But if someone wants to verify your role (which sounds reasonable), contacts Apple and they say you were an associate while you said you were a senior, that's gonna cause problems. And apparently is.
Why do they need to verify my role? The new company interviewed me and can decide if I qualified for the job and if they want to pay me what I am asking. Most likely the new company is simply trying to pay me as little as possible.
> you were a senior
Also, there isn't senior at Apple and their roles are not a public API. They can change. If Apple says my role was "level 5" what does that mean to the new company?
Because people lie, constantly. And while most of time they they might not be, it happens often enough that companies pay people to background check applicants. It's not good, but it's seemingly necessary, or at least desired.
> Also, there isn't senior at Apple and their roles are not a public API. They can change. If Apple says my role was "level 5" what does that mean to the new company?
Dunno, but a hiring manager for a tech firm probably knows better than me or you. Either way, obfuscating your previous role isn't a good thing.
Sometimes, companies fact check what interviewees say. Things like verifying employment, salary, title, etc. This can lead to inconsistent results as mentioned in the original article, when your claimed job role/title and what Apple says after you left don't match anymore.
> The new company interviewed me. They can decide if I'm qualified or not.
And they may decide you're not qualified, because they thought you lied when you didn't. Lying is one of those things that's often an instant dealbreaker.
> If they can't tell the difference between an "associate" and a software engineer I'd say I dodge a bullet then.
They very likely can do that, but if they think you're lying for some reason, that doesn't matter.
It's totally plausible that some shitty software engineers have trouble getting hired and may settle for other work in the interim. If they're unethical, then they may lie about that. One or two interviews may not detect a lot of issues someone like that may have.
You have a privilege; relevant parties believe your resume without needing to verify it. This behavior by Apple is disproportionately harmful to those without this privilege (eg. people on certain visas).
For legal reasons many companies will only say if someone worked there or not. Giving any more specific feedback is not something that is done at the companies I've worked at.
