This article problematizes the issue of legitimation of said procedures when recruitment and selection often involve discriminatory attitudes and decisions. For this purpose, 35 in-depth interviews, performed between 2017 and 2019, with practitioners involved in recruitment and selection working in 35 different firms are analyzed. This analysis is grounded on Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) as proposed by Van Dijk (1993a). This focuses on linguistic and socio-cognitive approaches in order to deal with two issues: 1) construction and validation of expert knowledge, and, 2) classification and categorization of people. The results show that discursive strategies followed by practitioners support stereotypes about profiles and skills valued, on the one hand, and prejudices related to class and gender, on the other hand. Therefore, openly discriminatory positions are often dissimulated, but they still reveal some contradictions and ideologically-driven biases.