How To Perform Corporate Espionage Cheaply

Friday, July 24, 2015

Budgets are tight. Businesses have to do more with less. We understand. While many consulting firms will suggest that you should save money by renegotiating your lease or using more powerful software systems, we like to attack problems more creatively. This article outlines the steps that you can take to reduce the cost of your firm's corporate espionage efforts.

  1. Create a free account on LinkedIn.
  2. Search for engineers and analysts who work for your competitors.
  3. Contact each match and explain that you are interested in interviewing him for a highly-paid position.
  4. Schedule a phone interview.
  5. Ask him whatever you what to know.
  6. Write down his answers.
  7. (Optional) Inform the "candidate" that he didn't receive the job, but you will keep him in mind for other opportunities.

The only cost of the procedure is the salary for the recruiter. For less than $100 out of pocket, a business can literally gather hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of information. Given modern business' preference for behavioral interviewing, the recruiter will not even have to mask his questions. "Tell me about your biggest surprise while collecting financial requirements for your company's accounting system."

In a world in which employers demand passwords to personal social media accounts, it should be of little surprise that employees have been conditioned to release any information that might help them attain a better position.

I've had the opportunity to listen to a number of phone interviews run by a recruiter in my office building. I'm both shocked and amazed by the types of questions that are asked. I'm even more shocked that her intrusive questions are routinely answered by candidates without a second thought. By luring candidates with nonexistent job offers, firms can attract nearly any candidate for an interview. If you think that no company would ever dare advertise a position that it has no intention to fill, I suggest that you read this.

Stop paying high-priced secret agents. Stop paying hackers to invade computer systems. Stop trying to piece together details from newspaper articles. The information is all readily available at a price that you can certainly afford.

While my firm does not necessarily endorse corporate espionage, we like to look at issues from a different angle than most. Why not hire us to help your business?