Our New Dystopia: The Modern Job Search

I’m writing an article and thought you guys might enjoy it:

I can’t help but feel a sense of sadness when scrolling through LinkedIn and witnessing the immense struggles many experienced and qualified individuals face daily. As a job seeker myself, I’ve grown disillusioned with the impersonal and disheartening state of the current job market. It seems we’ve lost touch with our own humanity, often evaluating people based on scores, ratings, and their ability to fit into restrictive molds. We’ve forgotten the importance of genuine connection and human interaction.

I’ve seen a dramatic difference between past successes versus current struggles. The roles I’ve held have typically been the one and only job I applied for. In stark contrast, over the past three months, I’ve applied to over 100 jobs and received minimal response. I’ve dedicated countless hours to crafting tailored resumes and cover letters, only to be met with silence.

This experience is not unique to me, as Jobvite’s 2021 research shows that only one out of ten people believe their resume will actually be reviewed. It’s easy to understand why job seekers might feel this way. Let’s be clear: no matter how many people want to blame us, this is not our fault. This is the fault of technocrat oligarchies, apathetic policies, and an unwillingness to craft pro-human processes. Relying so heavily on technology to evaluate candidates is arrogant and will likely lead to negative consequences for all parties involved.

The increasingly unrealistic expectations of companies, HR, and recruiters only serve to exacerbate this issue. We’re often required to have years of experience for entry-level roles, advanced degrees for positions that don’t necessitate them, and adhere to pedantic or frivolous requirements. It doesn’t stop there. We’re expected to network, attend events, write articles, make portfolios, and much more. All of this and there’s still no guarantee of every speaking to an actual human. People are quick to place the blame on job seekers, diverting attention from the systemic issues that contribute to this challenging job market. These demands, and many others, create an imbalance of power and further dehumanize the job search process.

Moreover, the job search process has become a battle of AI versus AI, with candidates expected to customize resumes and cover letters for every application, optimize them for ATS, retype their entire resume into text boxes, and share personal information with numerous companies, risking data privacy and security. While it’s often suggested to use AI to help craft ATS-optimized resumes, recruiters routinely become frustrated when they recognize AI-generated content. So now we’re in a world where we’re incentivized to lean on AI so that we can send our results to another AI for assessment. How do we win in that scenario?

The repercussions of continuing down this path will inevitably result in a far-reaching, negative impact for all of us. Disregarding the well-being of millions of people is not conducive to a healthy and prosperous society. As the great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus once said, “We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak”. It’s crucial for companies to start listening rather than continuing to let our cries fall upon deaf ears.

The job search process should be a mutual exchange of skills, experiences, and perspectives, benefiting both employers and candidates. Unfortunately, it has become a dehumanizing and demoralizing experience for many job seekers. It’s essential to acknowledge the inherent worth and dignity of every person and work towards building a more fair and human-centered job market. If this trend doesn’t turn around quickly, our decent into a horrid dystopia will simply accelerate until we’re all nothing more than numbers on a computer screen.