An entire HR team was terminated after their manager discovered and confirmed that their system automatically rejected all candidates - including his own application.
It's no secret that the job market has become increasingly competitive and the job search process can be daunting. Many applicants send out numerous applications without receiving a response unless they have connections who can help them secure a job.
Unsurprisingly, receiving rejection emails almost immediately after applying can be frustrating. This often indicates that no one has even reviewed your resume. In one manager's case, this was due to a ridiculous oversight that led to the termination of many employees.
The ATS: A Digital Obstacle Course
The ATS, or applicant tracking system, has become a frustrating obstacle for job seekers, making the application process like throwing your resume into the ocean. There are several reasons for the "resume black hole," but often, it's due to the software's inability to recognise even minor deviations from the norm, such as resume gaps.
The integration of AI is making this problem worse, including exacerbating discrimination. A Reddit manager discovered a surprisingly simple error that was causing significant issues. Similar mistakes may occur frequently.
The manager shared their experience in a Reddit comment, where a job seeker complained about receiving a rejection email almost immediately after submitting their application. Both emails arrived at 10:56 a.m.
It's clear that the application was not reviewed by a human but rather by a software program with overly strict and confusing requirements. This is incredibly frustrating, however, there's also a possibility that the ATS was making a significant error.
The manager wrote in their comment, "Auto rejection systems from HR make me angry." They explained that while searching for a new employee, their HR department could not find a single qualified candidate in three months. As expected, the suspicious manager decided to investigate.
"I created myself a new email and sent them a modified version of my CV with a fake name to see what was going on with the process," they wrote. "And guess what, I got auto-rejected. HR didn't even look at my CV."
When the manager reported the issue to upper management, "half of the HR department was fired in the following weeks." A typographical error with significant consequences caused the entire problem.
The manager works in the tech industry and was trying to hire developers. However, HR had set up the system to search for developers with expertise in the wrong development software and one that no longer exists.
Automated Rejection Gone Awry
"They were looking for an AngularJS developer," he wrote, "while we were looking for an Angular one (different frameworks, similar names)." To those unaware, AngularJS is a free and open-source JavaScript-based web framework for developing single-page applications, which was discontinued in 2010.
"Since the [ATS] was auto-rejecting profiles without AngularJS in it we literally lost all possible candidates," they explained. "The truly infuriating part was that I consistently talked to them asking for progress and they always told me that they had some candidates that didn't pass the first screening processes (which was false)."
It's difficult not to wonder if similar mistakes are happening elsewhere and contributing to the other major issues affecting the job market, such as companies replacing HR staff with AI tools.
An earlier report suggests that 40 percent of companies will use AI to interview job applicants. Using a small team of overworked recruiters with excessive workloads could lead to other major issues.
Notably, Human Resources are called "human" resources for a reason—they deal with real, live human beings. This limitation is illustrated by the case of a female manager who admitted that her personal bias against applicants from women-only colleges could create a challenging work environment.
