598 applicants, one junior job, and feedback written by a machine

Jack Meredith

12 days ago, I left my job. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather something I had planned back in January.

I’ve worked in Welsh higher education for the last 4 years, and before that, I was an unpaid carer for my grandfather. Recently, the sector has experienced turbulence usually reserved for a plane ride during a storm, which led to my employer offering a very generous voluntary redundancy (VR) package: 0-3 years of service = 3 months’ pay, 4-9 years = 6 months’ pay, and 10+ years = 9 months’ pay, all tax-free up to £30,000.

My fiancé and I had recently gotten engaged. We had spoken for a long while about me moving in with her in a different part of the country; it made sense to take advantage of the opportunity and apply for VR: a fresh start with a nice lump sum to see us begin our new life together.

In the final month of my employment, I began applying for a new job. I sent applications anywhere and everywhere, even if it meant taking on work that would just act as a placeholder for something more meaningful. This ended up becoming a saga that has, short of exaggeration, been incredibly soul-crushing.

Initially, I would get responses along the lines of, “Thanks for applying, but due to a high volume of candidates, we will not be going forward with your application,” and many more emails to this effect. That was until, thanks to help from a hiring manager friend who helped me improve my CV, I received an invitation to the longlist interview for a job in the charity sector.

Promising start, for sure. I attended and, later that day, received an invitation to the shortlist interview; happy days are here again.

That was until I received an email following the shortlist interview that I was unsuccessful. Nothing wrong with that, as there will always be someone more suitable. But the issue wasn’t that I didn’t get the job; it was that my “feedback” was entirely made up of graphs, AI, and no actual mention of where I had gone wrong and how I could improve.

The company made sure to cover their hides in that regard by stating that “due to 598 candidates, more detailed feedback cannot be provided.”

Using AI to sift through 598 applications, I can understand entirely. At that stage, you’re looking for buzzwords and will be vetting the candidates at the longlist interview anyway.

But then, providing such impersonal feedback in the form of cold graphs and a computer-generated paragraph following the shortlisting interviews, which would decide who gets the role, left me feeling short-changed.

Debt

Now, I don’t think I’m owed anything, especially a job, as I understand that companies need to employ the right people for the right jobs. But I took on undergraduate and postgraduate debt to try and better my life chances. I volunteer both because I believe it is the right thing to do and to develop new skills and abilities. I took every opportunity at work to further my professional development. And yet, roughly 100 applications later, I am struggling to find work.

If I’m struggling to find work, then what chance do younger people, only now entering the workforce, have? Politicians throw words like “NEET” around like it’s an abstract idea, not the reality that, for jobs like the one I applied for – a junior role – 598 people are applying.

At that point, it doesn’t matter what qualifications you have or what experience you think will help you stand out, as it’s a matter of just being lucky enough to be picked and not receiving some AI “feedback” slop.

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