The Problem with Automation in the Recruitment & Hiring Process

I’ve had a hand in recruiting people I wanted to hire and work with for over a decade now, but it was only lately when I experienced being on the other end of that process again. It’s been ages since I’ve been on the job hunt process myself.

And it’s remarkable how much Automation / AI has changed this process, and not necessarily for the better, in my opinion anyway.

When I went on my first job hunt fresh out of university more than 25 years ago, I remember the daily weekday routine — wake up early in the morning, get dressed, commute to the business district, enter a building, consult the directory, find companies I wanted to apply in, walk-in, ask to speak to the HR manager, speak to the HR manager (if I was lucky), then leave my CV behind.

Even in the workplace, nothing beats real human touch. Image by pressfoto on Freepik.

After a few weeks of this daily grind, I was eventually hired on the spot when the HR Manager I spoke with saw that I was a good fit for a specific role they were trying to fill, and right there and then, she had me interviewed by the woman who would be my direct supervisor who then asked me questions about my academic life, my skills, and what my career goals were.

After having discovered that we attended the same schools from Elementary to High School and onwards even to University, we started chatting about mutual…