American man shares heartbreaking ‘corporate catfish’ experiment: ‘I cannot stop crying’

1. American man shares heartbreaking ‘corporate catfish’ experiment: ‘I cannot stop crying’

An African-American man took to Reddit claiming that he decided to create a fake “Corporate Catfish” LinkedIn profile by using a white man’s stock photo, and it landed more interviews in two weeks than he had in three months. The post that stunned social media prompted outrage over hidden racial bias in the hiring process.

The post that stunned social media prompted outrage over hidden racial bias in the hiring process.(Representational)

In the post, the man introduced himself as a seasoned professional with a strong resume, but revealed that he was struggling to land a job, receiving only two interview calls since beginning his job search in April 2025.

Frustrated by the lack of responses, he decided to conduct an experiment. “Two weeks ago, I made a ‘Corporate Catfish’ profile using a stock photo of a white man in a tuxedo… I didn’t change my profile [details] but abbreviated my last name to ‘Ken’ instead of ‘Kennedy’,” he wrote.

The results stunned him. The fake profile received two interview requests and three recruiter voicemails in just 14 days, even though he did not change any details about himself apart from his name and ethnicity.

“I cannot stop crying. I hate this so much. I have served America for years, and this is what I have to deal with now," he said.

Recently, many job seekers, especially those of colour, have used “corporate catfishing” ie changing names and photos to appear White to show that racial bias in hiring is still prominent.

The post resonated with hundreds of commenters who pointed out how deeply embedded racial bias is in hiring. "This is why I hate corporate culture. I don’t “dislike” it, I absolutely hate it. These corporations and their leadership praise diversity to your face but behind closed doors, practice all sorts of racism, sexism and ageism," said one of them.

Another claimed, "What's horrifying is that as bad as racial bias is in human hiring, it's SO much worse with algorithmically assisted hiring. Especially tools that 'are customised to match your current workforce', they are built with implicit bias, and are then customised to even deeper bias."