A former colleague who is looking for a new job shared his recent interview experience. After a positive interview, L was rejected for a job because the company felt his resume was "too tailored" to the position. He expressed frustration that, unlike many applicants who use AI tools to generate customized resumes, his resume was genuinely written by him and accurately reflected his real skills and accomplishments. He believes that hiring managers are now struggling to distinguish authentic applications from AI-generated ones, resulting in flawed IT hiring practices. He also criticized the interview process for being ambiguous and often led by interviewers who seem unqualified to assess candidates properly, something I have heard from a lot of other folks too.
That last part about unqualified interviewers struck a chord with me. When people luck into roles that do not deserve and lack the skills to perform, they create a terrific drag force for the company. They will do their best to keep out anyone (like L) who has demonstrable ability to perform (and therefore outshine them handily). They will also block hiring of managers who will easily identify that they are unfit for the role and not performing at the job. That kind of hire would jeopardize their own jobs. The force of resistance to qualified hires will rise in exponential proportion to the salaries of these folks. So we have a situation like L is running into. His qualifications seem too extraordinary to be be true when viewed by peers and managers less competent than him. They immediately conclude this could not be real and AI made up the resume for L. That can now be a great excuse to reject him. I do believe things will change.