Research on interpersonal attraction suggests that being elusive or “playing hard‐to‐get” is effective for increasing one's desirability and the likelihood of being selected as a dating partner. The following two studies explored the effects of this hard‐to‐get phenomenon in an employment decision setting. Both college students (Experiment 1) and professional recruiters (Experiment 2) reviewed application materials that conveyed that a candidate was either hard‐ (e. g., considering other job opportunities) or easy‐to‐get (e. g., not considering other opportunities) and then indicated their evaluations of these candidates. In both studies, being hard‐to‐get affected the interviewers’ judgments. However, this effect was moderated by the type of rationale given for being hard‐ or easy‐to‐get, as well as the objective qualifications (GPA) information. In addition, recruiter sex and candidate gender differences were explored. Male recruiters’ evaluations of application materials were more lenient than were females’ evaluations.