{"id":103830,"date":"2025-08-30T22:32:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T22:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103830\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T22:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T22:32:20","slug":"automated-application-systems-add-insult-to-injury-in-a-tough-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103830\/","title":{"rendered":"Automated application systems add insult to injury in a tough job market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job growth has slowed<\/a>, and the ranks of the long-term unemployed are growing<\/a>. It makes the indignities of the modern hiring process even more frustrating for those in the market. <\/p>\n

Job-seekers are navigating a gauntlet of automated application systems intended to winnow down hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applicants, only for many to never hear from a human. <\/p>\n

We spoke with one, Jackie, who\u2019s been in the market for about a year. We\u2019re not using her full name because she\u2019s worried it could hurt her chances with potential employers.<\/p>\n

At the moment, she\u2019s trying to make ends meet with dog-sitting gigs while looking for permanent work as a recruiter in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n

So far she\u2019s submitted 529 applications, which she tracks in a Google Sheet. Of those, only 39 led to\u00a0any human contact. The vast majority of entries went nowhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the dehumanizing part, where you don’t even get an email saying \u2018thanks, but no thanks,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite an application process that\u2019s longer and weirder than ever. Hiring platforms don\u2019t just use keyword filters for resumes, they often use automated systems that analyze extended questionnaires, grade work assignments, assess personality<\/a>, or\u00a0 \u2014 Jackie\u2019s favorite \u2014 conduct interviews with bots.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think they heard me roll my eyes?\u201d she said. \u201cHard pass. I will never do one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology has increased the number of jobs applicants can reasonably apply to. It started with digital job boards, then came remote work. Now, artificial intelligence helps applicants tweak their resumes and cover letters<\/a> in a matter of seconds. But widening the application funnel comes with tradeoffs, said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the bigger the pool you’ve got, the more variation you’ve got in it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that falls then to your selection processes to sort that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence all those added layers of algorithmic filtration. Cappelli said the odds of getting an interview are only about 3%, though applicants are jumping through more and more hoops.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point they just learn that this is not going anywhere, and why keep banging my head on the wall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Digital application portals seem like a lost cause to Oliver Golden Eagan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not gotten traction on any applications that I have not had some sort of personal connection to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Golden Eagan graduated from Pomona College on scholarship last year. After interning at Harper\u2019s Magazine he\u2019s been looking for full time work in publishing. He usually tries to cold contact an employee of his target company so he can send his resume via email. He\u2019s even thought about delivering application materials on paper in person!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t come from a background that’s necessarily replete with those kinds of connections,\u201d he said. \u201cMy mother’s a housekeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI application systems are often sold as fixes to the traditional biases in hiring. But Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan said they introduce new unfairness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience that we put these job seekers through, right, being interviewed by a robot, essentially, I think it’s kind of a violation of basic dignity,\u201d he said, noting there\u2019s little evidence AI can accurately predict who will excel at a job in most cases.<\/p>\n

Narayanan suggested if the systems are no better than random number generators, perhaps we should explicitly use random number generators: choose candidates by lottery after they fulfill some minimum requirements. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re not pretending to go through this opaque process that somehow magically picks out the best candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so it’s understood by everyone that it was just the luck of the draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

If dog sitting could pay the bills, Jackie said she\u2019d gladly leave the job boards behind and stick with her pet friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t feel ignored. I don’t feel like I’m just kind of disappearing into the void,\u201d she said. \u201cYes, they need a lot of attention and affection, but they give it right back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, the perfect antidote to a dehumanizing hiring process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Job growth has slowed, and the ranks of the long-term unemployed are growing. It makes the indignities of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,1371,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-103830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}