Passwords and Interviews
26th March 2012
Mike Loukides at O’Reilly makes a good point.
Two words: social engineering.
If a candidate proves that he’ll give out his password in an interview, hasn’t he proven that he’ll give out his password in other situations? Hasn’t he proven that he’s fundamentally unreliable, fundamentally unable to keep secret information secret?
I can see one, and only one, reason for asking for a password in an interview: as an underhanded way to weed out candidates who are unfit for any job requiring any serious responsibility. As soon as a candidate gives you the password, the interview’s over, and “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
March 27th, 2012 at 08:57
He makes an excellent point. Also, any employer who would seriously ask you to breach a contractual agreement in the interview is likely to ask you to do other unethical things if you get the job. This should be a weed out question on both sides.