Let’s be honest - the job market has gotten weird.

If you’ve been on either side of it lately, you know exactly what I mean. Recruiters post a tech job and get flooded with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications within hours. But here’s the kicker: a shocking number of those aren’t even from real people.

I’ve seen it firsthand - spammers using fake names, fake resumes, even having “phone-screen agents” do the calls just to snag one U.S. paycheck before they’re found out and fired. And yes - this is happening. According to recent analysis, remote-role hiring in tech has seen “candidates who don’t exist entirely or who aren’t who they claim to be.” (Tripwire)

Meanwhile, legitimate recruiters are left trying to sort through the chaos. They’re buried under applications, forced to spend hours manually messaging candidates on LinkedIn just to confirm, “Hey, are you actually real?” It’s slow, awkward, and incredibly inefficient. One article put it bluntly: recruiters are dealing with an “applicant tsunami” thanks to AI-augmented or fraudulent submissions. (sergiorio.tech)

So what’s the root of the break-down? A few things:

  • The barrier to applying has dropped dramatically. One click. One upload. Boom - you’re in the pool.
  • The incentive to game the system is real. Some folks are aiming not for the job, but for getting paid once - even if it’s $1 - before getting terminated.
  • Recruiters and ATS systems (Applicant Tracking Systems) are strained. With high volumes and low signal, time-to-hire goes up, and candidate experience goes down.
  • On the flip side, genuine talent suffers. Real senior engineers (like you) compete in a sea of noise, and the process becomes demoralizing.

Enter a potential fix: a verified, video-based initial screening.

I came across RealIDTalent (realidtalent.com) - a platform offering ID-verified applicants who submit a video cover-letter as the first step. The idea: before a candidate even gets to your calendar, they’ve proven they are who they say they are, on camera, and responded live to custom questions. That helps solve several of the pain-points:

  • Cuts down on fake profiles because ID + video raises the cost of spoofing.
  • Lets you see real human presence, nuance, tone - you know you’re not talking to a bot or an agent answering for someone else.
  • Reduces scheduling overhead and wasted time chasing non-existent candidates.
  • Helps surface real talent faster - you skip the “are they legit” question and move to “are they qualified.”

Think of it this way: instead of 1000+ resumes to review, you might get 100 verified video responses - and you already know those 100 are real people. The signal-to-noise ratio moves way up.

Here’s a little anecdote from my past: years ago I was on the consulting side. I submitted my resume to a firm and got a call from someone - sounded legit - walked through a phone screen, showed up to “start”. Two weeks later they found out it wasn’t me posting the profile but a “ghost contractor” they had hired remotely via a freelance platform. They paid out a small amount before termination. The lesson? Even senior level hires aren’t immune to this. The system is broken.

So if you’re running recruiting (or are the candidate on the receiving end), here’s what I suggest:

  1. As a recruiter/agency - insist on an early-stage verification step (video + ID). It saves you hours.
  2. As a candidate - embrace the video cover letter early. If recruiters filter for this kind of authenticity, you’ll stand out because you are who you say you are.
  3. As a hiring manager - measure not just resume volume, but verified human volume. Less may be better.
  4. As a market player - recognize the system must evolve. One size of resume doesn’t fit all. The binder of candidates is now stuffed with proxies and bots. We need human authenticity back.