Vent: A hiring algorithm cost my friend a job he was perfect for

Last Tuesday, my friend got a call that the job he interviewed for went to someone else. The hiring manager told him the company's new software scored him low on 'culture fit' because his resume lacked certain keywords from their ideal candidate profile. He has 15 years of experience in the exact field, but the system filtered him out before a human even looked. This wasn't some big tech firm, it was a local credit union in Spokane. It made me wonder, how many good people are we losing because a machine decides what a perfect employee looks like based on old data? Has anyone else seen a good candidate get passed over by an automated screen?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_nguyen1mo ago

A local credit union in Spokane is using that kind of software now? That's honestly scary. Your friend had fifteen years doing the exact job and a computer said no. What kind of outdated list of keywords is that even looking for? It feels like we're letting these systems make huge mistakes with people's lives just to save a few minutes.

wendy8201mo agoMost Upvoted

Remember when everyone said this tech would just help with the first round of sorting? Yeah, I bought that too. But hearing a real story like your friend's, someone who clearly knows their stuff, it hits different. It's not just a bad filter, it's a system set up to fail good people for no good reason. That "save a few minutes" thing is a total lie if they have to re-hire for the role six months later.

karenb971mo ago

Exactly, and it gets worse when you think about who built these filters. Some programmer who's never done the job decides what keywords matter. So a system built on guesses throws out real experience. That's not saving time, it's just making hiring lazy and unfair. They'll keep missing good people until they admit the tech is broken.