Half of the Human Resources team at a US-based technology company was terminated after a critical flaw in the company's applicant tracking system (ATS) was uncovered by a tech lead based in Bolivia. The ATS, meant to streamline the hiring process, had been automatically rejecting all job candidates—including internal staff—without any human evaluation for months.
A photo shared on Reddit shows the tech lead’s application got rejected in the same minute (10.56am) when he sent the application.
The disturbing revelation came to light when the original poster, frustrated by the HR department's struggle to find suitable candidates for three consecutive months, took matters into his own hands.
Sharing his experience on Reddit, the tech lead revealed how he created a pseudonym and submitted a modified version of his resume to the company’s system. To his dismay, the resume was rejected within seconds. "I got auto-rejected. HR didn't even look at my CV," the manager wrote in his post.
Despite his qualifications and experience, the system dismissed his application without any human oversight. This error had gone unnoticed by the HR department, which, according to him, had been blaming the lack of viable candidates for their hiring woes. "I've created myself a new email and sent them a modified version of my CV with a fake name to see what was going on with the process, and guess what? I got auto-rejected," he explained.
Upon presenting his findings to senior management, action was taken. "Half of the HR department was fired in the following weeks," the tech lead disclosed. He also noted that despite multiple follow-ups with HR for updates on the hiring process, he was frequently met with vague responses, with some candidates being told they hadn’t made it past the initial screening.
World record rejection
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The issue triggered widespread frustration among job seekers. Many commenters on the Reddit thread expressed their outrage at similar experiences with automated recruitment systems.
One user wrote, "It’s so annoying. I spent hours crafting responses to application questions, only to get auto-rejected seconds later. They even had the nerve to leave in the ‘After careful consideration’ line. Ridiculous."
Another shared the emotional toll these automated systems take on job seekers, saying, "I worked on my resume for hours, only to realise that HR just skims through it. My resume is a reflection of my life’s achievements, and to think they didn’t even bother looking at it is beyond frustrating."
The widespread anger was even echoed by an HR professional who commented on the post, clarifying that while not all HR personnel are incompetent, inefficiencies often come from higher up. “We’re not all terrible, but more often than not the ineptness comes from the top. There are no excuses for a poor recruitment process, though,” the HR official said.
This case raises significant concerns about over-reliance on technology in recruitment and the lack of human involvement in critical hiring decisions. It also highlights the potential for widespread inefficiency when such systems go unchecked, potentially costing companies talented employees and damaging their reputation in the process.
The tech lead, in the comments, expressed his disappointment saying: “The truly infuriating part was that I consistently talked to them asking for progress and they always told me that they had some candidates that didn't pass the first screening processes (which was false). People who work in HR are incredibly mediocre and lazy.”
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