The final chapter of Sam and John
The strange and weird case of Christion and Khori
by retailrecruit
Here was my original blog on this deceptive story of www.recruiters4retailer.com. It is an excellent lesson for all of us that you can’t always believe what you read on social media sites or anyplace on the internet.
This issue is so odd that at time of press (wordpress! – ha!) I’ve had to change the names of the culprits until two more facts can be irrefutably proven.
It’s a story of how Social Media can be misused and how it can come full circle. Let me begin………..
A few days ago an HR professional who recruits for a major retailer sent me a copy of a recommendation she had read created by one of her connections on LinkedIn. To say this recommendation was effusive and over-the-top understates it. The connection was a Vice President, HR for Canada for a huge North American retailer. (Forever 21) We’ll call him Sam. His name is Christion Cage. The recommendation heavily endorsed a new company in Canada that recruits on behalf of the retail industry. the name of the website was www.recruiters4retail.com. This website is now ‘under construction’. We’ll call the owner of the new company John. It’s actually Khori Williams. The company is an interesting part-job board/part headhunter format. After nearly 30 years of retail recruitment and owning a both a retail search firm and Canada’s first retail-only job board, I had never heard of such an odd combination of services.
Naturally, I visited the website. It listed 150 retail jobs in Canada with representation from all areas – from Home Depot to Guess to The Source to Tommy Hilfiger to Starbucks, etc. etc. Wow, I thought, how did this new retail recruiter slip by my radar.
A closer inspection shows that all candidates that wanted to apply to any of these jobs needed to email directly their resumes to the recruiters4retailers or Khori. That’s not right. There is no facility for applying online to the website and then applying through to the retail employer – all you could do is EMAIL directly to recruiters4retailers.com or Khori. Amongst the retailers who were posting jobs on Khori’s website were existing or previous clients or candidates from my many years in retail recruitment. I picked up the phone and called a few and asked what sort of response they were getting from this new company. One after another said they had never heard of the company and that the postings that they saw on the website were either out of date or had never existed. (at least currently – within a year). So, it was apparent that Khori was attempting to build a resume database to sell back to unsuspecting retail employers while absolutely misleading the retail job seekers that the jobs were current and existed and may be perfect for them.
It gets even weirder! By now I am working in cahoots with some retail connections who recognize Khori’s name as someone they had interviewed as a candidate for previous positions. A review of his resume shows that he spent some time at a major luxury retailer in the U.S. in New York City. This is Saks 5th Avenue. Wait a minute, I thought, Christion’s LinkedIn profile also includes Saks 5th Avenue. Sure enough – Khori who owns the www.recruiters4retailers.com and Christion who recommended it so highly worked at Saks 5th Avenue at the same time. But actually, no they didn’t. Both gentlemen quoted this retailer on their respective resumes and LinkedIn profiles, but a previous, legitimate employee phoned down to her old friends at Saks 5th Avenue. A thorough, thorough search revealed that neither gentlemen had ever worked at that company!
A final icing on the cake. Christion, who had 80 plus connections on LinkedIn – legitimate, senior to executive level Retail HR Professionals - and says he is the Vice President of Human Resources for Forever 21 Canada, isn’t. It was easy to check the stores and phone down to the U.S. corporate head office. There is no one by Sam’s name that has ever worked for them either. Christion Cage’s profile on LinkedIn has been taken down.
Boy, it seems to me a huge amount of deception took place simply to build a retail job seeker database. It illustrates something I’ve hammered on for years. NEVER hire anyone without thorough, thorough reference checking. Perhaps do a little more than hit the ‘accept’ button when someone asks to ‘connect’ to you on LinkedIn. I know I’m as guilty of this as anyone. And finally, never over-recommend anyone. Your own credibility is at stake.
Stay tuned. Once two more facts are verified I’ll fill in the blanks with Sam and John’s real names and the names of the employers they never worked for. And, I’m going to use Social Media in a good way by telling this story on every social media site I belong to, along with apologizing to all the retail job seekers who may be waiting to hear from those retailers about a job that is out of date or never existed. The retail industry is filled with honest, excellent, talented people who wouldn’t even dream of a scheme like this. These are two very bad apples.
End of this sad story. Thanks to the folks that helped me uncover this huge deception. Apologies to all the job seekers who were duped.
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