Feb 22, 2026
2 min read
Last week someone on my team was desperate to get in touch with me after an interview. We're in a huge hiring sprint at $job right now, and the second-order impact of that is simply doing an inordinate amount of interviews.
I'm hiring for some leaders on our team, which tend to take precedence over other tasks given the importance of getting this right. I dutifully did the first interview for a batch of candidates, and passed some of them to the next step. Which went to my colleague, the aforementioned desperate-to-chat person.
The interview framework isn't too important. But it is worth noting that the framework and rubric being tested are about human things. Managing people, growing teams, being in front of customers. The usual. Nothing super technical. Anyone, even someone unqualified, could navigate the conversation. The challenge is whether or not the candidate shows genuine interest, experience and an ability to communicate that experience.
Anyway, our intrepid candidate was talking to my excitable colleague. And while things were going fine, a few minutes into it my colleague asked if everything was ok. It seemed like the internet connection was a bit dodgy. Or maybe just the video was freezing randomly. Notably, the candidate's eyes were a bit odd. Maybe they were sick, or again, the internet connection was unstable.
Once prompted on this, the candidate sheepishly apologised and said they were using some nVidia overlay thing. They turned it off and hey presto, the video was all in order and looking good. But it exposed the actual issue. Every time there was a question, there was an oddly long pause or "hmm, really good question..." interlude. Keep in mind, these were not particularly rousing questions. Being asked about a time when you had to performance manage a team member is not a good question, but it serves a good purpose in these types of rubrics.
But when the candidate paused or filled some time, their eyes were down on their screen. It was so, so obvious that they were reading.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out the rest of the story. nVidia has some software that re-renders your face on video calls so it appears that you're paying full attention to the camera/other participant(s) of the call. When in reality you're reading the screen elsewhere. And elsewhere was ChatGPT, listening into the call and dictating answers to the candidate.
Atrocious behaviour. Fully atrocious in most contexts but in the scenario where someone is trying to become a people leader at a company is just insane. They've not only become a no-go for the future. They've become the marquee story of this hiring cycle. I don't know what anyone would do to outdo this candidate.
Though one positive came from this. I've made sure that at least one round of interviews is carried out in-person. Even if the candidate is remote; we'll get them in front of us somehow.