A recruiter at ride-hailing giant Uber has gone viral after sharing an unusual hiring experience involving a candidate who allegedly disappeared after receiving a company-issued Apple MacBook before officially joining the organisation.
The incident was narrated by Hyderabad-based principal recruiter Raghu Tenneti in a LinkedIn post that quickly attracted widespread attention and amusement online.
Candidate fails to join on first day
According to Tenneti, the candidate had completed the hiring process and was scheduled to join the company. However, when the joining date arrived, the individual failed to report for work.
Attempts to contact the candidate reportedly proved unsuccessful. Tenneti claimed that the phone number provided during recruitment appeared to no longer exist, while the candidate’s LinkedIn profile had also disappeared.
Using humour to describe the situation, he wrote that the candidate had not simply ghosted the company but had seemingly “vanished from existence.”
Delivery address raises questions
The mystery deepened when the recruitment team reportedly investigated the address where the company-issued laptop had been delivered.
According to Tenneti, the location turned out to be a vacant plot near an abandoned building rather than a residential address.
He further claimed that the company’s IT team attempted to track the laptop remotely, only to discover that the device had already been factory reset.
The recruiter jokingly compared the episode to a spy thriller, suggesting that the candidate had orchestrated an elaborate disappearance after securing the company laptop.
Social media reacts
The story quickly gained traction on LinkedIn, with users comparing the incident to scenes from espionage films and action movies.
Some commenters joked that the mysterious candidate would make an ideal secret agent, while others used the story to highlight concerns about identity verification and the increasing role of technology in modern hiring processes.
The recruiter later joked that he may have to add “confirm candidate physically exists” to future pre-onboarding checklists.
While the claims have not been independently verified, the unusual account has sparked discussions about recruitment fraud, remote hiring challenges and the importance of thorough background verification.