🧠 The Tinderization of hiring

This week’s Atlantic article,The Job Market Is Hell, struck a nerve. It captures something we hear constantly at Vouch:"I applied to 200 jobs and heard nothing."

Qualified candidates are ghosted. Employers are drowning in candidates, both relevant and irrelevant. Candidates use ChatGPT to churn out polished resumes. Employers use AI filters to screen them out – often with outdated systems.

It’s what dating apps did to relationships: scale the top of the funnel, destroy the signal, and erode the human layer. Hiring, like dating, is built on trust and judgment. Strip that away, and you get paralysis.

The irony is that AI isn’t the villain here. Misuse is.

Where AI goes wrong

AI should strip away busywork and surface real signals. Instead, it’s too often replacing thought and attention:

• Candidates mass-apply with the same prompt-engineered templates
• Recruiters lean on black-box filters to survive inbox chaos
• Everyone feels like they’re yelling into the void

This isn’t just inefficient. It’s demoralising.

What smart teams do differently

The best teams we see on Vouch flip the script. They:

• Narrow, don’t widen their funnel (yes, with AI helping out)
• Write clearer, sharper job analyses and descriptions (yes, with AI helping out)
• Screen for context, not keywords (yes, with AI helping out)
• Use AI to support judgment, not replace it
• Keep the candidate journey human (yes, with AI helping out)
• Make sure every candidate is seen (yes, with AI helping out)

In other words, they prioritise clarity over volume. And use AI with care.

🔍 Signal of the Week: The job market is hell

The Atlantic captures what many already feel: candidates apply to hundreds of jobs and hear nothing, while employers lean on AI filters to survive the flood. The result is a “Tinder-ized” job market where volume replaces signal and no one feels seen. Beneath the tech, hiring rates in the US are at post-recession lows, searches stretch for months, and layoffs hit young workers hardest. We see tendencies of the same trend beyond the US as well.

✍️ What we’re seeing at Vouch

The smartest teams aren’t throwing AI out: they’re using it as scaffolding.

• They use AI to help scope roles, so job descriptions are sharper from the start.
• They use AI to structure screening, so signal comes through faster.
• They use AI to draft follow-ups and nudge conversations forward.

But when it comes to judgment, they pick up the phone. They call candidates themselves. They ask clarifying questions when in doubt.

In other words: they filter in, not just screen out. With the (right) help of AI.

About Vouch – Your Hiring Assistant

Vouch is your AI-native hiring assistant. Imagine a recruitment system that actually understands your company, your roles, and your candidates – not just tracks them. We help modern teams scope roles, find better candidates, and make faster, smarter hiring decisions. Everything you'd expect from an ATS (and candidate CRM) is included, but the real value is in how it’s used. Learn more here.