Tank Tops, Toilet Trips and Lies: What Headhunters Can See

livemint.com:

—Keith Wolf, Murray Resources Early in my career, I was recruiting for a mid-level remote developer position for a tech company. I always prepare my candidates for their interviews, so I hopped on the phone with him and went over the basics: The interview would be over Zoom, but make sure you’re still professional from the waist up, don’t wear a hat, that kind of thing. He seemed ready to go, and I had confidence—he had a great background.

The interview only ended up being like 15 minutes long, which is not a good sign, and the client sent us a feedback email pretty quickly, giving us a heads up that this candidate had been calling from inside his garage, wearing a white tank top and a backwards hat and smoking a cigar. We were like, this cannot be real. My account manager assured me that this wasn’t my fault, and he called the candidate to give him the feedback and ask what his reasoning was behind all of it.

The candidate said he just needed to take a load off, due to his nerves and stuff. He really thought that what he was doing wasn’t a big deal, which is pretty wild. The candidate had decent longevity at other companies, so we were really confused.

But we didn’t work with him after that, unfortunately. —Molly Hansen, Hirewell The thing I am most surprised by is when candidates are comfortable going to the bathroom while on a call with you. We can hear everything.