I am currently on month four of the job hunt and I thought I had seen it all but today took the cake. I applied for a senior dev position at this mid sized tech firm and about an hour later I get an automated email. I figured it was the usual “thanks but no thanks” but no. It was an invitation to their “pre screening portal” where the first task was to record a 5 minute high energy video introducing myself. They literally asked me to be “creative and show off my personality” and even suggested using props or background music to stand out.

Are you kidding me? I have fifteen years of experience building scalable systems and you want me to do a puppet show for some entry level recruiter who probably doesnt even know the difference between Java and Javascript? This isnt American Idol. I am not a content creator and I am certainly not going to dance around my living room for a chance to maybe get a first round interview. The worst part is they framed it as a way to “save time for the candidates” so we dont have to do a boring phone screen. Saving time for who exactly? It takes way longer to set up a decent recording and edit out the stutters than it does to just hop on a ten minute call.

I checked the glassdoor for this company and apparently they do this for every single role from janitor to c-suite. It feels like a massive ego trip for the HR department to see how much people are willing to humiliate themselves for a paycheck. I sent a polite email back saying that my portfolio and github should speak for my personality and that I would be happy to chat in person but I am not doing the video thing. Ten minutes later I got a “status change” notification that I was no longer being considered. Honestly good. If this is how they treat people before they even hire them I can only imagine the micromanagement hell that happens on the inside. The job market in 2026 is just a circus and we are all forced to be the clowns.