We are hiring for an AI engineering position, and I hop onto the meeting to do my usual warm-up: background, small talk, the normal stuff.

Right away, I notice something is off. This person’s head moves a lot when they talk, like, weirdly repetitive. It is not natural. It is almost looping. Still, I go along with it because maybe it is just a camera lag or something.

Then, at one point, this “candidate” starts talking for about two minutes straight without pausing or even sounding like they took a breath. Perfectly fluent. No stumbles. No filler words. Just continuous, textbook-perfect talking. So I throw a simple question at them: “What is AI?”

And I get this back, word for word, like something from a script:

I ask the same question again, just to be sure, and I get the exact same response. Down to every single word. I try it a third time, still identical. Then the call just drops.

Turns out, I had just spent 40 minutes talking to an AI agent. HR later told me the real candidate had joined briefly at the start to introduce themselves, and then somehow, the bot took over. It even looked almost identical to the person’s LinkedIn photo.

So yeah. Not just fake resumes anymore. Fake candidates are now literally joining interviews.
Recruiting hell has officially entered the uncanny valley.

I don’t even know where to start with this one, but I need your advice here...

We hired this guy for a senior engineering role. Great portfolio, nailed the interviews, references checked out. Within two months, I start getting little whispers from his manager that “something’s off.” He’s missing standups, dodging video calls, pushing deadlines, but always has some perfectly reasonable excuse.

Fast-forward to last week, we find out he’s not just overemployed, he’s a damn legend of it. Six full-time remote jobs. Six. Including two of our direct competitors. All paying six figures. When we confronted him with this, he didn’t even try to deny it. He said he’d “systematized” his life to handle multiple roles and didn’t see why we’d care as long as he delivered. The thing is that what made us sus is that he wasn’t delivering. The man was running a personal B2B subscription service and we were just one of his clients.

Now leadership wants to implement mandatory camera-on policies, track keystrokes, and basically nuke what was left of our trust in remote flexibility… all because one guy decided to LARP as a one-man outsourcing firm.

I’m honestly torn between being furious, impressed, and terrified of how many others are doing this without getting caught. Six jobs! How is that even logistically possible without cloning yourself?

After speaking for a few minutes I thought she would fit in well at the company! She handed me this and said it was an "Introduction Page", and if it caught the company's interest she would email me her full resume, which seemed very out of place to begin with. I reviewed it later and it's clearly terrible AI. I have no idea how she didnt proofread this before handing it out to potential employers.

Screened a candidate, let’s call him Fred, over a video call for an IT support role. Not the most dynamic but he was polite, friendly and had a great resume. The role required some niche technical expertise that they had too. I shared the resume with the client who wanted to interview them.

About 10 minutes before the interview was due to end, I got a a call from the internal HR manager, who sternly asked “did you meet Fred in person?”. I was honest and explained that I hadn’t, but that we met over video and I enjoyed the call on a personal level.

Her response “well if you’d met Fred then you never would have shared his resume - the interview finished ten minutes ago and he is still in the chair, squeezed in tight. It’s a regular sized chair. He is clearly not in the physical condition required to interview”. Basically he was overweight and unfortunately gotten stuck in the hot seat.

She went on to explain how it took two security guards to help him out of the chair and then out of the building as it was happening.

On the one hand I felt bad at first for not meeting him, as I could have relayed he may need a larger chair. In hindsight however, they should be able to accommodate a larger human, and the HR lady was unacceptably / unprofessionally rude.

This was back in my agency days and I hugely regret not calling the company out.

EDIT:

Okay this blew up, so I wanted to answer some FAQs in the post.

• It was a non-physical IT role with a regulation focus.

• I was in recruitment agency at the time, hiring as a third party for a finance company. I regret not calling them out.

• Some people seem to think this was a virtual interview and that they sent security to the candidate’s house. It was an in-person interview.

• The HR person had been in the industry for 4 decades.

• Local law does prohibit this.

Finally I would like to add that Reddit gets a fairly bad name in the mainstream, but 99% of responses here are incredibly kind to Fred. I find that heartening and I will think of these responses whenever I have a moral work dilemma.

We're here to vent, right? Venting is OK? [cracks knuckles]

Just had one of my hiring managers interview someone for a sales role. I thought he was fine, he passed my phone screen. I guess the HM didn't like his personality and wrote me up a fairly brutal, detailed takedown of what he didn't like about the candidate. More focused on personality and 'affect' than anything solid. I would describe the email as 'insulting' and 'over the top'. 'Pass because he's not a personality/culture fit' would have been sufficient.

Except, oops, we had a Boomer Outlook moment and he managed to email this to the candidate directly, not me. Now the candidate's really, really mad and forwarded this to the whole executive team. There's talk that this email is going to be posted online and Glassdoor and somehow an attorney might get involved, etc. etc. Incredible things are happening. Great job everyone

I am so frustrated! I’m new to recruiting and feel like I’m failing. After a several month interview process, the perfect candidate who they loved declined the offer because they are unwilling to budge at all and it was a sizable pay-cut for the candidate. Candidate was still interested if they were willing to come up even a little bit within the posted range, but nope.

Now they want to repost the position and I’m just exhausted as it feels like a waste of everyone’s time. Is anyone else seeing this happen more often? It just seems irrational to restart the whole process over a couple thousand dollars to get likely not a perfect fit candidate in the end. Should I be prepared to have candidates asking about the failed search or not in this market?

I’m nearing a breaking point, had to come here to vent. Moments after I submitted a candidate yesterday (who, incidentally, went to Stanford), I get feedback that their high school grades “aren’t impressive.” This candidate has a fairly impressive career even as a new college graduate and ticks every single other box. But she listed her grades on LinkedIn (don’t ask me why) and it shows ONE singular B. I threw my hands up and logged off for the day.

Edit: As an update for anyone interested, I politely told the client that I don’t think I’m the right talent partner for this project. I also told the candidate that they went in another direction and on a separate note, suggested that she remove her grades from LinkedIn. She didn’t acknowledge my email but she did remove the grades (a net win, whatever).

I've been an agency recruiter for 5 months. I was given this role my first week on the job and was told that it was urgent to fill and the company was desperate. I am the third recruiter on my team to work on the position- the other two had given up and passed it to me.

The client has been a nightmare to work with. They are the leading company in their field and literally a household name, and they think it's everyone's dream to work with them.

They have rejected so many high quality candidates over tiny details, splitting hairs without even speaking with the candidates once. The ones they are interested in, they drag out the interviewing process for months, take weeks to schedule interviews. They went on vacation for 3 weeks back in October , when they announced this to me in September I told them not to wait until after then to schedule interviews with the candidates and their response was literally "we expect them to be available when we get back"!!! As if the candidates aren't applying to other jobs at the same time!

After losing candidate after candidate after candidate due to long gaps in between scheduling interviews, including one at the offer stage, they finally got the memo and started to move faster with the candidates.

I sent them a great candidate who is overqualified for the position but down to work for them because she appreciates the name brand of the company. She has moved along in the process for the past two months in good spirits, wowed them with her presentation and take-home assignment, has done everything right.

We got to the final stage and the client asked me to remind them what her salary expectations are and I gave them the number.

Candidate gets her salary offer today, and..... They lowballed her and offered her 10% less than what she asked for. Mind you, the number she requested originally, was within their salary range for the position!

Candidate calls me upset and not understanding why she was offered less. She's already taking a pay cut for this job due to the name brand.

How could they finally reach the end of SUCH a long process, almost half a year, in which other candidates have dropped out time and time again due to their inaction including one who had already received a salary offer from them. How could they fuck this up now...

The candidate is going to decline if they don't give her what she asked for.

I asked my manager and she said that as recruiters we don't get involved with salary negotiations.

Had to vent. Wwyd?

Update: The candidate declined the offer this morning. I called her to tell her she deserved better, and promised her we would work on finding her something else. She thanked me profusely. No hard feelings. I forwarded her CV to my team and told them to keep an eye out for opportunities for her.

I told my manager that I think we should stop working with the client and laid out all of my reasons. I said I have "friends" (all of you) who work for other recruitment agencies and all of them said that if they had a client like this one their company would have fired them a long time ago. I said that if we aren't going to fire them then we need to have a serious meeting with them and lay out OUR expectations of THEM. I said I will not continue recruiting for this role until that happens. My manager said she understood where I was coming from and will see what we can do.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, probably wouldn't have been confident enough to say something so direct without your encouragement.

Was on a call with a few clients that we work with hiring tech staff. One of the big things they mentioned in the meeting was the change that the trump administration just did last Friday.

While they retracted most if not all of the executive order, our clients are extremely uneasy with the current administration's extreame unpredictability with h1bs and hiring US citizens.

Because of this they have mentioned that starting today they are shifting away from H1bs and moving to hiring US citizens. They have given several staff that are on H1bs a 3 months timeline to find another job as their roles will be filled with US citizens. There are still some H1bs that will be allowed to stay but these are highly skilled and senior technical staff that we are assuming will be able to cover the 100k or whatever rate the Trump admin requests.

They even told us that they will not prioritize talent mainly from H1Bs and will shift towards hiring US citizens immediately. Any H1bs we send them may not even be looked at or immediately rejected.

We think this shift will be quietly happening across all sectors in IT in the USA.

Edit: cost = 80k for a h1b + 100k = $180k cost versus 130k for the same role as a citizen. That's what I mean by cost. The employers have to choose between paying 180k for a h1b or 130k for citizen.

Edit2: I'm going to stop commenting. It seems like either side are downvoting my comments since one side likes it and the other side doesn't.

A few years ago I was covering on some tech hiring (I usually do sales/business functions as I like the personality types I come across). We had an open role and I was doing some sourcing and had some leads on companies the person I was covering that we generally have better benefits and salaries and have hired from before.

So I reach out to this one person who looks suitable with a brief message, including the salary (I always add it to save time) and a copy of the job description, nothing too pushy in the message just a hey you profile might be a good match interested in a chat.

Also should be noted the guy had open to work on his linked and his preference on the jobs the one I was hiring for.

Anyway I get a message back a day later just saying “what’s the salary”, which ok fine probably just skimmed the message and missed it. So I tell him oh it’s about there it’s XYZ (a little above what market rate is in my country).

I come back to LinkedIn later that day and I have an essay, the guy saying how he’s on 4 times that and it’s a laughable salary (we’ve hired people from his role before and we pay above the average so I’m not believing this), and picking apart the job spec saying how it’s pretty much beneath him and how he wouldn’t bother with the tasks being outlined because he’s too above that.

Goes on to say he’s capable of XYZ (not required for the role) and called me an idiot for thinking he would be interested in a role that he has listed as a pretence on his open for work settings.

I’d point out. None of this is in way profession in what he is saying and it’s not just a casual “hey I’m a bit far on for this role”.

Then the personal insults start, about how all recruiters are idiots, and worthless, a few more names and then ends it with telling me to go kill myself.

Anyway fast forward a few years to today, I’m moved onto a larger company (fortune 100) and I’m back covering some tech roles and guess who’s name I see come through on an application?

I take a look and verify it’s him, and he’s been at the same company since the last message up until the end of last year. I take a Quick Look at the LinkedIn link he added and it’s him, and he has a post about being laid off from his last job (why do bad thinks happen to good people right?).

This guy is actually pretty qualified and I think the managers will be interested, but the thing is, we pay a good portion more than my previous company, maybe twice as much, but I know this guy has told me he makes 4 times.

So I have about 4 other candidates that are suitable and I feel hey no point in wasting the HMs time we a guy we can afford.

I’m very much looking forward to sending the rejection email template and adding the reason being unsuitable personality type.

Background, I've been in tech recruiting for a while now. So yes yes I know all about the C2C/hotlist guys with their 'employer' and so on, nothing new there. But two job applicants today, for a 100% remote job:

• Had very American white guy names (one was 'Randy Palmer') but had thick accents

• Again, as I've been in tech for a while, nothing new about candidates with thick accents to me. But these guys/their resumes claimed that they had earned their Bachelor's here in the US- no mention of a foreign university. (One said he went to 'Arizona State University' in Seattle WA lol). Obviously I cannot just ask them about this directly, but I gave them a few chances ('so did you go to school anywhere else too?') with no response

• Claimed they worked at great companies (Google, Airbnb), but would accept unrealistically low salaries

• Unusually vague about what exactly they claimed to do at Google/Airbnb. I know what real software engineers sound like

• Were super-eager to get ahold of me. I know software engineers lol, none of them are so eager to talk to a recruiter that they ping him 3 times in an hour on LinkedIn or call my cell directly

• One LI profile was created last month. But 'Randy Palmer''s profile is 7 years old

I've heard this is the classic playbook for North Koreans to work remotely. Even if they're not from NK, it's some kind of weird scam. I pinged my RPS account manager that they were suspicious and- shocker- haven't heard anything back. Stay classy LinkedIn

Summary: VP candidate let me know two days ahead of their panel interview with execs that they didn’t have business attire with them since they would be driving back from helping a family member after surgery, and would be wearing jeans and sneakers. He also didn’t want to obtain anything nicer to wear.

I called the President the next day. They weren’t thrilled, but thanked me for letting them know, and said they’d have to figure out how to frame this to one of the EVPs in particular.

I spoke with the candidate the evening before the interview and he was checked in at a hotel in town and ready to meet everyone. He texted after saying he enjoyed the conversation and was feeling hopeful.

The one EVP dinged him on not presenting professionally with attire and attitude and said he came off overly arrogant. I haven’t heard the final decision from the President yet.

A few notes: Yes, I am intimidated by the President here.

I try to prep my candidates the best I can to give them the greatest chance at success. We are old-school in a lot of ways and some execs start from a “no” mentality.

The candidate knew about the interview well in advance of driving down to take care of a relative recovering from surgery. Nothing was planned last-minute. He was still home when scheduling the interview.

I’m internal and paid a salary. I get no extra money for hires. I’m more focused on candidate experience and HM service since money isn’t in the equation.

So that’s it. Thank you to everyone who gave advance for me to get out of my head and just talk to the President. I’ve been here for over 10 years and never had something like this happen. Another experience in the books.

Right now I don't look at resumes from applicants on H1B or require sponsorship. Their work experience tend to be all over the place and a bit sketchy or when they have great experience from "top companies" they can't elaborate on anything they mentioned on their resumes. I would rather to take an American recent graduate or someone with little experience over an H1B applicants with 10 years experience on paper.

The recruiter kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the HR Manager in the window seat said," I think I'll get up and get a coke."

"No problem," said the Recruiter, "I'll get it for you."

While he was gone, one of the HR Managers picked up the Recruiters's shoe and spat in it.

When he returned with the coke, the other HR Manager said, "That looks good, I think I'll have one too."

Again, the Recruiter obligingly went to fetch it and while he was gone, the other HR manager picked up the other shoe and spat in it.

The Recruiter returned, and they all sat back and enjoyed the flight. As the plane was landing, the Recruiter slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.

"How long must this go on?" he asked. "This fighting between our professions? This hatred? This animosity? This spitting in shoes and pissing in cokes?"

A small man company contacted me in 2021 in dire need of a specialized machine operator. I had them the candidate they needed within a week and even gave them a discounted fee because they were small. After we sent the invoice, the production manager said the owner wants to talk to you. The owner proceeded to insult recruiters saying all we do is give out phone numbers and that he's not paying the agreed $10,000 but would give me $1,000 instead. I declined, they never paid a penny. Instead of suing them, I recruited 6 people away from their company! It was easy as they were all underpaid and a new manufacturing plant had just opened up 20 miles away. In the end, I made 82k in fees and today they announced after 33 years in business, they are closing their doors! 🥳🎉🥳🎉 Think twice before asking a recruiter for help then refusing to pay the fee! Today I'm calling the rest of their people to help them get jobs. Thinking about calling the owner as well. I WANT HIM TO KNOW IT WAS ME.

$100k for the application fee! Absolutely wild.

I really feel for all of the HR/Talent Acquisition that have gotten laid off, my LinkedIn feed is just filled with people literally begging to get hired. I really don't feel fulfilled or valued in my job right now, but I remind myself multiple times a day to be greatful to be employed. I have just under 2 YOE, and I would not survive in this job market. Im not writing this to brag, I really, trully feel for all of you job hunting.