other areas. To my knowledge, for instance, Hoboken does not. So if you're looking for a job in New York City and you live in Hoboken, and then you're also looking for a job in Hoboken, then just know based on the location, they don't, the employer doesn't necessarily have to list the pay range.

However, at Monster, we know that job seekers are telling us, yeah, they absolutely prefer to look for a job where there's pay ranges listed and it's in an employer's best interest to include it because when job seekers see it for some jobs and not others, depending on the location, they're now becoming accustomed to seeing the pay range.

Anne: I like that. No, it makes sense and it, you know, not everything is a clear red or green flag. So I like that you brought that up. So what about situations in which job applications they don't require or they don't ask for your resume? Are we thinking that might be scam territory or, you know, pretty honest truth?

Vicki: Scam territory for the most part, because an employer that's hiring you, they need to have something to go by. They're just not going to randomly hire you without interviewing you and of course, evaluating your skills and experiences to see if you're the right fit, even if it's a position that doesn't require specific, highly specialized skillset. Absolutely they should have your resume.

However, I have seen in some instances companies that don't require a resume because maybe you are a graphic designer and they prefer to see your portfolio, or maybe you are an amazing chef and they prefer to see some recipes that you've written or looking more at your portfolio rather than a resume, but in many instances it would be both. They would be asking absolutely for your resume, cover letter as well, and then some type of portfolio to really create a cohesive look at your whole candidacy overall.

Anne: Yeah, and I agree with you on the, they'll really ask for both. I've been in a few jobs where the prime example of my work would be my newsreel or my portfolio. My website wouldn't necessarily be my resume, but the resume was always required. It's just kind of that basic foundation. Here's what I've done, and then the rest was even more important. So I agree with you on that one.

And you touched on this a little bit, job descriptions being vague with very unclear responsibilities. I think this is kind of like sometimes red flags, sometimes not, thoughts.

Vicki: Yes, it can be. And whether or not it's intentional for the employer, again, depends on the role of the company, their culture, but the good thing about the interview again is leverage the interview. I would say, you know, if you're questioning something and it seems legit, like maybe the company's legit, you look them up and they have great ratings and their culture seems awesome, absolutely apply.

Then during the interview, you can drill down and ask them specific questions to get clear about the job description, because if you get hired and you start working there and you're unclear about the role now, just wait till you get started. It's probably gonna get worse. So you really need to ask them.

And they may not even know, or they may be using a template and copying and pasting it for multiple jobs, and the job may be amorphous. It may be constantly changing because maybe their culture is constantly evolving or maybe you prefer structure. So if they tell you that it's always going to change and it's never set in stone and it is what it is today and tomorrow, be different, then you can ask yourself, am I going to thrive in this culture? Maybe you will, but maybe you won't.

Anne: Not necessarily a trap, but ask all the right questions and you'll figure it out for sure. So moving on, let's say a job seeker gets through that application process, takes that deep breath and is invited for an interview. We'll do a bit of role playing where you're the applicant and you have some concerns about the job you want to address.

I'll give you the situation and we'll share some clarifying questions to ask to get the information they need to make sure you are the right fit for this position and the position is the right fit for you. So first scenario, the job claims to have a wonderful company culture, but you can't really seem to find any trace of their socials or their website. What type of questions would you ask?

Vicki: First before I get into the questions, that's a red flag because if they have an incredible culture, if I'm the employer, I would include that almost in every social post or in the job descriptions on the website. It's a great place to work and here's why. You have employee testimonials. If that's hard to find and it's not anywhere, okay, that's a huge red flag.

So this is how you can couch the question. You could say something, I've heard some great things about your culture, but I was just curious. With all due respect, I don't see it online. Can you talk more about the culture and what are your three pillars of excellence or what are the top three values and how does that portray itself in a daily interaction at work or with your clients? Like what's a specific example? You want to ask some questions.

And here's the thing, Anne, is they may, you may catch them off guard and that's okay, and they may give you a vague answer in response, and then you can gently probe further like, oh, interesting. But getting back to my question, like just curious, like again, how does that, or you could reword it in another way, like, oh, so for your top performers, and if they align with the company culture, what does that look like?

And I wanna point out your demeanor and theirs are both very telling. You are not gonna be combative when you are in, I won't say the hot seat, because I think job interviewing is actually fun because you get to interview them. And it's just like your opportunity for your next career move. It's super exciting.

So you want to just be calm. Be confident. You can jot down questions ahead of time. Feel free to look at them. And you're not combative, you're not, your goal is not to put them in a defensive mode. You just wanna have a conversation and then their demeanor could speak volumes as well. Like if they are antagonistic, they don't make eye contact with you, if their behavior, their body language is demonstrating red flags, sometimes that's more telling even than what they're telling you. So be aware of what they say and how they say it.

Anne: Right, and I agree with you on that. Core pillars, they're usually listed on the website. I know a good example of this is Wounded Warrior Project. They are really great. They amplify their core pillars everywhere, and they ask it during the interview process, what's the core pillar you most associate with? And that's something that, you know, right off the bat, you can tell they're adamant to stick by that. So that's really good to know.

So let's say another scenario. You've done some research on the company and you notice on LinkedIn or Glassdoor that many employees have short tenures. We touched on this a little bit, but how would you approach this if you notice, kind of like high turnover rate might be a thing.

Vicki: Yeah, absolutely. Ask them about it. And you also want to let them know that you did your research, which looks good. When I was a corporate recruiter, I loved it when candidates specifically mentioned, you know, they looked me up online or they looked up the company.

So you could say something like, in my research to prepare for this interview, I saw a lot of employees like, or your former employees online have short tenures, or your current employees have recently started. I was just curious about the growth trajectory. Can you talk a little bit about the organizational chart or maybe organizational change in the past six months to a year? Or what challenges has the company had in retention? Like you can bring it up again, you're not being combative with them, you're just super relaxed in your approach.

But you do wanna probe and you wanna find out like, and also keep in mind. They're not gonna tell you if there was not a cultural fit and everyone left and the reason was the culture, not because of the person. Maybe it's a toxic culture, toxic boss situation, and they're just not gonna tell you that. But again, read their body language, assess if they can talk about the organizational chart, any challenges, anything coming up. Maybe there's news that they're going to be acquired or something that made a significant number of people leave.

Anne: Let's take this one step further. Let's say everything seems fine through that application process. You've gone through the formal interviews, you asked all these right questions. You get hired and once in the job you realize it's not really what you were expecting at all. Your role has actually nothing to do with the description. It feels like a bait and switch career catfish moment. And you just, you may have even signed a contract to be in this position. How do you approach this situation? I actually have a personal story I'm gonna connect to after this, but I wanna hear your thoughts first.

Vicki: Yeah, for sure. Anne, couple thoughts is number one, you did nothing wrong. You did everything right. Sometimes job seekers or new hires may blame themselves, like, I didn't catch that red flag. How did I miss it? You have done such an excellent job, and you're only gonna see so much behind the curtain before you start working there. So that's number one.

Number two is, oh my gosh, what do you do now? And at Monster, we've seen data that some workers, some employees just leave. You know, they're there. They try to stick it out and it's not what it's going to be, and they start looking for a new job immediately. Others stick it out.

If you have a contract, you know, the first thing you do is hopefully during the job search process, and I advise everyone to do this, is copy and paste the job description. So you always have it because you want that for goal setting. When you start your job on the first day or first week month, you could say, I wanna be successful. Here's the job description I interviewed for. What are my goals for the next 60, 90 days?

If you have that job description, and even if you don't talk to your boss, and first I would start jotting down like over a week, what does each day look like? And literally create a list, like in the notes on your phone or on a piece of paper. Put pen and paper and write down, keep track of everything that you're doing that entire week, the type of responsibilities and the role, and then try to connect it. And it may not connect at all to the job description.

Then approach your boss, because you've done this fact finding mission, talk to your boss and say, you know, can we just have a chat? I wanna make sure I'm on track to succeed in this position. And I know, you know, hopefully you've talked to them during the interview about what success in the role looks like. But if not, you could say, I want to be successful in this role. And I seem to be a little confused because there's a disconnect. I don't see the job that I interviewed for with what I'm currently doing.

Benefit of the doubt. They may not be aware, or it may have changed. Maybe you interviewed three months ago and you got the job and you gave your two weeks notice, et cetera, at your other job, and now you're here two months later, three months later maybe. It has evolved over time and that's when you can have a conversation with your boss to say, okay, can you help me prioritize? What should I focus on now?

The second piece to this, Anne, is what if you're just so not into it. It's stuff that you hate to do. And it's a toxic work environment. And you're like, they told me everyone hangs out after work, or it's unlimited personal time. And meanwhile everyone's working 14 hours a day. There's a disconnect to their work life balance. There's no balance here at all, and there's no life here. It's all work.

So talk to your boss. You may need to talk to HR as well, but then that's when you decide what you're going to do next. You are in a position of power. Do you stay there? Do you leave? So you do not need to stick it out. But again, so many things come into play, like finances and is it toxic or is it not aligned with the job description? Can it change? Is your boss open to talking to you and changing those responsibilities back to what you first interviewed for.

So there's a lot of nuances to it, but absolutely, you know, definitely speak up and then also you make the decision. And then of course you go into the next job thinking, unfortunately, like, what if I start, and it's not the same, but hopefully it will be the same, if not like close to a hundred percent, very similar or a hundred percent on target with what you interviewed for.

Anne: Yeah. And I am gonna be a little vulnerable here, so our audience paying attention. This is a personal story. I had this situation like this. I was a very young broadcast journalist. I was very nervous about getting that next job because you know your contract ends and all things. You just only have a short period of time where you can really sign onto the next position. And it was states away.

And I even spoke with another person who was working there and they all told me it was, you know, pretty good place to work. It was, you know, a good market. And I, so I did my research. I thought I asked all the questions. And the one thing about news reporters is they often go live out in the field. You see them live like in front of the airport for the holiday travel or something like that, or breaking news like a crime scene. And usually they have a photographer with them, and sometimes that's like a safety thing, you know, somebody to watch you make sure everything's good because you're on the news and you never know.

So I came into this job and immediately learned they don't have photographers to assist you and you have to do everything by yourself. And it was a very tough situation for me to realize, oh my gosh, I'm not comfortable with that. And so I remember having conversations with people saying, you know, is this really common? This wasn't in the job description. And it was definitely something. It was just that cutoff point. I said, no, that's not gonna be tolerated by me, unfortunately. That's just not how I feel safe in my own job.

So I decided, you know, to move on from that position and it was a mutual agreement and that was okay. But I definitely remember thinking, wow, I really hope this doesn't happen again, and I hope it doesn't happen to someone else. And then they realized, okay. We are still gonna, they didn't change that policy. They still do that. But when they reposted the job position, I noticed that they posted a very specific description saying, must be comfortable with independent live shots.

And I was actually very grateful that even my experience, though I wasn't crazy about it, you know, actually saved someone else from maybe feeling that same being in that same situation. So definitely a little personal story about that. That's why I feel so connected to this episode today.

Vicki: Wow. Well thanks for sharing because that's very vulnerable of you, but also for you to realize like safety is a top priority for you. And I think also it's the fact that they broke that trust with you and whether or not it was inadvertent, maybe someone didn't even think about it, but the fact that they listened to you and then made sure that one line was in the next job description, I think is important, but more importantly, that you got out of that situation because you said, this is important for me and this is a boundary that I'm not willing to sacrifice. So good for you.

Anne: Right. And I know there's plenty of more people who may have even been in worse situations. And I'm just grateful that, you know, it didn't impact my career too much and I was able to move on to a wonderful news station down in Virginia Beach and got to work there with some wonderful people. So I was very happy about that.

Going from that story to lightening things up towards the end of our conversation with a little fun, we're gonna do two truths and a lie. I'll share three job titles. Two of them are legitimate, one of course is made up. So Vicki, you are gonna tell me which one is the fake one. And honestly, when I first started this, I didn't get this the first time around.

So the first is this title, Chief Cheeseburger Officer. Second, Director of Pineapple Breeding, third, Chief of Cheer. I'm laughing because it is just, it's just crazy that some of these are real. So which one do you think it is?

Vicki: Oh my gosh, what was again, Chief Cheeseburger Officer.

Anne: Chief Cheeseburger Officer, Director of Pineapple Breeding and Chief of Cheer.

Vicki: They all might be a lie, but they all might be truth. So I don't know. I'm gonna say the pineapple breeding is the lie.

Anne: Actually, it's the Chief Cheeseburger Officer. The Director of Pineapple Breeding is actually a title for the Dole Food Company, which makes a lot of sense. They got great pineapple and also the Chief of Cheer is a temporary seasonal position currently offered by Cable TV.com. So those are fun titles to have. I would love to be Chief of Cheer, honestly.

Vicki: Same.

Anne: All right, so thank you so much today, Vicki, for joining us, and we learned so many wonderful tips from you and to remember to have that confidence that you are also the one interviewing the company in those job interviews as well.

Vicki: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun, Anne.

Anne: All right, that's it for this episode. We'll catch you next time.