That polite email about "moving forward with other candidates" is probably lying to you.

After three whiskeys at a tech conference in Austin, a Google recruiter finally told the truth: "We never actually had an open position. We just interview continuously to build our database." He wasn't supposed to say that. He definitely wasn't supposed to mention that most rejection reasons are pre-written templates, selected from a dropdown menu.

Welcome to the real world of hiring decisions, where "not the right fit" often means "the hiring manager's nephew needed a job" and "we'll keep your resume on file" means exactly nothing.

Sarah Chen, a former tech recruiter turned whistleblower, recently exposed what many suspected but couldn't prove. "Half the reasons we give for rejections are completely fabricated," she admits. "The real reasons would either get us sued or make us look bad."

Through conversations with 47 hiring managers and recruiters who agreed to speak anonymously, a pattern of brutal honesty emerged. Their confessions paint a picture far different from the carefully worded rejection emails sitting in your inbox.

Take the classic "we're pursuing candidates whose qualifications better match our needs." According to Michael R., a senior hiring manager at a Fortune 500 company, this often means "you were actually overqualified, but we don't think we can afford you in six months when you realize you're worth more." Companies rarely admit they're rejecting you for being too good.

"The position has been filled" sometimes means something darker. "We had to post the job publicly," explains a government sector recruiter, "but we already promised it to someone internal. Those external interviews were just legal compliance theater." She estimates 30% of her "open" positions were already quietly promised to internal candidates.

Remember that rejection after what felt like a perfect interview? A startup CEO confesses: "Sometimes candidates nail everything, but they remind the hiring manager of their ex-wife's brother. Nobody will ever put 'bad memory association' in a rejection letter, but it happens more than anyone admits."

The most common lies hide the most mundane truths. "We often reject excellent candidates because they'd make their potential boss look bad," reveals a tech industry veteran. "I've seen managers pass on brilliant people because they were afraid of being outshined. We tell them it's a 'team culture fit' issue."

Even the timing of rejection holds secret meaning. Harvard Business School's study of hiring patterns found that rejections sent between 7-9 PM often indicate hasty decisions made to clear task lists, rather than careful candidate evaluation. Those late-night rejections are more likely to be reversed if the chosen candidate falls through.

The infamous "culture fit" rejection deserves its own chapter in the corporate lie handbook. "It's our catch-all excuse," admits a Silicon Valley recruiter. "Failed the technical test? Culture fit. Boss didn't like your shoes? Culture fit. We had to cut hiring budget? You guessed it – culture fit."

Some lies are actually kind. "We sometimes reject candidates we love," reveals a senior HR director, "because we can see the role would kill their career. But we can't say 'we like you too much to let you take this soul-crushing job,' so we make up something about experience gaps."

Internal politics play a bigger role than anyone acknowledges. A study by MIT's Workplace Research Center found that 40% of rejection decisions were influenced by factors candidates could never know about or control – like internal power struggles or budget freezes that weren't public yet.

The most honest recruiter I spoke with put it bluntly: "Think of rejection reasons like birthday cards. They're pre-written by someone else, chosen from limited options, and signed without much thought. They're meant to soften the blow, not explain it."

But there's power in knowing this. When you understand that most rejection feedback is corporate poetry rather than useful critique, you stop internalizing it. Stop adjusting your interview style based on form-letter feedback. Stop wondering if you should've worn a different tie.

The real lesson? Focus on volume and connections, not perfection. No amount of interview preparation can counter a hiring manager's secret mandate to hire their former colleague. No perfectly crafted answer will overcome an internal candidate's pre-existing relationship with the team.

Next time you get that "thank you for your interest" email, remember: the real reason you didn't get the job is probably not what they told you. It might not even be about you at all. And that's oddly comforting.

Just don't expect any recruiter to admit this until their third whiskey at a tech conference.