# The recruiter spent thirty minutes belittling him. Weeks later he cost her the job.

**[TRUE STORY]** — by A senior professional · via r/recruitinghell

A recruiter from a well-regarded firm reached out to a senior professional who had recently left a role under a difficult manager. The screening call ran about half an hour, and the recruiter used most of it to pick him apart: his skills were thin, his track record unconvincing, and he would do well, she suggested, to delete some of his experience from his resume before anyone else saw it. He described being called incompetent to his face.

The next day the same recruiter came back with an offer. It was for a junior position, at roughly a 60 percent pay cut from what he had been earning. He declined it and went back to his search.

A few weeks later he signed elsewhere, a senior role with a 40 percent raise on his old salary. The story might have ended there, except the same recruitment agency later pitched its services to his new employer. He mentioned, to the people now above him, exactly how their prospective vendor had treated him. Management passed the feedback along. The recruiter was let go.

The internet, predictably, savoured it: the belittling had been billed as career advice, and the bill came due.

*Source: [r/recruitinghell · via Upworthy · June 2026](https://scoop.upworthy.com/candidate-fires-recruiter-who-mocked-them-during-interview-fp-ex1)*
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