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PSA: The hiring algorithm at my old job was gamed by a single manager for 8 months
Our team used an AI screener to shortlist candidates, but one guy figured out that using the phrase "customer first" 3 times in a resume got you past it every time. He told me about it after he got hired, and I checked-it worked on 12 fake resumes I submitted. Should we blame the person who exploited it, or the system that let a simple keyword hack ruin fairness?
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irisowens1mo agoTop Commenter
And honestly, if the system was that easy to trick, I'm not sure the manager did anything wrong. He found a shortcut, same as people who pad resumes with buzzwords or use the exact phrasing from a job description. The real failure is on whoever set up the algorithm to rely on three magic words with zero checks or human oversight. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably do the same thing to get a foot in the door, especially if I knew the system was broken anyway.
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angelarivera1mo ago
Yeah exactly, I did the same thing once and it got me straight to an interview no questions asked.
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roberts.leo1mo ago
Pretty much. The trick is realizing most automated systems check for keywords more than context, so you're basically speaking their language. @irisowens is right that the real issue is whoever built a hiring pipeline that can be gamed by a single sentence. Worked for me once with a cover letter that just mirrored the job posting's bullet points verbatim.
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