The Best Fake Reference Email Ever

Tim (from Wait But Why) did a very funny thing to one of our oldest and best friends, and I felt compelled to post it (names and brands have been changed).

Tim (emailing to me and three of our high school friends, not including our friend Peter):

“I did a very fun thing today. Peter is applying for a job at a company called AwesomeCorp, and I happen to know someone who knows the head of the company, so i got in touch with him last night to put in a good word for peter. the email i sent was nice and thorough and made peter’s skills and personality look as good as possible, while being completely accurate.

but today when peter asked if he could see the email, i decided to write a fake email and forward it to peter and pretend that it was the email i sent. below is what i sent peter.

he had the best possible reaction, first texting about the job in general and avoiding the email, then he brought up the email and in a non-confrontational way joked that it may have gone a little too far. then i called him and pretended to be all shocked he didn’t like the email, saying “wait you really think so?? i just thought it would make it clear to him that you weren’t just another candidate!” and in his peter non-confrontational way basically was like, “uhhhhh yeah i don’t know i just think he might take what you said the wrong way…” and i let the whole thing go on for a while before finally telling him that it wasn’t the actual email i sent. then he was like, “OH THANK GOD.”

UNBELIEVABLY fun half hour of my life.”

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Tim Urban
Date: Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 3:44 PM
Subject: Fwd: Jim, meet Tim Urban (Regarding Potential Hire)
To: Peter

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Tim Urban
Date: Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 2:45 AM
Subject: Re: Jim, meet Tim Urban (Regarding Potential Hire)
To: Jim, Jim@awesomecorp.com

Nice to meet you Jim!

I wanted to shoot you a quick note about a close friend named Peter Jones who’s currently applying for a job at AwesomeCorp (in food service sales – I think he had his first interview yesterday or today). I’ve known Peter forever. Here’s his deal:

Peter is a psycho. A true, legitimate psycho—someone you need to actually keep away from your children. That’s how competitive and intense he is. This goes way back for him. When he and I and a bunch of our other friends took up poker during college, Peter took it to a whole other level, reading multiple poker books, playing constantly, and becoming a full-fledged addict we were worried about. When we started playing fantasy football, it took over Peter’s existence and he won our 12-person league three years in a row before finally forcing himself to quit because it was destroying his entire life. Then he entered the working world, starting out as a SweetBiz salesman, doing demos at fairs and expos. He became maniacally obsessed with it. Then he moved into the world of food service sales, joining a startup called FoodieCo where his job was to build a food service revenue stream from scratch. He was there for about a year and his wife and kids basically stopped seeing him. Then he began working at a company that sells sauces and soups to restaurants, and he doesn’t even like the company or the product but he still talks about it like a insane person. If I didn’t know him I’d recommend him for an insane asylum. Actually.

AwesomeCorp needs this guy – he might scare your staff a little with his intensity, but trust me, he’ll make deals. Big deals. He has a one-track mind.

Okay done. Sorry this was so long, but you need this guy!

Tim

Author: Andrew Finn

Golf, dogs, and investing in stuff @G64Ventures; co-built @waitbutwhy @arborbridge (acq), bought/holding @collegeplannerpro @myapartmentguardian View all posts by Andrew Finn