Welcome to The Hero 🗞️. This is approximately a 2.5-minute read.
🎣 What "skill-fishing" is - and why it just exploded
💡 The data behind real-time interview cheating
🛠️ How to redesign your interview so AI can't fake through it
🔥 5 Candidate Closing Hacks
TL;DR
38.5% of candidates showed signs of cheating on a live call - 48% in technical roles
SHRM named the trend "skillfishing": faking skills you don’t actually have in real-time
Tools like Cluely feed candidates answers through invisible screens while they talk to you
The fix isn't better detection. It's interview design that real-time AI can't game
🎭 The Cheating Moved to the Live Call
You've been busy worrying about the resume…
But the real problem moved to the live call.
One analysis of 19,368 interviews found 38.5% of candidates showing signs of cheating - 48% in technical roles.
Not padded resumes.
Live, in-the-moment fakery.
Candidates running tools like:
These tools feed candidates answers through invisible screen overlays (pop-ups only they can see) - while they're talking to you 🤯
And it's spreading fast…
The same study watched the cheating rate climb from 9% in July to 45% by September.
This isn't a fringe move anymore.
SHRM already has a name for candidates faking skills they don’t have: Skillfishing
The full breakdown is just below - don’t miss it! 😉
Links of the Day:
🔗 Best Links
Here are some of the best links I’ve found since last time I emailed you:
🧩 Skills-Based Hiring
Pre-Employment Assessments: The Complete 2026 Guide (link)
Skills Gap Analysis: How to Identify and Close Talent Gaps (link)
🔊 Voice AI in Recruiting
Top 5 Voice AI Agent Companies for Recruitment in 2026 (link)
Conversational AI in Recruiting: The 2026 Buyer’s Guide (link)
📊 Staffing Industry Trends
Staffing Trends 2026: What Agencies Must Get Right (link)
61% of Recruiters Predict Market Stability in 2026 (link)
🎯 Candidate Experience
How to Build a Candidate-Centric Hiring Process (link)
Candidate Experience Benchmarks: What Good Looks Like in 2026 (link)
🪤 Why Your Interview Is the Easy Part to Fake
Skillfishing works because the standard interview is exactly what AI is best at faking.
Most screens ask predictable questions with knowable answers.
"Walk me through how you'd optimize this."
"Explain the difference between these two approaches."
Those are the easiest things in the world for an AI to handle.
The candidate just reads the answer off their screen while holding eye contact with you.
And the scores hold up.
61% of cheating candidates scored high enough to pass - so the faker doesn't sneak through. They look like a strong hire.
So the an answer can’t be a better lie detector…
It has to be a different interview strategy altogether - one a real-time AI can't answer for them.
🔥 The Playbook
Three moves.
No new software. Each one gives the overlay nothing to read.
1. Make them show real work.
Ask them to pull up something they actually built and walk you through one decision they made and why.
Lived experience can't be generated on the fly.
The overlay has nothing to feed them.
2. Test judgment, not recall.
Throw them a messy, real tradeoff from your actual work - one with no clean answer.
"Here's something we're genuinely stuck on - what's your gut tell you to do?"
AI hands them the textbook answer.
A real person hands you judgment based on experience.
3. Make knowing easier than faking.
Design questions where reading an answer off a screen is slower than just knowing it.
When faking costs more effort than answering, the overlay becomes dead weight - and your real candidate finally stands out.
In other words - make it stupid simple.
To Sum It Up…
Candidates are faking skills live on the call now - and they're passing.
The interview built on predictable questions is the one most exposed.
Redesign the screen around real work and real judgment, and the overlay has nothing to feed them.
To Wrap It Up…
The candidate isn't telling you what they know.
They're reading what their screen tells them to say.
Build the interview that has no answer to read.
HOW WE CAN HELP?
There are a few ways:
Or you can just reply to this email.
I reply to absolutely everyone who writes me back 🙂
