Are you being rejected by AI
The short answer is probably not
I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn to see how many employers are using AI to make decisions on, and reject, applications.
It’s a low volume poll, but has high quality respondents.
The results say one thing. A light level of analysis another. The results might be surprising, if you're stuck in the current jobs market.
The votes represented around 2,000 vacancies.
Of the yesses, only 5 had direct recruitment experience. I asked them how they used AI to reject candidates, and 2 replied.
Of these 2, one is a UK CMO who used AI to help filter out unsuitable candidates - 4 vacancies with 50 applicants each.
The other is a US Software Engineering Manager who had an undisclosed amount of vacancies with 400+ applications each. Same use of AI.
These aren't the same as using AI to automatically reject applications. More about using a tool to pre-select out wholly unsuitable applications (which are typically between 80-99% of applications for reasons of work permit, no relevant experience etc).
Of the 99 no’s, 89 had direct, current recruitment experience representing 2,000+ vacancies per year. It's quite an international group, with the bulk being UK based. I've had replies from around half.
None of these use AI or the ATS to automatically reject applications. Many use knockout / killer / filter questions for non-negotiable areas like lack of work permit or role specific criteria.
Many replied to say CVs don't tell the full story so they wouldn't rely on automation to make their decision. Many replied quite quickly, and there is clearly a frustration that there is a false narrative around how tech is deployed in recruitment - often by people who don't have current hiring experience.
I'm sure some companies may be using tech for short cuts, but even though this is a small scale poll, its results suggest that you challenge any assertion you hear about the jobs market.
The main reason for the many bad experiences out there is the market, and an overburden hiring economy that isn't fit for purpose. There are too many good candidates for too few viable vacancies.
This is helpful research for me, as I seek to provide accurate information in navigating the most unpredictable market in memory through A Career Breakdown Kit.
The chances are, if you’ve been rejected weirdly, say 3 hours after you apply, at 2.34am, it’s one of these things:
Delayed auto-rejection due to failing a filter or knockout question
Delayed auto-rejection by a human who happened to check your application immediately
A human working in another time zone
An arbitrary decision, such as no application being considered after the first 100.
Indeed were AI employed in the way many suspect, if you’re a qualified candidate, your odds will likely be higher than with a human.
Thanks for reading.
Greg