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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/SpecialDeep7417 on 2026-02-12 17:50:40+00:00.
I've made plenty of mistakes in my professional career, but this one takes the cake, and it's 100% my fault. If people are mad at me because of this, in knowing how tough the job market is right now id totally get it.
For some background, I got a budget to hire for some kind of specialized projects, and this particular position was an urgent need where I was trying to get someone in by Monday. So I was straight sending people through the interview process as quickly as possible. Plus, again, I know the job market is crazy here in the US and I don't particularly like dragging out the interview process and I already knew what I was looking for and was more focused on finding the right cultural fit.
Anyways, I had my team interview roughly 15 candidates, and then they sent me the top 5, where I would make a final decision last Thursday. Of the 5 that I interviewed, there was one that was the absolute perfect fit and had the exact perfect background and was clearly someone you would enjoy working with... which is really important to me.
Of the other candidates, there was a couple that were very good, but not fits in terms of personality or background. One of which had an extremely similar name to the standout and both had pretty common US names. Think "Bob Smith" and "Bob Jones" kind of thing. The Bob Jones candidate was one of the ones who was more or less the definitive not right fit since he was not experienced in a pretty intricate industry, where Bob Smith had been doing it for a decade.
Clearly, you can see where this is going, but where I really FU'd is when I presented my choice to leadership. I explained Bob Smith's background, but referred to him as Bob Jones and got full agreement on him.
But, the biggest mistake of all is that I generally like to be the one to call and congratulate them and extend an offer, but I was taking several days off because my wife and I were doing our first ultrasound for our twins and telling our family, so I was 100% completely disctracted and freaking out about that and the plan was to have him start quickly a few days before actual onboarding when I got back (today). If I had called, I would have recognized the voice immediately and just kind of pivoted to making it a respectful rejection.
When I got on a video conference with him first thing this morning and realized it was the wrong "Bob", I was like OH FUCK, and realized it was 100% my fault. Obviously, I'm not gonna fire this guy for my own mistake, but I'm going to have to figure something out or put a lot of my time getting him up to speed.
The big concern that I have, is that I explained to several team members and leadership very specific skills and background that he has... and this Bob doesn't has those. So, people or going to think he was dishonest, and either way I will have to admit my FU.
TLDR: Was frantically trying to hire for a job that requires specific skills, was really mentally distracted, and I mixed up two people with almost the same name and didn't realize I hired the wrong person.