It’s an old problem that is growing new thorns in the age of AI: candidates saying they can do what they can’t. Now there’s a word for it, too — skillfishing.
SHRM’s Chief Knowledge Officer Alexander Alonso, SHRM-SCP, defines skillfishing as “the act of presenting skills, credentials, or capabilities that do not translate into real execution.”
Whether in resumes and cover letters or interviews and skills tests, the prevalence of AI tools is making it easier than ever for candidates who lack credentials to appear polished.
How Skillfishing Shows Up in HR
With skillfishing on the rise, Rob Hosking, executive director of the administrative and customer support practice at staffing firm Robert Half, is hearing more from employers who made hires only to find that the person wasn’t equipped for the job — or that they weren’t who they said they were.
This can be especially challenging when the role is remote. “We’re hearing many stories of people not being at all who they came across as, or they really lack the depth of experience [employers] thought they had,” Hosking said. “You may never have met the person and you may not be working with them in person either; it’s really hard to know if in fact the person is the person who went through the interview.”
On paper, skillfishing might look like a seemingly ideal resume, Hosking said, one that exactly matches the job posting, including desired experience level and skills. He’s heard of organizations including “keywords in the job posting on things that actually don't exist,” such as non-existent coding languages, to try to weed out candidates who use AI to scrape the application and parrot the requirements.
The issue of candidates exaggerating certain skills or experience is an enduring problem in hiring, but use of technology is magnifying it and causing headaches for recruiters and hiring managers who are having more trouble distinguishing between qualified and unqualified applicants, experts agree.
According to Colleen Paulson, an executive career coach, skillfishing is more common among entry-level job seekers who might lack experience and use tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to massage their professional history and credentials.
That being said, the trend is extending to other applicant levels who may feel pressure to also use AI.
“Even my executive clients are using AI to prepare for everything,” Paulson said. “We’re seeing this at all levels.”
The Challenge of Skillfishing in an AI Era
“Candidates have always somewhat stretched the truth on resumes to try to seem a little better than they are, but AI is making it easier to package it all up,” said Jasmine Weber, a business consultant with Lakeshore Talent in Colorado, who works with clients across tech, health care, manufacturing, oil and gas, real estate, and beyond.
As a result, many recruiters and employers are bombarded with resumes that are “over-optimized,” heavy on buzzwords and repetitive while offering “very little depth,” Weber explained. Reliance on AI to produce cover letters has rendered them virtually useless, she thinks, because it results in homogenous writing that reveals little about candidates’ actual personality or skills.
Just because a candidate may have used AI to polish their application materials doesn’t mean that they don’t have the skills to back them up, Weber cautioned. “Candidates are adapting to a somewhat broken system where they’re trying to stand out and fit what AI is looking for in the screening process as well ... using key phrases instead of hardcore numbers or showing things that they did in their role.”
She advised that the most crucial defense against skillfishing is being rigorous in the recruiting and hiring processes, and not relying on AI to assess candidates.
What HR Executives Can Do to Prevent Skillfishing
To defend against skillfishing in the hiring process, here are a few tips.
1. Beware applications that look identical to your job posting.
Skillfishing is likely to manifest as candidates using AI to put together cover letters and resumes that parrot job posting requirements, right down to exact phrasing and experience levels.
Hosking said he has heard of companies who are trying to weed out these candidates by lacing non-existent requirements into job postings (such as “five years proficiency in Sparkle) and then tossing applications from those who claim to have obviously bogus skills.
2. Don’t assume someone is skillfishing because they used AI.
At a time when AI use has become so prevalent among jobseekers and employers alike, experts agree it’s critical that HR executives do not presume that all candidates who turn to AI tools to polish their applications are skillfishing.
This could lead to losing candidates that do have the desired skills and experience, but who are using AI to navigate a landscape where not doing so may put them at a disadvantage.
3. Don’t rely only on AI to evaluate candidates.
According to Hosking, many organizations that leaned into virtual hiring in the past few years are now reversing course and doing more in-person panel interviews. He noted that increasing “the human element” in hiring processes can help make sure the right person gets the job.
4. Introduce more skill-based assessments — ideally in person to prevent AI usage.
To guard against underqualified candidates, Hosking is seeing many employers lean into skills assessments, which give hiring managers a better feel for soft skills and other performance factors. These assessments may also help eliminate the use of AI tools that can supply real-time answers to candidates during virtual interviews.
“Assessing soft skills, communication style, attitude, determination, all these things that are critical for success requires insight and judgment. Only people can give that,” Hosking said.
While skills-based assessments are helpful for employers, Weber advised HR leaders to be mindful of the time commitment for candidates and aim for a 30–60-minute assessment.
“Once you get beyond that, you start to see a drop-off, especially with candidates who already have multiple opportunities,” Weber said.
She advises utilizing assessments further along in the hiring process as a way to examine candidates’ skills and their fit with the company culture.
“Top candidates won’t invest heavy time before they even speak to someone,” Weber said.
5. Invite people in person to interview as quickly as possible, because it’s very difficult to skillfish when face to face.
Face to face interviewing sidesteps some potential pitfalls of virtual hiring, such as the prevalence of tools that can supply real-time answers to candidates. Red flags for this behavior in a virtual interview might include a candidate who is constantly stalling before answering and flicking their eyes to a certain corner of their screen, and who seem like they’re reading from a script, Hosking warned.
Generally, experts agree that it’s simply more challenging for candidates to convincingly fake certain skills and experience when in-person with a hiring manager.
“If I was employing people today, I’d try to get someone in for an in-person interview as soon in the process as I could to understand if they are who they say they are,” Paulson said.
6. Slow down the hiring process and involve more layers of people.
Weber advised that employers should ensure that there’s strategic coordination between recruiters, hiring managers, and upper-level management.
Hiring teams need to have a clear understanding of what the right person for a given role might look like in terms of outcomes. “What does success in this role look like in 30, 60, 90 days,” Weber said.
Once recruiting is underway, it’s best to create a feedback loop and keep communication tight.
“Delays, mixed signals or shifting expectations are where you lose top talent,” Weber said. “If candidates are consistently falling short or dropping out, adjust quickly instead of pushing forward with a misaligned strategy.”
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