A mid-sized tech company in Austin accidentally posted their Senior Developer job description in German and received 47 applications before anyone noticed. The position was active for two full weeks.

The mistake happened when someone clicked "translate" in their ATS to test internationalization features, then forgot to change it back. The job went live as "Senior Softwareentwickler gesucht - Vollzeit in Austin, Texas."

Here's where it gets better: applicants assumed it was intentional. Multiple candidates mentioned their "basic German skills" in cover letters. One applicant wrote an entire cover letter in broken German using Google Translate, presumably to stand out.

Three candidates were invited to first-round interviews before the hiring manager opened the job posting link and had what witnesses describe as "a moment of existential crisis followed by hysterical laughter."

The company issued apologies to all applicants. One candidate responded "I spent four hours learning technical German vocabulary for nothing?" Another said "This explains why the job requirements seemed weirdly phrased. I thought you wanted aggressive problem-solvers."

The best part: two of the accidentally German-interview-invites were legitimately good candidates. The company hired one of them. They do not speak German. Nobody speaks German. The job has nothing to do with German-speaking markets.

HR updated their posting process with a new checklist item: "Confirm job description is in English (unless it's supposed to be in German, in which case, is it though?)."

The hiring manager now triple-checks every posting language setting and has recurring nightmares about accidentally posting jobs in Mandarin. IT assures them the system "definitely won't do that again" which is exactly the level of confidence everyone wants.

One recruiter suggested they leave it in German to filter for candidates who apply to jobs they can't read. "Shows initiative," they argued. They were voted down but the idea lives on.

LinkedIn is having a field day. Suggestions for next month include Swahili job postings, roles described entirely in emoji, and job descriptions written in iambic pentameter.

The candidate who wrote the German cover letter using Google Translate has updated their LinkedIn to include "Proficient in Google Translate (all languages)" as a skill. Honestly? Respect.

Meanwhile, someone in HR is updating the company's quality control documentation in what they hope is English but honestly, at this point, who can even tell.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who's applied to jobs they didn't fully understand but needed the money anyway. You're valid and also possibly employed in Austin.