<p>I’m a high school student and I just heard an interesting/disturbing news today and would really appreciate some advice.</p>
<p>I have an uncle who’s very close to our family. He just recently got a phone call from a very prestigious pharmaceutical company X and told to be prepared to come in for an interview in the future. Now, he has a good friend in that company X and he felt it would be bad for their friendship if he didn’t tell his friend that he had an interview in company X. He also felt that if he didn’t let this friend know, this friend might put in some negative comment about him after his interview with company X. </p>
<p>Today, he got a call from the human resource of company X telling him his interview has been canceled because ‘a friend of his told his superiors that he (my uncle) was overqualified for the job’. </p>
<p>I’m quite shocked, especially seeing as this friend hangs out with my uncle and our family many times; our families even went on many overnight vacations together. </p>
<p>So I guess my question is: does this sort of thing happen a lot in the real, corporate(?) world? I’m really scared if this is kind of things I have to deal after college graduation or later in life. How does one survive in such an environment?</p>
<p>Also, since this friend is close to both my uncle and my family, what should we do? This friend obviously does not know the HR told my uncle it was he who destroyed my uncle’s chances.</p>
<p>They actually told him someone said that? That seems very strange. Usually Human Resources people keep what they know to themselves. Overqualified is sometimes a code word to hide age discrimination, by the way. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Normally even references are very cautious about saying anything negative, because if it gets back to the applicant and the applicant feels it was unfair, he or she can take them to court. I’ve never worked for a company that allowed HR to give a reference other than “eligible for rehire” or “no comment.” </p>
<p>I still think it’s possible there could be more to the story. Your friend might have said something very different, and HR chose to tell your uncle that for reasons of their own. I hope your uncle will give his friend a chance to tell his side of the story before writing off the friendship.</p>
<p>Some “friend” imo, uncle should not count him as any sort of friend, and the friend probably thought he would not be exposed, but he was</p>
<p>Unlce should call back company and try and get another interview…for them to not even interview him, well, as conyat says, age discrimination…</p>
<p>I’d say give the friend the benefit of the doubt and hear his side of the story. As well, if he is overqualified, it would come out in the interview anyway.</p>
<p>The friend might have back-stabbed him, but maybe not. It could be that he went down to say good things, and HR decided the uncle was over-qualified if he had all the accomplishments the friend said he did. </p>
<p>If it is a question of age discrimination, it could be that they figured out from talking to the friend that the uncle was about the friend’s age. Some companies don’t want to take on new hires above a certain age, though it isn’t legal to make hiring decisions on this basis.</p>
<p>I can think of 5 or 6 other scenarios, but I won’t bore everyone with them. There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip, so if he values the friendship, it’s worth asking about…although I have to wonder how much he valued the friendship if he was already worried that the friend might say something negative…or (if it were anyone but your uncle of course) if there were something specific he had in mind that he was afraid of his friend spilling the beans about.</p>