The role has been open for six weeks. The pile is full. And your recruiter is about to
spend another day clearing it.
Monday morning. 212 applications for one seat. She blocks the whole day, lines up twelve
phone screens, and by 4 o'clock has exactly nothing. Three no-shows. Five who never read
the job description. Four who talked a great game right up until the questions got specific.
Tuesday, she does it again. Multiply that by every location, every region, every open req,
and you find where your hiring budget actually goes: interviewing
people you were never going to hire.
Every location sets its own bar
One manager digs deep, another hires whoever shows up twice. Your brand is only as consistent as your least careful hiring decision.
Recruiter weeks vanish into dead ends
Screening calls, scheduling ping-pong, interviews that are over in the first two minutes. The most expensive hours in your talent budget, spent on people who were never close.
Unqualified candidates keep getting through
They interview fine. They start. Six weeks later a manager is writing up the separation and the seat is open again, except now it's peak season.
And now AI writes the resumes
The pile lies better than it ever has. Every application reads like your best hire, which means reading them tells you almost nothing at all.