I work at a logistics company and we’re hiring a System Analyst to optimize our billing system, rates, etc. It’s a super niche role and my inbound applicant flow is slim. There’s one applicant, we’ll call him Craig, whose resume looked perfect at first glance. He’d worked with similar platforms and it seemed like he’d worked with other logistics companies. I moved him forward in the process, but I have not reached out to him yet.
Since my applicant flow was low, I turned to LinkedIn. LI has a feature called “Find More People Like” where it will automatically run a search to find candidates like Craig. That’s when things started to get fishy. I looked at his LI profile, and while the jobs were the same, the responsibilities were vastly different from what was on his resume. This prompted me to take a closer look at the companies he’d worked at. One was a credit card company and the other was an oil and gas company. I did a bit of research and neither of these companies operate in the logistics and 3PL space. When I looked deeper into his resume, it became obvious that Craig used AI to tailor his resume to match my company’s job description.
I do not care that candidates use AI on their resume, but in this case he’s outright lying. I brought it up to my manager and my Sr Recruiter. I explained my logic and showed them the discrepancies. I even highlighted the parts of the resume that were almost a near copy and paste from the job description. They both told me I should interview Craig anyway “just to see what he’s talking about.” Their argument is that I’d know if Craig was lying within the first five minutes of the call.
While that’s true, I’m already very busy. I conduct about seven interviews daily, and I don’t want to waste a slot on someone who didn’t even have the decency to review their fake resume and ensure it made sense. I KNOW Craig is lying, so why should I waste my time?
TL;DR: my candidate used AI to lie on his resume, so now I don’t want to interview him. My managers want me to do it anyway so he can weed himself out during the interview.
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I work at a logistics company and we’re hiring a System Analyst to optimize our billing system, rates, etc. It’s a super niche role and my inbound applicant flow is slim. There’s one applicant, we’ll call him Craig, whose resume looked perfect at first glance. He’d worked with similar platforms and it seemed like he’d worked with other logistics companies. I moved him forward in the process, but I have not reached out to him yet.
Since my applicant flow was low, I turned to LinkedIn. LI has a feature called “Find More People Like” where it will automatically run a search to find candidates like Craig. That’s when things started to get fishy. I looked at his LI profile, and while the jobs were the same, the responsibilities were vastly different from what was on his resume. This prompted me to take a closer look at the companies he’d worked at. One was a credit card company and the other was an oil and gas company. I did a bit of research and neither of these companies operate in the logistics and 3PL space. When I looked deeper into his resume, it became obvious that Craig used AI to tailor his resume to match my company’s job description.
I do not care that candidates use AI on their resume, but in this case he’s outright lying. I brought it up to my manager and my Sr Recruiter. I explained my logic and showed them the discrepancies. I even highlighted the parts of the resume that were almost a near copy and paste from the job description. They both told me I should interview Craig anyway “just to see what he’s talking about.” Their argument is that I’d know if Craig was lying within the first five minutes of the call.
While that’s true, I’m already very busy. I conduct about seven interviews daily, and I don’t want to waste a slot on someone who didn’t even have the decency to review their fake resume and ensure it made sense. I KNOW Craig is lying, so why should I waste my time?
TL;DR: my candidate used AI to lie on his resume, so now I don’t want to interview him. My managers want me to do it anyway so he can weed himself out during the interview.
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I think I might be the asshole because a candidate applied for a job but I’m refusing to interview him because he used AI to lie on his resume.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA at all. you need someone who will genuinely fit the role. this person will find the role for them.
I often tailored my resume to highlight specific parts of my job, but not fanbricating information
> Since my applicant flow was low
> I’m already very busy. I conduct about seven interviews daily
I thought ai was supposed to get better lmao
NTA – you absolutely should not waste an hour of your time on a candidate who is lying! Interviewing is exhausting and I’m sure you have better things to do.
I’d do it just to put him on the spot and ask very random questions. This has happened at my work. If they actually get through the interview process, the background check usually catches them. Don’t lie when you’re trying to get a security clearance.
YTA You don’t see a lot of candidates and your boss is telling you to talk to them. A ten minute call seems like a good waste of your time to make everyone happy.
NAH
TBH given how dire the job market is, I’d say give him a shot and do an interview. He may have more experience than you think and you can always ask him about the discrepencies. If he isn’t right, he isn’t right.
NTA, why waste your time interviewing someone who’s already being dishonest? Tailoring your resume to fit a job description is one thing, but flat out lying about experience is completely different.
Even though you say you have a low applicant flow, there are probably hundreds of candidates out there who are not only qualified, but aren’t lying about their experience and depending on Ai to get an interview.
So, every one takes their resume and fluffs it to tailor to the position the are applying for. You have no proof they used AI to do this beyond your suspicion. Your supers are telling you to interview him, just interview him.
how is your applicant flow low but your very busy interviewing 7 people a day???
NTA, You owe the applicant nothing but considering that two people who have some influence over your career have told you to do it, are you sure this is the hill you want to die on?
NTA
Your job is to screen candidates. You know this candidate should be screened out, so do your job. It seems you can even show actual reasons to someone who might ask, so you’re solid.
Toss that CV and move on.
Which will take longer interviewing Craig or convincing your boss that it’s a waste of your time?
YTA if you dont interview him after bringing it up to the other two people who told you to interview him.
Honestly it really shouldnt take above 5 minutes if as you say you know he is lying so I really dont think its making a big hole in your busy schedule.
NAH. This is work, it’s not about being an asshole. Your boss told you to make a 5 minute call. You should listen.
NTA I would not interview him if you already know he is lying. What’s the point? I do interviews for different positions and I would start with questions about his previous experience. For me, it would basically turn into the entire interview of proving he was lying. First, he would have to detail the logistics experience at each of his previous jobs in detail. And then I would hit him with specific technical questions that would show he knows nothing. He would either try to BS his way through it or just shut down. Either way waste of time for both parties.
Seriously just do the interview he could be lying but he could also be perfect for the job you already have a bias don’t let it interfere with your job. Some one gave you a chance right? So give this guy one.
I say give Craig the benefit of the doubt. After all, the worst that could happen is that you were right and 30 minutes of your day was wasted.
If he is actually lying, you aren’t the problem. Do you know for a fact he is lying, or does he possibly have enough experience that he tailors his resume to the job he is applying for? That is a very common practice. He definitely could have had a hand in logistics work even if the companies themselves don’t specialize in logistics.
I personally would bring someone in for an interview and ask them about the variance. There are multiple factors that can impact this that I doubt you have full knowledge of. It is incredibly common to take sentences word for word from the description, because a lot of HR systems filter out applications that don’t match these parameters.
NTA if you have actually done your homework. Other way around if you are making assumptions. Companies make it difficult for resumes to get noticed, so this is where we are. Faking is one thing. Manipulating the automated system to get your resume noticed is another.
This has nothing to do with my response, I am just curious. What makes the role so niche? As someone with 12 years of experience in similar roles, this sounds standard. I understand if you can’t share too many details for the sake of privacy.
When I was hiring candidates, I had to review all the referred resumes to come up with a short list to interview.
In this case, I would have cut Craig without a second thought, because as you wrote, time is short and I have better things to do than interview a candidate that I know I am not going to hire.
NTA.
I kinda feel like the company is being stupid, but if they insist that they want to pay you to waste time interviewing this guy to confirm that he’s lying, you might as well spend the time interviewing him and collect more evidence. Maybe they have some reason why they want more of a data trail for rejecting him — he could have a connection to someone senior at the company, or there might be EEO issues, who knows?
So NTA for telling them it’s a waste of time, but you probably need to do the interview anyway.
NTA – But make sure you tell Craig the reasons why, we don’t end this stupid shit unless it gets called out and the perpetrators realize it is not a winning strategy. We have to stop the slow trickle of this stuff into our industries, the lying to get a leg up, the hyper optimizing everything, it’s suicidal.
This has nothing to do with Assholery, but you would be shooting yourself in the foot by disregarding your manager and senior by not spending a small portion of your day to do what they asked you to do.
YTA
Here’s the facts, you don’t actually know what went down at the other companies that’s the applicant has worked at. He tailored the role for a specific position, sure but lots of people do that and if you don’t know it’s one of the main things people are told to do at university. You don’t want to waste time but you also don’t have hundreds of people lined up and qualified. Your boss told you to talk with him so just do the interview.
YTA. Not sure why you are saying his fake resume “didn’t make sense” – you thought it was perfect at first. Must have made a lot of sense. It’s entirely possible that his LinkedIn experience isn’t tailored for the job position at your company, but his actual experience has a lot to offer (as reflected in his resume). Furthermore you were told to interview this person. Interview them, and keep an open mind. You seem so offended that the person used AI – which nearly everyone does – that you are blinded to someone who might be a great fit for the role.
You’re NTA but I would still interview him. Not because it’s “the right thing to do.” But because it will help you out tremendously.
Lots of people use AI to match job descriptions these days. I would bet he didn’t proofread it before clicking apply. Interviewing him will give you a chance to clarify this, and test out how much he really knows, if anything. Maybe he’ll be a good fit anyway – but more importantly you’ll also be able to learn why you aren’t getting a lot of applicants.
I have a suspicion – Does your company use or admit to using an AI filter on resumes? Could there be people applying who are qualified but being incorrectly denied as a result of the AI filter? Sometimes companies mess these up and it only lets people through who are a 100% match. Interviewing this guy will help you clarify a little about the process. Ask him what program he used and learn about his process. Then ask someone you know who is qualified to submit two applications. One that is filtered like this applicants, and one that isn’t. See if they both go through.
If you think the manager and recruiter will be upset or hold it against you in some way for not interviewing him, just do the interview anyway and say he was awful. I know some people don’t like when you ask for their opinion on something and then don’t do what they suggest.
If you think they’ll never know the difference or care that you didn’t listen to their opinion then don’t do the interview.
Maybe start the interview by showing him the trail of evidence you found and asking him to explain it? That’ll scare him off using llms in the future, with any luck. Maybe even say “I might have considered you, except…”
If he’s not qualified, he’s not qualified. I wouldn’t have bothered interviewing him just off of that.
But, now your manager told you to do it, so you need to.
Your takeaway: if you run into this again, just tell the recruiter you’re passing on the resume, as you feel he’s unqualified, or not a good fit.