Ranked and filtered

Megan Marz is in The Baffler talking about the horror movie that is present-day hiring practices, and it’s worth reading in full. What strikes me most here is the way the narrative that every application is reviewed by a human is designed not to calm the anxieties of job seekers (who aren’t buying it, anyhow), but of the people doing the hiring. It’s the users of the hiring tools who are the audience for a story that neatly papers over deskilling with a gloss of productivity; while the beleaguered applicants on the other side are the ones being used. The whole system is very obviously terrible, and it’s past time we talked about that plainly. Be sure to stay for the kicker.