Editorial: Wanted, a hiring process that actually works

Many college seniors are still searching for their first post-graduate jobs, and posts on LinkedIn of their friends in finance securing $15,000 dollar sign-on bonuses to work at the private equity firms of their dreams only add to the anxiety. 

Amid the seemingly never-ending job search, you may ask your parents, “What should I do?” only to hear, “You’ll get a job, don’t worry.” 

But as you submit your 100th entry-level job application, doubt creeps in.

Many compare their struggles to their parents or older siblings, wondering why securing a job seems so much harder now than it did before.

But the truth is, in many ways, things are harder for college seniors today than they used to be. And to the uneasy soon-to-be college graduates — it’s not your fault. A broken hiring system is to blame. 

In 2024, hiring was at its lowest point since 2015, and job cuts reached 761,000 — the highest since the COVID pandemic. Forbes attributes this decline to post-pandemic economic shifts, artificial intelligence and increased outsourcing. 

Additionally, Politico reports that uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s administration and historically high job cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency have also contributed to the downturn. 

The imbalance between the number of college graduates and the number of available jobs has led to a troubling trend — more than half of recent graduates are underemployed and working in a position that does not require a college degree, according to a study by Burning Glass.

Lehigh graduates fare better than these national statistics, with 67% of the class of 2024 securing employment and 23% continuing their education. However, this doesn’t exempt current Lehigh students from the stress of an increasingly confusing hiring process. 

Even after sending out hundreds of resumes, cover letters and emails into the hiring world — which seems more like an abyss these days — it’s not unusual to receive no responses.

This issue has persisted since 2022. According to Vox, despite a record 10.9 million job openings that year, a figure touted as a major economic success, employers frequently complained about no one wanting to work. But this “labor shortage” only affected minimum wage jobs. 

Two years later, nothing seems to have changed. Job boards are filled with postings, but responses are scarce. 

One major problem is how companies search for candidates. Even when employers claim they’re hiring, HR departments aren’t looking in the right places or ways. The rise of AI software in the hiring process means resumes are often reviewed by a computer rather than an employer, and they’re often filtered out unless they include specific keywords.

This results in mismatches, such as a nursing job requiring “computer programming” skills simply because it involves entering patient data into a computer or retail applicants being eliminated if they don’t list “floor-buffing experience” on their resumes, according to an article from the The Wall Street Journal. 

The article also shows companies say they know these AI-driven software tools are preventing them from seeing strong candidates. But they’re still slow to revert back to less automated methods of hiring, because actually reading resumes would just take too much time. 

Even those who do make it through the first resume screening often face a dehumanizing process. One out of 4 applicants complete their first round of interviews without ever interacting with a living, breathing person, according to The Guardian.

Instead, interviewees are greeted by a robotic voice and an AI-powered system that assesses their responses, tracking eye contact with the computer camera and mimicking human interaction — a process which can feel uncomfortable and impersonal for many.

Then, after several rounds of interviews, during which you’ll eventually talk with an actual member of the company you’re pursuing, there may suddenly be a cease in communication from the company. 

This “ghosting” has become a commonplace way of letting a candidate know they’re no longer being considered. For college seniors entering the workforce for the first time, this lack of closure is disorienting and frustrating. 

Has the job search always felt like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up a hill, only to be crushed under it? Or has AI’s infiltration of HR departments led to a cultural shift, reducing job seekers to nothing more than a sheet of paper in an algorithm’s queue? 

One thing is clear — something is fundamentally wrong with the hiring process. And scammers are realizing this before the people in positions of power, with new text scams circulating that offer fake jobs — a shift from traditional scams posing as toll collection services or free iPhone giveaways. 

If people in the United States are more desperate for a job than they are enticed by a free iPhone, then something is deeply, alarmingly broken. 

The hiring process is no longer just flawed — it’s failing. And as companies keep tweaking their algorithms as job seekers become more hopeless, the question isn’t when things will change. It’s if they ever will.