This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tony Tellez, a 49-year-old IT professional based in Indianapolis. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I started my career at the entry level and worked my way up to essentially running IT companies in the managed-services space, overseeing IT operations for multiple clients. Recently, I found myself on the job market for the first time in 10 years. It’s changed a lot.
I got some interviews right away, but I also got a lot of rejections. Nobody likes to be rejected. I’ve got children, rent, and animals to take care of, and those responsibilities start to weigh on you.
One Sunday night, my frustrations reached a breaking point. I had applied for a senior position at a managed-services firm that I was more than qualified for around 11:15 p.m. About six minutes later, I received an email that simply said, “We have declined your application.” The company didn’t even provide a reason like, “we’re pursuing other candidates.”
It didn’t make any sense. I applied at a time when no one was likely to be manually reviewing résumés and rejecting them. I reread the job listing, and it clearly said that a bachelor’s degree — something I don’t have — was preferred but not required.
Also, my best friend is an HR consultant, and she made sure my résumé included all the necessary keywords. I even ran it through an open-source applicant-tracking system to check that it was well-optimized.
So, after I saw that rejection email come in, I went to the company’s LinkedIn page, found their HR director, and sent him this message.
Hi, I just applied for your Service Desk Manager role, and was immediately rejected. I have 17 years of continued growth and improvement in the IT space including the healthcare space and a lab environment. My last six years have been in service delivery and operations management. I am highly qualified for this role, but the AI that […] uses is kicking me back within minutes of my application because I do not have a Bachelors degree. Just a heads up, you are missing out on highly qualified candidates because of a reliance on AI, and while I agree AI has its place in our space, I believe I am proof of its failure. I simply would ask you to review my resume and credentials manually in order to better evaluate my candidacy. Thank you for your time.
I sent it partly because it’s already frustrating for someone to lose a job and have to search for a new one. It’s even worse when you have to deal with rejection from a robot.
Another reason is that I’ve developed and deployed applicant tracking systems, so I understand what it takes to configure them properly. There’s a problem here, and the company’s leadership may not know that they’re potentially missing out on quality candidates.
I haven’t heard anything back, and I probably won’t. The job listing is no longer up, so I don’t know if it was filled. I just know that I’m not ready to retire anytime soon. I love working. I love fixing things.
I’ve since used AI to make my résumé more AI-friendly. You’ve got to fight fire with fire. However, I’ve also started targeting companies that say in their job listings that every résumé submitted is reviewed by a human. In some of my past jobs, I was responsible for hiring people, and I prided myself on reading every résumé that came in. It’s crazy how much the job market has changed.
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