Beat the Hiring "Trust Recession" With Public Proof-of-Skill Projects

Bashiri Smith · Facebook reel · 2026-09-22 · 1:06 · 1,406 views · Open on Facebook

Topics: Portfolio Projects, Resume, Job Search & Interviews, Industry Trends & Job Market · Level: beginner

Summary

The creator says candidates aren't getting interviews because companies no longer trust résumés and credentials. He cites a 2026 AI hiring report (he doesn't name the platform) that describes a "trust recession." His fix is to pick a real problem companies care about, build a solution in public, and keep improving and posting about it like a mini startup until you get hired. That gives hiring managers proof they can actually evaluate.

Key points

• The cited 2026 AI hiring report (platform not named) surveyed 400+ hiring managers, 200+ recruiters and 1,000+ job seekers.
• Key finding: hiring is in a 'trust recession.' Over 70% of hiring managers worry about fake credentials.
• Over 90% of hiring managers say they've met candidates who lie about their skills.
• The way to earn trust is undeniable public proof of your skills through public projects.
• Choose a problem companies care about and that you're uniquely positioned to solve.
• Keep working on the problem and posting about it until you land a job. Don't build once and stop.
• Treat the project like a mini startup: share your improvements publicly so hiring managers have something concrete to evaluate.

Resources mentioned

• How to Build a Coding Project That Will Get You Hired in 2026 [FULL BLUEPRINT] · video · youtube.com · free
  Bashiri Smith's full YouTube tutorial on planning and building portfolio projects that solve real problems and show employers you can do useful work.
  Also in: Build Side Projects With Real Users to Stand Out to Employers (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Be the "Glue": Build AI Projects That Solve Real Problems to Get Hired (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Stop Writing AI Keyword Soup: Build Projects That Solve Real Problems (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), 90-Day AI Engineering Job Search: Targeted Companies, Outreach & Loom Pitches (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 2 more
• BASWE.Ai Engineer (Skool community) · community · skool.com · paid
  The creator's paid community and program, with an AI learning roadmap (including the full ops and evaluation track), daily calls with engineers and recruiters, resume and portfolio help, and a job-search pipeline.
  Also in: Basic RAG Pipeline in 60 Seconds: From Documents to Grounded Answers (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), How to Evaluate a RAG Pipeline: Retrieval vs. Generation (Interview Answer) (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 76 more

Try this

• Find a real problem that companies care about and that you're uniquely positioned to solve.
• Build a useful solution to it as a public project.
• Keep improving the project and posting your progress publicly until you land a job.
• Treat the project like your own mini startup.
• Watch the creator's full blueprint video on building a signal project.
• A 'signal project': an ongoing public project that solves a real problem companies care about, run like a mini startup with regular public progress updates.