Candidate Disappears With MacBook, Erases Digital Existence On Day Of Joining: 'He Vanished'

A job candidate at Uber aced his interviews, took a company-issued laptop, and completely vanished from existence. Raghu Tenneti, a Hyderabad-based Principal Recruiter at Uber, shared the wild story in a now-viral LinkedIn post where he detailed how the new hire ghosted the company immediately upon joining. Despite multiple attempts to contact the missing employee, all outreach efforts hit a total dead end.

"Candidate ghosting on joining day is not something new today. But this guy didn't ghost us. He vanished from existence," Tenneti wrote.

Tenneti said that attempts to contact the candidate after he failed to show up on his joining date were unsuccessful. “Called his number. ‘This number does not exist.' Not switched off. Not unreachable. Does not exist. Bro didn't block us. He erased himself from the telecom grid,” he said.

Tenneti said the candidate's LinkedIn page was gone, and efforts to trace the laptop delivery address led to no breakthrough either.

"Traced the laptop delivery address. A vacant plot. Behind an abandoned building. He gave us a dead-drop location for a MacBook," he said adding: "Our IT team pinged the laptop remotely. Factory reset. Encrypted proxy. Pinging from coordinates that should not exist on this planet."

Comparing the candidate's disappearance to that of Ethan Hunt, the spy played by Tom Cruise in the Mission: Impossible films, Tanneti said the company just needed its laptop back.

"This man didn't skip Day 1. He faked his entire identity and vanished without a single digital footprint. That's not ghosting. That's a heist. And honestly? Ethan Hunt, genuinely, respect the craft. Bro we want our laptop back."

Having learnt a lesson, Tenneti said he was adding 'confirm candidate physically exists' to the company's pre-onboarding checklist.

"Every hiring process has a leakage point. Mine apparently opened into another dimension.The candidate didn't drop from the funnel. He exited the timeline," he added.

Check The Viral Post Here:

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'Oh My God'

Social media users have been stunned by the brazen theft and the lack of communication from the candidate.

"This is unbelievable. Oh my god," said one user while another added: "This is crazy. What I don't understand is why a person would go such lengths just for a laptop, unless they are doing this on a scale with multiple companies."

A third commented: "So you're telling me, this guy went month on month through Leetcode problems, solved Uber's engineering interviews, behavioral rounds, system design questions and HR… only to steal a laptop? That's some level of patience and commitment to get a MacBook."

A fourth said: "This might be one of the most creative descriptions of candidate ghosting I've read. On a serious note, it's a reminder that communication matters from both sides. Even a simple update can save a lot of confusion during the hiring process."