Had to choose between slowing down an AI hiring tool or letting it screen my resume unchanged

I was applying for a warehouse supervisor job last month and their AI screener kept filtering me out because I didn't have the exact keywords. I ended up rewriting my resume to add 10 stupid buzzwords just to pass the bot, and I got an interview. The whole thing felt dishonest but the recruiter admitted the AI was a mess anyway so I guess I played their game right. Anyone else feel forced to game these systems just to get a shot?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_sanchez751mo ago

Is it really that deep though? I mean yeah it's annoying but it's just a computer reading your resume, not like some grand conspiracy. Just tweak a few words and move on.

the_morgan1mo ago

Yeah, Holly says "just tweak a few words and move on" like it's no big deal, but I stood in my kitchen staring at my resume like it was a foreign language I had to decode. I literally added "synergized cross-functional logistics" even though I'm pretty sure that means "stood next to a guy while we loaded a truck together." Felt like a total fraud, but then again when the recruiter said their AI was a mess, I figured I was just playing by their broken rules. At least I got the interview, so I guess my buzzword bingo card paid off.

sandrat247d ago

Wow, I had a friend who did something similar and she ended up in an interview where they asked her to explain "optimizing vertical market synergies." She froze and just said "uh, we stacked boxes better." They actually laughed and hired her anyway, so I guess the whole system is a joke sometimes. Did you end up having to explain any of your buzzwords?