Employee realizes the new hire isn’t the person he interviewed, and it’s absolute comedy gold

When it comes to job interviews, it takes tons of preparation to impress the recruiters. But one job seeker went to incredible lengths to make sure they cracked the interview. In a Reddit post, an employee u/LuciusDickusMaximus, who helped interview a candidate, shared a bizarre incident that unfolded after the interview process. He didn't just help with the interview but almost led the entire process while his bosses were busy with their work and barely paid attention. A major plot twist ensued when the new recruit arrived at work - it was a whole new person.

Explaining the experience of interviewing the candidate, the employee wrote, "I really liked the guy. He was outgoing and quick, knew what he was talking about to a very high level and his experience matched." He also clearly noticed that the candidate was a Guatemalan of average height with black curly hair and stubble and had a slight accent. After interviewing four other candidates, the recruitment team decided to go with the Guatemalan guy, referred to as Josh in the post, as they found no red flags while interviewing him. When the employee was about to greet the new hire on his first day, a totally different individual awaited him.

There was no Guatemalan, only a tall white guy with brown hair and a Midwestern accent. The nameplate on the new hire's office read Josh's first and last name and the employee thought it may have been an IT guy helping with the work setup. "The guy said he was Josh and the kicker is, he also said, 'It’s great to see you again' and used my name— I hadn’t yet introduced myself," he wrote. When the employee expressed his concern to his boss, it was not taken seriously. "You're a quick judge of character, but time will tell if you're a good one," his boss replied, unaware of the game that was afoot.

"No one else seems to have noticed that it's a completely different guy. I haven't brought it up outright to anyone yet but want to because this is weird and seemingly fraudulent," the worried employee said. In fact, he received a connection request from Josh on LinkedIn where the profile picture was the newly hired white guy and the cover image featured a Guatemalan flag. Wondering if this matter had to be taken up with HR, the employee reached out to the internet for advice. People were absolutely amused by this unique interview mishap and surprisingly, this has happened to many other recruiters and employers.

It looks like Josh may have tried to scam the employers. "I have had offers on LinkedIn to do exactly this. Do interviews for companies and then someone else would do the work. Trust your spidey sense," said u/AnnoyedVelociraptor. "I work in HR and this has happened to us. Alarmingly, we’re in the finance sector, so this had wide security implications. However, we caught it fairly quickly. Turns out, more people than you’d think," pointed out u/PhonyNegroni. Some believed this story would be a great movie/TV show plot. "This did not take the turn I expected. It sounds like something from 'Seinfeld,'" quipped u/sisenora77. "Time slippage, you were temporarily in another universe," joked u/Toddisan.