The Job Illusion

 As I apply for yet another job, I look at the company's website for context. I've now read their "what we do" section four or five times, and I have a problem - I can't figure out what they do. There are two possibilities here. One: they don't know what they do. Two: what they do is so pointless and embarrassing that they dare not spell it out in plain English. "We forge marketing systems at the forefront of the online wellness space" translates to something like "we use ChatGPT to sell dodgy supplements.

But understanding what so many businesses actually do is the least of my worries. I'm currently among the 5% of Brits who are unemployed. In my six months of job hunting, my total lack of success has begun to make me question my own existence. About one in five of my job applications elicit a rejection email, usually bemoaning the sheer number of "quality applicants" for the position. For the most part, though - nothing. It's almost like the job never existed in the first place, and it's possible that it didn't.

Illusions
Annie Louisa Swynnerton (1844-1933)
Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]  

In 2024, 40% of companies posted listings for "ghost jobs", nonexistent positions advertised to create the illusion that the company is doing well enough to take on new employees. And this seems like an all-too-easy way to lie about your success... Ethics in the job market seems to have gone out the window.

Even if the job you're applying for exists, next comes the hurdle of the AI HR bot... According to an Atlantic article from earlier this year: "Young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired." And let's say your CV and cover letter do make it past the robot gatekeepers, it's possible that your interview will be conducted by yet another bot - although I haven't had an interview AI or otherwise, since I began my latest job search...

When, according to its job ad, an indie pet food company called something like Flopsies is looking for a "rock star" and a "unicorn" to revolutionise its social media presence, you know that the job market has become high on its own farts... First, you must convince the fine people at Flopsies that it has been your dream since exiting your mother's birth canal to sell pet food. You would cut off your own hands for the privilege...

The hiring process has become so mechanised... that it's hard to believe that the people who end up being hired aren't merely the best at gaming the system. And frankly, all power to them. It's no skin off my nose if the dodgy supplement or pet-food jobs go to people who are incredible at creating the illusion that they live and breathe pet food and/or dodgy supplements. But what happens to those of us who can't or won't play the game? There's only so much shouting into the void about your ability to use a CMS [Content Management Systems?] you can do before you give up and start Googling things like: "Can I sell a kidney on Vinted?"

(Eleanor Margolis, The Guardian, 2025) 

What is the thought process that decides not to write a job specification in plain, fully comprehensible language? What is the thought process behind the naming of some job titles, some examples being:

Strategy and Commissioning Manager               Transformation Lead

Engagement Officer                                             Relationship Manager

Operations Executive                                           Solutions Architect

Like it or not, in the coming years it seems very likely that the use of AI will assume a greater role than it has now in the sifting and appointment of applicants for employment.