I want to start by saying I love my job.
I really do.
But 20 years of recruiting in tech will do something to a person. Not break them, exactly. More like... season them. Like a cast iron pan. I've absorbed so much that nothing sticks anymore and I run slightly hotter than I used to.
This is a collection of true stories. Details changed, names gone, dignity mostly intact.
The Guy Who Negotiated Before the Interview
It was a Tuesday. I sent a calendar invite for a first-round call - the casual 20-minute "let's get to know each other" type. No pressure, just a chat.
He replied within four minutes.
Not to confirm the time. Not to say he was looking forward to it.
To tell me his expected salary had gone up since he submitted the application, and he wanted to "align on compensation before investing time in the process."
I stared at my screen for a long time.
We hadn't spoken once. I didn't know if he could string a sentence together yet. He did not know if we were worth his time either, apparently.
I appreciated the confidence. I did not appreciate it at 9 AM on a Tuesday before my coffee.
We had the call. He was actually great. We made him an offer.
He negotiated again.
The CV That Had a Mood Board
I cannot explain this one. I have tried.
It was a PDF. Professionally designed, I'll give them that - clearly some time had gone into the layout. But instead of a summary section at the top, there was a collage.
A collage.
Stock photos of mountains, a city skyline at night, a person standing on a cliff with their arms out. The vibe was very "LinkedIn inspiration post" meets "gap year journal".
Underneath it said: "I don't just write code. I craft experiences."
The role was for a junior QA tester.
I showed it to three colleagues. We still talk about it.
The Interview That Became a Therapy Session
I ask every candidate the same opening question: "Tell me a bit about yourself and what brought you to apply for this role."
Standard. Comfortable. A warm-up.
Most people take two or three minutes. They talk about their background, mention why the company caught their eye, maybe share something about where they want to go next.
This candidate took twenty-seven minutes.
I know because I checked my phone at minute eight and then again at minute fifteen with increasing concern.
He talked about his previous manager (at length), a project that went badly (in detail), a team that didn't appreciate him (emotionally), and a reorg that he felt was personally directed at him (it was not, almost certainly).
By the end I felt like I owed him a referral to someone qualified to actually help.
I asked if he had any questions about the role.
He did. They were also about his previous manager.
The Candidate Who Ghosted - Then Reapplied Four Months Later
We had gone through four rounds. Four. First call, technical screen, take-home task, final panel. The whole thing took three weeks because of scheduling. We liked him. The team liked him. We put together an offer.
Silence.
No response to the email. No response to the follow-up. Not a word.
We moved on. Hired someone else. Life continued.
Four months later, his application lands in my inbox again. Same role, new job listing.
No mention of the previous process. Fresh cover letter. Completely new email address.
Same photo on the CV.
I sat with this for a while.
I did not reach out. But I thought about it. I thought about it a lot.
The One Who Was Perfect
I want to end on this one, because it's important.
Every now and then - not often, but enough - you get a candidate who just gets it. They've done their research without being weird about it. They're honest about what they don't know. They ask good questions, the kind that tell you they're thinking about the actual work, not just the offer letter.
The interview doesn't feel like an interview. It feels like a conversation between two people figuring out if something makes sense.
We hired her. She's been here two years. She's the one people go to when something breaks at 4 PM on a Friday.
Those ones make the collage CVs worth it.
...Mostly.
Got a hiring story that tops any of these? We genuinely want to hear it. The bar, as you can see, is quite high.
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