It’s not unusual for job seekers to apply for positions that they’re unqualified for. They may lack the proper training or experience, but they’re willing to give it a shot. It’s up to the human resources director or hiring manager to determine whether an applicant has what it takes to fill a particular role. Even the vets need to be vetted.
National Aquarium manager: "How long have you been a marine vet?"
Applicant: "Ten years. Ever since I left the Marines."
Manager: "So you've worked with seals? We have a lot of seals here."
Applicant: "Yes, indeed. SEALs are amazing! I wanted to be a SEAL once!"
Hiring unqualified people for certain positions can jeopardize public health and safety. Thankfully most institutions have good hiring practices, so they don’t end up putting, for example, an anti-vaccine activist in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Job seekers are inclined to exaggerate their qualifications, hoping they will not only land good jobs but manage to hang onto them, perhaps by learning on the job.
Manager: "Your application says you will be getting a PhD in one month. Have you already defended your dissertation?"
Applicant: "No, I've defended my dessert. I'm in culinary school."
Manager: "You're getting a PhD from a culinary school?"
Applicant: "Yes, it's a Practicum in Heavenly Desserts."
Manager: “But we’re hiring a financial manager, not a chef.”
Applicant: “Don’t you want someone who knows how to cook the books?”
Good hiring practices can prevent what happened at North Downs Hospital in Caterham, England, when an immigrant named Smitha Johny got a job as a radiographer (also known as a radiology technician) in 2023 after joining the Health and Care Professions register. According to news reports, Johny claimed to have 23 years of experience as a radiographer in India, though her health experience consisted almost entirely of being a hospital receptionist. But before you judge her, ask yourself how many times you’ve mixed up the words “radiographer” and “receptionist.” Both are 12-letter words beginning with ‘R.’
Soon after Johny was hired in January 2023, it became apparent that her radiography skills were seriously lacking. According to a report in the Daily Mail, a colleague was assigned to help her, but that didn’t seem to be enough.
Johny’s manager, Fernando Pinto (no relation to Freida), told a tribunal last week that he noticed her following incorrect procedures with patients and gave her a review after three months on the job. She told him she had used a CT Scanner in India, but not an X-ray machine. Testing her knowledge, Pinto pretended to be a patient and asked her to take a hip X-ray. Instead, she pointed the machine at his leg.
Pinto determined that she could not perform even a basic foot x-ray. She also had trouble with basic anatomy. When he asked her to point to a particular bone in her wrist, she pointed to the wrong one. And if that isn’t bad enough, she did not know the words to The Skeleton Dance. “The foot bone's connected to the leg bone. The leg bone's connected to the knee bone. The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone.”
The Surrey hospital dismissed Johny from her job and reported her to the Health and Care Professionals Council, which suspended her for six months. The council determined that Johny had not been dishonest, just naive. She had previously worked in a remote part of India and had received some radiography training, but nowhere close to what was needed to be a radiographer in Britain.
She should not have applied to be a radiographer, but should not have been hired either. Someone dropped the ball — the person responsible for making sure that a receptionist isn’t taking X-rays. Then again, if an anti-vaccine activist can be Secretary of Health and Human Services in America, perhaps Johny just went to the wrong country.
