Hiring in 2025 Going Into 2026 Is a Joke  And Everyone Knows It

Hiring in 2025 going into 2026 has become a parody of itself. We’re living in an era where AI writes résumés, AI evaluates candidates, and humans are barely involved at all. The process is broken, demoralizing, and in many cases completely disconnected from reality.

The New Normal: Everyone Uses AI But No One Admits It

Candidates use AI to write résumés, cover letters, and responses because job descriptions are copy-and-pasted clichés. Application portals are endless. Companies rarely provide feedback. Meanwhile, hiring managers are also using AI to screen candidates. It’s now AI vs. AI. Machines evaluate machine-generated résumés for keywords that match machine-generated job descriptions.

The result?

• Qualified candidates get filtered out because they didn’t use the “right” buzzword.
• Overqualified candidates are rejected because the algorithm thinks they’ll leave.
• Underqualified candidates get interviews if they stuffed the right terms into a PDF.

Overqualified? Rejected. Underqualified? Ghosted. Perfect Fit? Still Rejected.

Job seekers are spending hours filling out applications, retyping résumés, uploading references, doing unpaid tests, recording AI video interviews only to get ghosted. People are applying to roles they’re overqualified for and still getting rejected. Not because of lack of talent but because an algorithm predicts they might want too much money someday.

The Corporate Excuse: “We’re Investing in AI Innovation”

Companies announce layoffs, then brag about “AI transformation” and “efficiency.” In reality, they are cutting people to make quarterly earnings look good. Executives get bonuses. Stock prices rise. Press releases pretend it’s about innovation. Meanwhile, open roles sit vacant for months because hiring was never the intention just shareholder optics.

Companies Are Sitting on Cash  And Still Laying People Off

Corporate cash reserves are higher than ever, yet we’re told there’s “no budget for hiring.” No budget for people, but unlimited budget for stock buybacks, exec compensation, and fake “AI innovation initiatives.”

Job Searching Has Become a Full-Time, Unpaid Job

To even get considered today, applicants must tailor résumés, write custom letters, record video interviews, complete assessments, submit work samples, and endure 3–10 rounds of interviews only to get rejected or ghosted.

Hiring used to be: “Are you capable of doing the job?”

Now it’s: “Did your résumé trigger our keyword filter correctly?”

The Harsh Reality

The hiring process today rewards:

• Keyword stuffing
• Conformity
• ATS optimization

It does NOT reward:

• Experience
• Creativity
• Loyalty

So What’s the Fix?

Companies that win in 2026 and beyond will be the ones that use AI to SUPPORT humans not replace them. Human judgment still matters. Candidates are not data points. The hiring process is a branding moment.

Hiring in 2025 isn’t broken because of AI. It’s broken because AI was plugged into processes that were already bad and amplified the dysfunction at scale. People aren’t asking for much: basic respect, communication, and a human review. If companies can’t provide that, no algorithm will save them.