I saw my AI hiring tool reject a candidate for a typo in their cover letter last month

I work at a mid-sized tech firm in Austin. Last month, we rolled out an AI screening tool to sort through resumes. It instantly axed a guy with 10 years of experience because he wrote "manger" instead of "manager" in one line. I checked the logs, and the tool gave him a 0 out of 100 for "communication skills". Has anyone else found these systems punishing tiny mistakes over actual capability?

3 comments

3 Comments

simonp4724d ago

Did the tool flag any other small stuff like that?

nina_jenkins24d ago

Whoa, that zero for communication is harsh. So was that the only thing the tool dinged him on, or did it also have issues with other minor stuff like formatting or fonts? Just curious how deep the rabbit hole of tiny mistakes goes with these systems.

anthonymurray17d agoMost Upvoted

Agree to disagree with you both. People keep blaming the tool but the candidate still submitted that mess. It's like handing in a homework with crayon scribbles and getting mad at the teacher for grading it. The tool only flags what's there. If formatting was wrong, that's on him too. These systems catch everything from font sizes to spacing to missing page numbers. But here's the thing. If you can't be bothered to check the small stuff, why should anyone trust you with the big stuff? A resume is literally your first impression. It's not that hard to run it through a free checker before submitting. Zero for communication seems fair when there's zero effort shown. The rabbit hole ends right at the candidate's desk.