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Hiring Has Become a Three-Ring Circus — And No One’s Laughing.

  • Dec 22, 2025
  • 3 min read

📢 If you’ve applied for a job lately, you’ve probably felt it—the process isn’t “structured,” “modern,” or “data-driven.” It’s a circus. 🤡 A chaotic, over-engineered, three-ring production where every ring is another hoop for candidates to jump through… all while employers wonder why they “can’t find good people.”


Let’s walk through the madness.


🎪 Ring One: Pointless Personality Assessments

Nothing says “we value talent” like forcing applicants to answer 200 multiple-choice questions about whether they see themselves as a natural leader or prefer to work with others. Spoiler: everyone knows the “right” answers.


These assessments don’t predict success. They don’t measure real ability. They’re just an easy way for lazy recruiting teams to avoid talking to actual humans.


👉 Because why pick up the phone when a generic online quiz can pretend to do your job?

🎪 Ring Two: One-Way Video ‘Interviews’


Ah yes, the “talk to your webcam like it’s a person” phase.


Candidates are told to record themselves answering canned questions with no one on the other side. You know who loves these? Companies with no time to interview but plenty of time to reject someone based on poor lighting.


It’s dehumanizing. It's awkward. And it tells candidates exactly one thing:

👉 “We don’t respect your time—now dance for the algorithm.”

🎪 Ring Three: Endless Hoops & Panel Interviews

Three phone screens. A homework assignment. A panel interview with five people who haven’t read your resume. Another assessment. A final round with a “culture champion.” Then more “quick questions” they could have asked 40 days ago.


Hiring managers say they want to move fast. Recruiting says they’re being “thorough.” Meanwhile, the best candidates quietly disappear because they have better things to do than audition for a company that can’t make a decision.

🎪 Bonus Ring: Pointless Reference Checks


Yes, let’s call the three hand-picked people the candidate gave you and expect them to offer objective insight. Who’s doing that anymore?


If you want to know whether someone can do the job, here’s a revolutionary idea: Talk to them. Yourself. Like a human. Wild concept. 💥

🤖 And Now We’ve Reached the Clown Car: Letting AI Do Your Job


Here’s the quiet part companies don’t want to say out loud:

When you outsource your screening, interviewing, and decision-making to AI, automated questions, and chatbots… you broadcast to every applicant:

👉 “We have absolutely no idea how to hire.” 👈


If your first line of evaluation is a robot, if candidates can’t reach a human being, if all communication is templated and cold, you’re not “innovative.” You’re overwhelmed, inexperienced, or unwilling to do the actual work.


And you think candidates don’t notice? Wrong.


✅ It makes your hiring manager look unqualified.

✅ It makes your process look weak.

✅ And it makes your company look like absolute trash on the talent market.

A complete 🤡 show.


Top performers see it instantly. They don’t think, “Wow, cutting-edge!” They think:

👉 “If this is how they hire, imagine how they operate.” 👈

And then they ghost you—professionally.

🤡 Lazy Recruiting Is the Real Show


Instead of real conversations—two adults determining fit—candidates get:

✅ Forms

✅ Portals

✅ Screening bots

✅ “Tell us more” questions

✅ “Explain this” boxes

✅ “Please upload your résumé”

✅ “Now type it all again manually”


Recruiters are asking candidates to write essays instead of picking up the phone for a five-minute call or a 10-minute Zoom. This isn’t hiring. This is outsourcing your responsibility to software and templates.

🎤 The Bottom Line


The companies winning top talent today aren’t the ones building the biggest obstacle course.

They’re the ones doing what works:

💥 Call the candidate

💥 Have a real conversation

💥 Assess skills like a human

💥 Make a decision without dragging it out for 47 days


Hiring doesn’t need a circus. It needs competence. And until more organizations figure that out, top candidates will keep walking right out of the tent—straight into companies that treat them like people, not performers. 🎤

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