Job seekers who take to social media to express their frustrations normally have a shared target. Their videos express that recruiters, hiring managers, and HR departments make their lives a misery. One popular, longstanding meme that uses a cartoon of Anne Hathaway as an HR representative proclaims, “I LOVE APPLICANTS, BUT I WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER HIRE ONE.” Other formats make fun of the demoralizing experience of receiving a Gmail notification that contains yet another rejection message.
Hiring rates in the US are officially below pre-2020 levels, standing at 3.3% (in 2021, the rate was 4.6%). Things are especially difficult for recent graduates, with their unemployment rate higher than the national unemployment rate for the first time since records began. Speaking to a CNN reporter, one parent of such a graduate lamented that “you’re pressuring your kids to set them up for the right opportunity, and now those opportunities have kind of vanished.”
Front and center to this issue is the fickle behavior of hiring managers. Recruiter and TikToker Samy Jones @win_the_job lists some of the reasons she has seen employers turn down candidates that range from not asking for a high enough salary to posting bikini-clad vacation pictures on personal social media. Those hiring are not the only ones causing roadblocks in the process. However, they are a large part of it thanks to their questionable judgment and the fact that candidate screening is increasingly outsourced to recruitment agencies and AI tools.
https://www.tiktok.com/@win_the_job/video/7353719868455259435
This behavior has been enabled by an online environment in which it thrives. Professional social networking platform LinkedIn is often bemoaned as ground zero for “motivational” ramblings from business people and those who hire them. While simultaneously, it dashes hopes for applicants by throwing their resumes into the ether with yet another job listing that has hundreds of other interested parties. A survey issued by the platform itself revealed that 37% of workers claimed to be applying for more roles, yet hearing back from them less; while 64% of HR employees thought that job searching is more difficult than ever.
Meanwhile, all kinds of job boards contain countless listings with lofty job descriptions that no applicant is going to tick every box for (at least, not for that pay). Even worse, they are for “ghost” positions that do not actually exist. These positions make it so companies can maintain a public image of growth while recruiters farm contact details from the applicant pool.
One study by MyPerfectResume from last year found that 81% of recruiters admitted to posting ghost ads and that 96% were using AI tools in their work. However, only 35% believed that they were effective in identifying the right candidates. Frequently heralded as the final nail in the coffin for a large proportion of white collar jobs, it appears that in its current incarnation, artificial intelligence wasn’t replacing these positions, but rather rearranging the barriers for entry.
The corporate world that a large number of these job seekers are supposedly qualified for has undergone radical changes. It has struggled under the weight of these, with applicants paying the price. In the 2013 essay by anthropologist David Graeber (that would later become the book Bulls*** Jobs), it is theorized that a significant proportion of positions found in the modern working world are “pointless” and created “just for the sake of keeping us all working.” He suggests that this kind of system where jobs are made to appear more useful then they actually are was engineered by the elite 1% so they can maintain their position and relevance.
This theory could be extended to the stasis that is complained about in the current job market, with so many applicants stuck in a holding pattern orchestrated by those in positions that they may be inclined to call pointless. In an overview of the case studies used in the book, Graeber noted that the one category that “denied their jobs were pointless [and] expressed outright hostility to the very idea” were business owners and “anyone else in charge of hiring and firing.”
Employment in the corporate world in particular has often valued who you know over what you know. The internet and the services it provides for us have only made these tendencies worse, opening up a world of possibilities that has become a crushing weight.
With this shift becoming ever more obvious with those trying to traverse the employment market, much of the ire has been directed at the middlemen who appear to exploit this the most. The recruiter and/or their AI assistant are not going to hand you an interview for writing a tailored cover letter. In the age of self-promotion, it is those constantly justifying their existence who attain and keep their jobs.
