Latest / Hiring & Firing with Fexingo: Recruitment, Performance, and Workforce Decisions / How to Spot a Candidate Who Overpromises
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this moment in an interview that I've learned to dread. The candidate leans back, folds their arms, and says something like 'I turned the whole division around.' Singular 'I.' No mention of a team, no mention of a predecessor, no mention of market conditions. Just them, the hero. Luna: Right, the hero narrative. I think every hiring manager has heard it at least once. What's so dangerous about it? Lucas: Because it's almost always a sign that the candidate is overpromising. I was talking to a founder last month, runs a B2B SaaS company, about seventy employees. He hired a VP of sales who in the interview claimed he'd personally doubled revenue at his previous company in eighteen months. Sounded amazing. Luna: Let me guess — it didn't work out. Lucas: Nine months later, the VP was gone, revenue was flat, and the founder had spent about four hundred thousand dollars in salary and commissions. When he dug into the reference calls, he found out the previous company's revenue had grown, sure, but it was mostly from a product launch and a big marketing campaign the VP had nothing to do with. Luna: So the candidate essentially took credit for other people's work. That's the classic hero narrative. Lucas: Exactly. And the problem is, it's really hard to catch in a first interview because the candidate sounds confident. They tell a good story. So I started using a simple mental framework I call the 'team to credit ratio.' Luna: Okay, I'm listening. What's the ratio? Lucas: When a candidate describes a past achievement, I mentally count the number of times they say 'I' versus the number of times they say 'we' or mention a colleague by name. If the 'I' count is more than double the 'we' count for a result that obviously required a team, that's a red flag. Luna: So you're actually tallying pronouns in your head during the interview? Lucas: Not literally, but I'm listening for the pattern. If someone says 'I built the dashboard' — okay, maybe they did. But if they say 'I increased customer retention from seventy to ninety percent' without mentioning the product team, the data team, the customer success team — that's suspicious. The bigger the claimed impact, the more I expect them to share credit. Luna: It makes sense. I once interviewed a marketing director who said she 'created a viral campaign' that generated five million impressions. Turned out the campaign was mostly organic buzz from a celebrity endorsement her agency had arranged. She didn't mention the agency at all. Lucas: Right, and that's the thing — candidates aren't necessarily lying. They might genuinely believe they were the driving force. But as a hiring manager, you need to verify. The way to do that is with a specific follow-up question. Luna: What do you ask? Lucas: I ask: 'Walk me through the step-by-step process of how you achieved that. Who else was involved at each stage? What did each person contribute?' And I listen for hesitations, vagueness, or backtracking. A candidate who was truly central to the work can name names and describe roles. Luna: That's a great question. I also like to ask: 'What was your specific role in the decision-making process?' Sometimes you get a long pause. Lucas: Exactly. Another technique is to ask about failures. If someone claims to have turned around a division, I ask: 'What was the hardest part of the turnaround, and what would you do differently?' A genuine leader will have a nuanced answer about team dynamics or resource constraints. A hero will give a vague answer or deflect. Luna: So the hero narrative is really about a lack of self-awareness, not just exaggeration. Lucas: I think it's both. But the hiring mistake is often that we're seduced by the confidence. The founder I mentioned — he admitted that the VP's confidence was a big factor. He thought, 'This person will come in and shake things up.' Instead, the VP alienated the existing team by taking credit for their work. Luna: That's a classic culture fit problem. The team resented him. Lucas: Right. And the irony is, the VP was actually good at some things — he just wasn't the solo genius he portrayed. If they'd hired him with clearer expectations about collaboration, maybe it could have worked. But the hero narrative set up a false expectation. Luna: So how do you check the team to credit ratio in reference calls? Because that's where the truth often comes out. Lucas: Great question. In reference calls, I ask: 'What was the candidate's role in that specific project? Who else contributed? How did they handle disagreement?' And I listen for how quickly the reference answers. If they hesitate or say 'let me think' for more than a few seconds, that's a yellow flag. Luna: Also, if the reference says 'they were a key part of the team' instead of 'they led the project,' that's telling. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing — if the reference describes the candidate as 'highly collaborative' or 'a great team player,' but the candidate's own narrative is all 'I,' that's a mismatch. Trust the reference, not the candidate, on that dimension. Luna: I want to talk about another version of the hero narrative. What about candidates who claim they 'saved the company money'? That's a common one in finance and operations. Lucas: Yeah, that's tricky because cost savings are often hard to attribute. I ask: 'How was the saving measured? Was it audited? Who else contributed to the initiative?' If they can't produce a specific number with a clear methodology, I'm skeptical. Luna: And sometimes the 'saving' is just a budget cut that the next person had to deal with. Lucas: Right. Or it's a one-time vendor renegotiation that anyone could have done. The point is, the hero narrative isn't always about ego — sometimes it's about a candidate who doesn't understand their own impact. They might genuinely think they did more than they did. Luna: That's a good nuance. So the hiring manager's job is to help them clarify, not to catch them in a lie. Lucas: Exactly. And if the candidate is self-aware, they'll welcome the clarification. If they get defensive, that's a red flag. Luna: You know, this makes me think about how we often structure interviews. We ask 'tell me about a time you achieved something' — which almost invites the hero narrative. Lucas: That's a great point. I prefer to ask: 'Tell me about a time your team achieved something difficult. What was your role?' That primes them to talk about the team first. Luna: I'm going to steal that. It's a small tweak but it shifts the whole conversation. Lucas: Do it. And if they still say 'I,' you can follow up: 'And who else was on the team?' Luna: So let's tie this back to the founder's story. What would you have advised him to do differently in that interview? Lucas: First, I would have asked the step-by-step question I mentioned. Second, I would have run a structured reference check with at least two peers, not just the boss. And third, I would have given the candidate a case study or a role-play scenario where they had to collaborate with a hypothetical team. Luna: A simulation. That's a great way to see if they actually share credit. Lucas: Exactly. The founder didn't do any of that. He relied on his gut, and his gut was seduced by confidence. The lesson is: when a candidate sounds too good to be true, they probably are. But with the right questions, you can cut through the narrative. Luna: I think this also applies to internal candidates. Someone in your own company might overclaim their role in a project. Lucas: True. And that's even more dangerous because you think you know them. But you still need to verify. Luna: Alright, so we've covered the hero narrative, the team to credit ratio, and specific questions. What's the one takeaway you want listeners to remember? Lucas: I'd say: next time you're in an interview and the candidate says 'I' more than three times in a story about a team achievement, gently ask 'who else was involved?' and see what happens. Their answer will tell you more than the story itself. Luna: I love that. Simple, actionable. Lucas: And hey, if these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these. No ads, no sponsors, just listener support. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group, but it keeps us independent and allows us to focus on what matters — helping you hire better. Lucas: Exactly. So back to the hero narrative — one last point. I think the antidote to being seduced by confidence is to slow down. Ask the boring questions. The candidate who can give a detailed, collaborative answer might not be the most exciting, but they're often the one who will actually deliver. Luna: I think that's the real takeaway. Hire for substance, not story. Lucas: Substance over story. I'll take that as the episode title.