[ CYPHER CODE #761 ]
Most resumes are rejected before a human ever sees them.

[ CYPHER CODE #762 ]
Hiring software rewards keywords, not competence.

[ CYPHER CODE #763 ]
The process feels humiliating because it removes agency.

BRIEFING

Grant here. Remember the good ol’ days when you could walk into a place, plop down your resume, have an interview, and hopefully secure a job all within a week? Well, sadly, those days are gone, and now searching for a job feels like running on a non-stop hamster wheel. It’s not that the job hunt became harder because people got lazier or less qualified. It got tougher because the hiring system stopped being human. Let’s break it down.

There’s a video of a young man who lays bare the absolute nightmare that is job hunting in 2026. He’s not just frustrated for the sake of being frustrated; instead, he’s basically describing the current reality. The fact is that most resumes never even reach a real, breathing, living person. They’re filtered, scored, and rejected by software trained to look for keywords, formatting patterns, and arbitrary signals that have nothing to do with whether someone can actually do the job.

SOURCE

Job searching in 2026 is a humiliation ritual. I can attest to this. pic.twitter.com/kLdhvPaEb5

— King Arthur Fan (@brandilwells) January 9, 2026

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Now, the problems around job hunting have existed for a long while, perhaps as long as the internet has been a thing. But now with the rise of AI, it’s making things nearly 10x as difficult.

New research from LinkedIn shows recruiters are rapidly increasing their use of AI in hiring, with 93% planning to ramp up AI tools in 2026 and many already using them to filter for candidates.

SOURCE

AI gives recruiters a competitive edge and job seekers a confidence boost

93% of recruiters say they plan to increase their use of AI in 2026, and 59% say it’s already helping them discover candidates with skills they wouldn’t have found before.

Two-thirds of recruiters (66%) plan to increase their use of AI for pre-screening interviews in 2026, which 70% believe will help them have more valuable conversations with candidates.

81% of people have or say they plan to use AI in their job search and nearly half (48%) say AI tools boost their interview confidence.

DEBRIEFING

Look, job hunting has never been a walk in the park, but at least it used to be doable. You would apply, interview, and then get a yes or a no. Now, with AI layered on top of already bloated hiring systems, the process has crossed into something even colder and more alienating.

And the data really explains why the frustration feels universal. Recruiters are rapidly scaling their use of AI, not just to assist hiring, but to pre-screen, filter, and decide who even qualifies to be considered. That means the first and most important judgment about a candidate is increasingly made by software trained to recognize patterns, not people.

That’s why the entire process feels so humiliating. Not because people are weak or entitled, but because the system asks them to perform endlessly for machines. When human judgment disappears from the front end of hiring, rejection stops feeling like evaluation and starts feeling like erasure.

NOW YOU KNOW

Job hunting feels humiliating because humans were removed from the process.