Are we stuck in an
AI loop, AI loop, AI loop?
Candidates using AI to write cover letters, picking out the right keywords, hoping that just the pure amount of applications sent will help them land the job they want. Nobody really knows what it takes to pass the first sorting. They try out everything just to see what sticks. Even if all criteria are met, there is no guarantee that your application will make it to the next step. The bar is invisible, and the feedback signal is almost always absent. What’s left is just to try out everything and hope for the best. It feels more like a lottery than a system that promotes merit.
Performing for each other
Many candidates I’ve spoken to don’t even want to use AI because they feel their voice is getting lost. At the same time, they don’t want to be left behind when they suspect everyone else is using AI and getting an upper hand. They suspect recruiters are using AI for screening too, making it impossible to know who they’re actually talking to. Is it a human or a machine? In the worst cases, both sides show up performing — the candidate rehearsing answers, the recruiter reading AI-generated questions from a screen.
What we get is candidates creating an abundance of applications just to hope to get through, making recruiters use AI to sort out the vast majority on unclear premises. Everyone is worse off. Neither side can stop.
The vanishing signal
When applying for jobs was cumbersome and hard, and writing a good personal letter took real effort, it was a sign of dedication. A personal letter could actually tell quite a lot about who you are and whether you are a good fit for the role. Now this signal has disappeared. Those who use AI carelessly lose their personality in the process. Those who still write by hand can’t be trusted either — everything is suspected to be AI slop and has therefore lost its value. Meanwhile, the recruiters who are actually making hires have mostly abandoned the formal system altogether. They’re working their personal networks instead.
The system gets overwhelmed by noise. The good is mixed with the bad, sorting it out takes enormous effort, and the personal skills that actually matter most are the hardest to communicate. Ghosting has become so normal that one candidate I interviewed stopped categorizing it — no tag, no color code, just silence filed away as expected.
Stuck in the loop
Everyone feels stuck in this hamster wheel. Candidates are busy trying to survive, find the job, and just keep afloat. Hiring managers are swamped. They don’t have time or the mandate to recreate the whole system. They don’t like it, but they don’t see any other way. That’s the most common thing I heard — on both sides.
Both sides are using AI to survive a system they wish didn’t exist. It’s like watching people build better weapons to fight in a war nobody wants.
I’m not anti-AI. I use it constantly. But I’m watching two communities optimize their way into mutual distrust, and it’s hard to see the endgame.
A design problem, not a technical one
The AI arms race in hiring isn’t a technical problem. It’s a design problem. The system incentivizes the wrong behavior. Until that changes, more AI will just mean better gaming, not better matches.
This series comes from six weeks of interviews — 24 conversations with designers looking for work, recruiters trying to hire them, and hiring managers caught in the middle. I’m sharing what I learned because I believe both sides deserve a better process. One built on transparency, dignity, and actual human contact.