AI-Generated LinkedIn Photo Has 6 Fingers, Nobody Notices Until Final Round

A candidate made it through four rounds of interviews before someone finally noticed their LinkedIn profile photo showed them with six fingers on their right hand. The photo was AI-generated, and apparently everyone was too polite (or too distracted) to mention the extra digit.

The Profile

The candidate had used an AI photo generator to create a "professional headshot" for their LinkedIn profile. The result was impressive: perfect lighting, neutral background, confident smile, business casual attire. Also, six fingers clearly visible in the shot where they were holding a coffee cup.

The AI had done that thing where it gets confused about hand anatomy and just adds extra fingers because why not? The candidate either didn't notice or figured no one looks that closely at LinkedIn photos anyway. They were almost right.

The Interview Journey

The candidate applied for a marketing manager position at a mid-sized SaaS company. The recruiter reviewed their LinkedIn profile, thought "nice professional photo," and moved them forward based on their experience.

Phone screen: passed. No video, so the fingers weren't relevant.

First video interview: the hiring manager spent the entire call looking at the candidate's actual face (which had the normal number of everything) and didn't check their LinkedIn during the meeting.

Second round with the team: four interviewers, 90 minutes of discussions about marketing strategy, go-to-market plans, and campaign analytics. Zero discussion of finger count.

Final round presentation: the candidate delivered a 30-minute strategy deck. It went extremely well. The VP of Marketing was impressed.

The Discovery

Before making an offer, the VP decided to review the candidate's LinkedIn profile one more time, just to see their full background. That's when they noticed. They stared at the photo for a solid minute, counted the fingers multiple times, sent a screenshot to the Head of People with the message "am I losing it or is this six fingers?"

The Head of People confirmed: definitely six fingers. They pulled up the profile on their own screen just to make sure it wasn't a glitch. Nope, still six.

They called in the hiring manager, who looked at the photo and said "huh, I never noticed that." They had looked at this profile multiple times over three weeks of interviewing. The six fingers had been hiding in plain sight.

The Conversation

The VP sent the candidate a message: "Love your background and really enjoyed your presentation. Quick question: your LinkedIn photo appears to show six fingers. Is that AI-generated or do you actually have six fingers? Either answer is fine, just curious."

The candidate responded within 10 minutes: "Oh my god, I used an AI generator for a professional headshot and never noticed. I definitely only have five fingers per hand. Should I be concerned that nobody mentioned this for four rounds of interviews?"

The VP's response: "We were all apparently too focused on your actual qualifications. But yes, maybe update the photo before you accept the offer so people don't think we hired a mutant."

The Aftermath

The candidate immediately changed their LinkedIn photo to an actual picture of themselves (five fingers, properly counted). They got the offer later that day.

During their first week, the new marketing manager received a Slack message from the VP: "Just checking that you still have the regulation number of fingers. We're running an audit."

The recruiting team has added a new step to their interview process: "actually look at the LinkedIn photo properly." It's right there in the checklist now, between "review work history" and "check references."

The Head of People sent out a company-wide reminder that AI-generated photos are becoming more common and might have "anatomical inconsistencies." The email included examples: extra fingers, missing ears, teeth that don't quite line up, eyes that look in slightly different directions.

The Lesson

Nobody looks as closely at your LinkedIn profile as you think they do. Which is either comforting or concerning, depending on what mistakes might be lurking in your profile right now.

Also, AI is very good at generating faces but still gets confused when hands are involved. Apparently, hands are hard. Who knew?

The candidate's original six-fingered photo has been saved by the recruiting team and is now used in training: "If you're going to judge someone based on their appearance, at least count their fingers first."

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The AI generator also gave the candidate slightly different colored eyes, which also went unnoticed. At this point, the recruiting team is wondering if they need to schedule eye exams for everyone.