Recruiter discovers he has been interviewing with an AI avatar posing as the job candidate for a full 30 minutes: 'My gut told me something was off'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 23, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Sometimes professional speak can sound a bit robotic, especially when it's coming from an actual robot.

We've all heard of countless instances of artificial intelligence being used in the job search process, stories where recruiters and hiring managers use AI to screen batches of resumes on their behalf. This naturally makes it a challenge to stand apart from the crowd, as if the application process weren't already difficult. Once again, the onus at the end of the day tends to fall on the candidates themselves rather than the so-called experts who are supposed to be doing the hiring.

In this scenario, we have come across the reverse dynamic. This time, an honest recruiter expressed interest in a candidate who seemed perfect on paper for the position they were seeking to fill. He seemed to have the proper amount of experience, a go-getter mentality, and an impressive work ethic at least according to his accomplishments in his CV and cover letter. 

Then, the actual video call happened, and the recruiter was a bit thrown off by how it went. Things seemed to be off to a good start at first. The candidate looked exactly like the photo in his LinkedIn profile, and he had begun speaking eloquently to his past professional experiences. However, the connection seemed off. His words weren't syncing perfectly with the mouth on the screen. The recruiter checked his internet speed, and everything was allegedly working well from his end. 

But it only got worse from that point forward. The candidate began giving empty, stock answers that resembled classic corporate speak: all style, no substance. To check if his suspicions were correct, the recruiter decided to ask a question he had already posed a few minutes earlier. Then, without a blink of an eye or a simple hesitation, the candidate gave the exact same answer word for word.

That's when the recruiter abruptly ended the call and realized that he was correct: the candidate with whom he was speaking was an AI avatar.

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  • "About 10 minutes into the interview, I realized I wasn't talking to a real human."

    We were hiring for a Senior Machine Learning position, and I got on the video call to start a normal conversation with him about his experience, you know, the usual small talk to break the ice.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • Almost immediately, my gut told me something was off. The person's gaze was too fixed, and his voice didn't quite sync with his lip movements. At first, I thought it might be a bad internet connection and decided to carry on.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • Then, this "candidate" went on a monologue for about 3 straight minutes. His speech was perfect. Not a single 'umm' or 'uhh.' Just perfectly structured, professional corporate-speak. It was too polished. So I decided to give him a simple test: 'Can you explain a neural network to me in simple terms?'
    via perfect-strep0a
  • The answer I got sounded like it was copied word-for-word from a Wikipedia page. To confirm my theory, I asked him the exact same question a minute later. I got the same verbatim answer again. I asked a third time, and boom, the same thing again. Then the connection suddenly dropped.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • A little while later, I got a message from HR. It turns out I had been interviewing an Al d e for 30 minutes. Apparently, the real person joined for the first minute, did the introductions, and then swapped with this bot. And it was modeled after his LinkedIn photo. Insane.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • So there you have it. We've moved past faking CVs. Now we have Al avatars showing up for video calls. The job market has entered a whole new dimension.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • A man sits in front of a laptop while interviewing another person on a video call.
    via Unsplash+ (M. Cooper)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • panam2020 Oh no you didn't.
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  • plaidyams On the other end, it's been Al interviewers for months. It's been so many companies who don't have the decency to even use a human being to interview me.
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  • I'm not saying this is okay or it's what I do personally. I hate Al. I'm saying you're late to the game of feeling screwed by this. Imagine being unemployed for over a year and you can't even get a human being to interview you. It's beyond dehumanizing. This job market has been here.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • Smyley12345. We are rapidly circling back to the boomer advice of "put on a tie and show up in person" becoming sane and reasonable. Either that or so much of our workload being suddenly machine replaced that capitalism as we know it breaks down.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • MediocreClue9957. Am I crazy for kind of wanting Al or w/e to become such a problem similar to your situation that the only way to do anything is in person lol
    via perfect-strep0a
  • Pink11Amethyst I loved your tactic of asking the same question again!
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  • Pogostickio This reminds me of a secure paper recycling company in NW UK I applied for a few years ago.
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  • Two middle aged female managers entered the Teams chat. One had their webcam video signal switched off. When the interview started the other manager changed their live video feed to a static picture. Basically they just stopped the live feed but continued the interview.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • Remember the cold war interrogation situations like a Mission Impossible TV episode where someone shines a bright light in your face so you can be seen but you can't see? That's what I began to experience. What felt like an interrogation.
    via perfect-strep0a
  • I was not comfortable but I finished the interview without mentioning it. I did not get the job, but based on the sheer lack of respect and empathy from the two interviewers I was no longer interested. If that's how they are going to treat me before I've even started at the company then that's a hard pass.
    via perfect-strep0a

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employment issues recruiter job hiring manager linkedin robots interview toxic-work-environment zoom
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