Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on something uncomfortable happening across the technology hiring market.

Not AI itself.
Not ATS platforms alone.
Not even recruiters.

The real problem is what happens when everybody stops trusting everybody else.

I recently applied for a senior leadership role at a well-known technology company.

The recruiter came back saying my ATS score was poor.
Apparently my resume scored 48.

I retargeted the resume and sent it back.
Still “not good enough”.

At that point I asked for the actual scoring report.

When I saw the screenshots, I genuinely laughed.

The system had produced multiple incorrect assessments about my experience, technical background, and even my education.

One of the outputs suggested I had “poor education”.

That was particularly interesting considering I hold:
• two undergraduate degrees
• two master’s degrees
• multiple industry certifications
• ongoing M.Phil research work
• over a decade of engineering and architecture experience

That moment confirmed something I have been suspecting for a while:

A large part of the hiring industry is no longer evaluating engineers.
It is evaluating keyword density.

And the irony is brutal.

At the same time candidates are increasingly using AI to mass-apply for jobs, some recruiters are increasingly relying on AI to mass-reject candidates.

Nobody trusts the inbound pipeline anymore.

The result?

The strongest opportunities increasingly happen through:
• trusted referrals
• professional reputation
• technical visibility
• public engineering discussions
• architecture thinking
• leadership presence
• industry contribution

Not because networking is replacing capability.

But because capability has become harder to detect through automated filtering systems.

This is where I start becoming old-fashioned.

I still believe senior hiring should involve:
• actual conversation
• technical reasoning
• architecture discussions
• scenario analysis
• leadership judgement
• practical delivery experience
• credibility earned over time

Not a black-box scoring engine deciding whether somebody with multiple degrees and years of delivery experience has “poor education”.

I have no problem with automation assisting hiring.

I do have a problem when automation replaces thinking.

Eventually, organisations will rediscover something the industry already knew years ago:

Good engineers, architects, and leaders are not discovered purely through pattern matching.
They are discovered through depth, communication, judgement, consistency, and trust.

Ironically, the more AI floods the hiring market, the more valuable genuine human reputation becomes.

The front door is crowded.
The side door is still relationships, credibility, and demonstrated expertise.

Curious how others are seeing this evolve across engineering, architecture, leadership, and recruitment right now.

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