Hiring platforms are making it harder to find a job, says HR tech founder: ‘It's more soul-crushing than ever'

Jon Stross has been building technology to help people get new jobs for over a decade, but he's not convinced today's hiring tools are all that effective.

Stross is the president and co-founder of Greenhouse, the hiring platform, and has seen a lot of tech and AI advancements in hiring since his business launched in 2012.

Despite some of their benefits, the integration of AI into modern hiring practices isn't working, he says: "All the AI stuff isn't actually helping. In some ways, it's exacerbating it."

He's long heard businesses say that "hiring is broken," but "right now, I'd argue it's getting worse," he tells CNBC Make It. "Between technology that makes it really easy to apply to a lot of jobs combined with the current job market, where there's a white-collar recession, it's more soul-crushing than ever."

Mass-applying to jobs has become the norm

AI tools like ChatGPT make it easier for candidates to write resumes and cover letters to apply to more jobs in less time. However, it can lead people to apply for jobs they're not actually suited for, and then it creates more competition for the roles out there.

"Candidates are feeling like they're in an arms race with each other around how many jobs you apply to," Stross says. "You hear people on social media saying, 'Oh, I applied to 150 jobs.' And so you feel pressure that if you're not applying to tons of jobs, you're falling behind."

"All of this is just creating more and more anxiety and angst," he adds.

Platforms' efforts to make the application process easier on candidates, such as one-click apply options and instant notifications about openings, may encourage and enable this behavior.

In previous years, only highly competitive companies received way more applicants than openings. Now, that's happening nearly everywhere.

In the first quarter of 2024, each job listing on Greenhouse received an average of 222 applications — a 43% increase from the same time the year before.

New tech can enable bad hiring practices

Another issue is that businesses are leveraging hiring tech to post more job openings, even if they're not for roles they're actively hiring for.

Some businesses post so-called ghost jobs to signal to employees, investors or the public that they're growing at a faster rate than they actually are. Others do so with the intention to collect candidates they might want to contact at a later time.

Ghost jobs give a false impression that there are tons of opportunities, which can fuel the sense of urgency for job-seekers to apply to everything, and eventually exacerbate job-search burnout. The ease of posting to multiple job search platforms can make the problem seem even bigger.

And it's a common problem: Roughly 18% to 22% of all jobs on Greenhouse have been considered ghost jobs in a given quarter since 2022.

For what it's worth, Stross says there's little job-seekers can do about companies that post ghost jobs. "Whenever I'm talking to friends who are looking for jobs and are like, 'Wow, these companies are acting totally irrationally,' my general [response] is, 'yes,'" Stross says. "It's usually chaos on the inside."

Meanwhile, businesses have integrated AI tech into their hiring. There are AI-powered hiring tools intended to help employers review more candidates in less time, like ones that host and assess video interviews, write job descriptions or automate processes like scheduling interviews and sending follow-up messages. Whether these tools do a good job of shortening the time to hire or assessing quality candidates is up for debate.

The best antidote to ghost jobs and AI screeners is for job seekers to find quality job referrals, Stross says. That means tapping your network for upcoming job opportunities, especially ones that have yet to be widely posted. Another strategy: Reach out to first- or second-degree LinkedIn connections at companies you're actively applying to.

Hiring tech can limit bad actors and highlight positive experiences

In the meantime, Stross says hiring platforms like Greenhouse should focus their attention on limiting bad behavior from employers.

Though he can't speak to how other hiring platforms are tackling job-seekers' frustrations, one way he and his team are working to do that is by introducing verified badges to recognize employers without "horror stories" who approach the hiring process with respect.

His plans at Greenhouse include highlighting employers who are communicative (as in, they don't ghost or string along applicants), prepared (like asking thoughtful questions in interviews), respectful (such as asking for candidates' name pronunciation) and fair in the hiring process (like anonymizing resumes).

"That alone doesn't solve this whole problem we're talking about," Stross says, "but it kind of goes in this direction of, 'Let's help the best companies stand out,' and then we're also going to try things to help the best candidates stand out as well."

To discourage over-applying on the candidate side, Greenhouse also launched a feature where employers can limit the number of applications any one person sends in.

Companies can set rules around how many times a candidate can apply to their company or to a certain position within a timeframe before the employer sends a notice that further applications will not be considered. "So if you apply and get rejected, they [can] say: 'We want to wait three months before you apply back to that same job,'" Stross says. "We're finding a lot of companies are turning those rules on because they're just getting so many duplicate applicants."

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This article has been updated for clarity purposes.