HOW TO STOP APPLICANTS RE APPLYING LOTS OF TIMES: We see this often. Applicants
By George Barnett Reid 👀 · April 30, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
HOW TO STOP APPLICANTS RE APPLYING LOTS OF TIMES:
We see this often. Applicants getting rejected. Then immediately re-applying under different email addresses and phone numbers in order to get a second chance.
Often tweaking their CV with ai to pass whatever round they need to in the hope of, I assume, faking it till they make it.
PROBLEM:
If you're not used to this, you can waste hours in interviews that never should have happened. Or worse, make a bad hire.
Here's what you can do:
1/ Keep all your own data. Don't leave it inside of the platform you're using.
This allows for much easier cross referencing and querying.
2/ Ensure your data is updated for each stage of your process. Don't let it drift away. If you make notes on them. Store it. Give them a score. Store it. Make a stage move. Store it. Send an email/whatsapp/LI-message. Store it.
We store absolutely everything. And we have an interaction timeline so anyone in the org can view everything for a candidate. We also have the ability to 'merge' candidates under the same candidate code when we get bad actors.
3/ Your time is precious. Treat it so. Put in steps that allow you to catch bad actors before you sit down for an interview. Your 30/45/60 minute interview time is highly valuable. Don't waste it on someone who actually got rejected but rigged their way to squeeze through again.
4/ Have a step in your process which is difficult to cheat on. And put cheat prevention measures in place. e.g. we have an analytics test, one of our team watches the screen the entire time to ensure they're not faking it. It's labour intensive but it guarantees our senior team aren't wasting time. And more importantly, our clients are never introduced to such candidates.
But most of all, it's just paying attention to the details. Having someone in your team who's all over it.
When I was an Amazon advertising agency, I could be criticised for rushing hiring. Because there were clients waiting.
And as such the process was flawed. Often relying on gut feelings to make a call.
That gut feeling is your money though. Your ad spend.
Our hiring process now is without doubt 10x better than what it was 1-2 years ago.
And we review 2000 applications every month.
With the plan to review up to 4000/month going forwards.
We have to have a superb system that enables us to make well-informed decisions. BUT ALSO to create a good candidate experience. This is very big for us this year.
What have you put in place to counter such problems?
#itsalwaysdayone