Culture Branding
Happy Halloween: 7 recruiting tales to scare you to your very core
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
In honour of Halloween, we’ve gathered together some of the creepiest recruiting tales we have ever heard.
Some try to rationalise them, some claim they never happened, but no one can deny that they are truly terrifying. Sleep tight after reading these seven tales… muahhhhaha!
Did you ever hear the story of the candidate who never heard back on their application? They sent their CV, cover letter and a reference to the email address provided… but never heard back that their application was received. Some say that it was poor communications and recruiting practise, but she says maybe there never was a recruiter? Creepy.
I once heard a story about a recruiter whose manager asked them to gather metrics on their recent recruiting campaigns, but what the manager never told her is that they didn’t use recruiting software to gather data. The recruiter tried their best to manually compile the information, but slowly went mad. They say you can now find her roaming quiet roads, wearing worn business-casual attire, stopping drivers to ask them if they know how to use Excel. Spooky.
My friend said her first cousin once knew a recruiter who was given a month to find a mobile developer with 10+ years experience… and disappeared. Some say he left the country, changed his name and is now living on a pacific island, but others think the reason is a bit more… mysterious.
There was once a candidate who was thinking about seeking new opportunities, who contacted a recruiting agency, but things soon took a sinister turn. Night and day he was taunted by calls from a stranger, who breathed heavily down the phone, asking if he was interested in a role in accounts payable… eerie.
There once was a candidate who saw an advertisement in the paper for a job at a hotel, in a small, remote village in the mountains. The ad read: “Only the brave need apply: night manager needed at a hotel, haunted by it’s former head chef who died in mysterious circumstances.” The candidate got a letter back from the hotel, advising that they felt she hadn’t sufficient experience and they would prefer someone with a degree in hotel management. WooOOOoooo.
There was once a recruiter who's recruiting software developed a mind of its own. It would gather data on candidates and decide who would get to see it. It would put together neat little profiles of the candidates who would apply for jobs and send out messages that their application had been received. Some tried to convince them it was a feature of the tool, but he knew better. Elon Musk told you to be wary of AI….
There once was a candidate who got called in for an interview after applying for a job. He arrived early at the office wearing his suit and shortly after was brought into the meeting room where he would be interviewed. He was asked a series of expected questions, when the interviewer suddenly asked: “what’s your greatest weakness?” He grew sweaty, but answered the question… but the recruiter repeatedly asked him to elaborate and give examples from professional life. WooooooOOOOO.
“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
