In today’s hiring environment, job seekers are lucky to get rejected.
In a recent survey by hiring platform Greenhouse, 81% of job seekers said they never heard back from a company, be it human or machine, at least once during the past year.
Nearly one third (31%) say this happens “often or almost always,” including 38% of Gen Z applicants. Even those who get interviews are not immune: 45% of respondents said they interviewed with an organization only to be ghosted completely.
Ironically, employers are also reporting greater difficulty finding qualified candidates, said Greenhouse chief people officer Sharawn Tipton.
“For the first time I can remember, neither side thinks hiring is working,” she said. “Candidates send applications into a black hole, while employers sift through AI-polished resumes that all look the same.”
The “black hole” that job seekers are experiencing may be related to what Greenhouse has called the “AI doom loop”: employers’ reliance on AI screening systems incentivizes applicants to blast out AI-optimized applications.
Buried under a mountain of indistinguishable applications, employers may not have time to send formal rejections.
Indeed, more than half of job hunters (54%) told Greenhouse they use AI to figure out what a particular employer’s screening system is looking for, and 40% said they added skills and keywords that don’t accurately describe them. Another third said they added hidden text to catch the attention of an AI reviewer.
As recruiting and hiring become increasingly automated, companies need better ways of assessing candidates’ subjective qualities, and candidates need better ways of showing their ability to learn and adapt, said Greenhouse Head of Voice AI Ophir Samson.
“AI can polish a resume or fire off hundreds of applications, but it can’t show an employer how someone thinks or learns,” he said. Adding an interview early in the application process—even an automated one—might help solve this issue, he added.
“A structured conversation early in the process could give the right candidates that chance,” Samson said. “But it only works if candidates understand how they’re being evaluated, and know a real person will review their responses.”
And for applicants, many of whom are apparently applying for jobs and increasingly hearing nothing, having a robust referral network is more important than ever.
“Social capital is a key part of getting noticed [because it helps you] stand out when there are thousands of applications and it’s all AI talking to AI,” Melissa Loble, chief learning officer at educational technology firm Instructure, told Fast Company.
Loble also recommends using a portfolio of your previous work, and making it as directly applicable to the position as possible.
“Lead with a portfolio of capabilities and examples of work,” she said. “Be very concrete: This example of work fits these skills, and these skills map to the kinds of jobs I want.”
Still, between the rampant ghosting and increasing number of ghost jobs, job hunting is scarier than ever. And radio silence from employers doesn’t help.