Your resume is not haunted

This week, my feed served me a job-search panic sandwich. Apparently, Stanford has “exposed the resume black hole”.

Your resume is being scored.

That score is following you from company to company.

You are being silently rejected by the same machine for almost a year.

And, naturally, the only way out is to comment “FIX” and buy someone’s special resume-bypass system.

Pass me a bucket.

So I read the study.

And yes, it matters.

But no, it does not say what half of LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok are currently spruiking.

The study is called Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring.

It looked at more than 4 million applications from millions of applicants across 156 employers between 2018 and 2022.

That isn’t nothing.

The researchers looked at a game-based assessment platform from pymetrics. Candidates played games. The system turned their behaviour into data. Employers then used models to decide whether to recommend someone.

Which already sounds like an episode of Black Mirror written by someone in HR who owns a lot of beige blazers.

Here’s the important bit.

The researchers found that when many employers use the same or very similar hiring algorithms, candidates may not receive fresh chances each time they apply.

They may be getting judged through the same narrow lens again and again. That matters.

Because if the system learns what a “good candidate” looks like from people a company has already hired, it may also learn the company’s old hiring patterns.

Good candidate = looks like the people already here.

And if the people already there come mostly from certain racial, educational, socioeconomic or cultural backgrounds?

Congratulations.

You’ve just put historic bias in a software subscription.

The study found adverse impact against Black and Asian applicants. It also found evidence of repeated rejection patterns.

Of the applicants who applied to 10 positions, 4% were recommended for rejection from all 10.

That was higher than expected by chance.

In other words, for some candidates, the system was not behaving like 10 separate doors. It was behaving more like one door with 10 different handles.

That’s a problem, but it’s also not the same as saying every ATS is rejecting your applications.

And this is where the internet has lost the plot.

The study did not prove your resume has a universal AI score. It did not prove every employer is using the same machine to bin you. It did not prove every silence after an online application is caused by AI.

The real takeaway, though, is more uncomfortable.

Algorithmic hiring can create hidden, repeated disadvantage.

Some tools may make hiring look more objective while quietly recycling the same old patterns.

And applicants often have very little visibility over what is being assessed, how it is being assessed, or why they were knocked out.

Which should make employers and vendors nervous. It should also make regulators pay attention.

So, your resume is not haunted.

But the hiring system is not neutral either.

Next week, I’ll talk about what you should actually do with this information.

~Lisa

Your Q&A

Am I Experienced Enough?

Hi Lisa,

I’ve lost my drive and am currently overwhelmed by opportunities available and pressure on myself to make the right move. I have a background in audit and financial accounting and am wanting to move into a business analyst/business partnering role but not confident in presenting myself for these roles due to my limited experience.

I haven’t properly applied for anything yet. I did one interview the week after I left my job when I was contacted by a recruiter, and whilst usually confident in interviews it did not feel like it went well and I did not enjoy the experience so it took a little hit to my confidence.

I keep focusing on the boxes I don’t tick as imposter syndrome keeps creeping in where I’m questioning if I’m experienced enough. I’m just not sure how to proceed?

Katherine.

​

Hi Katherine,

I get it. Although you are trying to make a career move before you have built the bridge.

That dodgy interview? Simply put it in the bin.

You’d just left your job, you weren’t clear on what you wanted, and you were probably still carrying the emotional fumes of the role you’d escaped. Of course it felt flat. That doesn’t mean you’re terrible at interviews. It means you weren’t ready.

Now, business analyst and business partnering roles are not wildly impossible for someone with audit and financial accounting experience. But you can’t present yourself like a traditional accountant and then hope employers magically connect the dots.

So, your next step is not to apply for everything. It’s to take five job ads and map them against your actual experience.

Where have you analysed processes? Worked with stakeholders across the organisation? Analysed reports? Developed dashboards? Evaluated activities? Informed planning and operational decisions?

That’s your bridge.

If the evidence is there, reposition yourself. If it’s thin, target accounting roles that give you more data-driven decision-making exposure.

Either way, stop looking for missing boxes and start building the case.

Thanks for writing in.

~Lisa