Recruiting has always been a challenge, but for one hiring manager at a medical institution, it has now become overwhelming. Posting via Reddit’s r/recruitinghell, the manager described how their team is “losing [their] mind” while trying to fill positions during an expansion drive.
The post began by explaining how the hiring landscape has changed. “For the first time in a few years we’re expanding and can’t fill positions in a way that makes sense,” the user wrote. Even when they post quality roles, hundreds of applications pour in. Parsing through them, the manager admitted, has become nearly impossible.
The recruiter explained that their institution truly cares about mission alignment, but certain requirements, like cover letters, often end up pushing away top candidates.
Meanwhile, the applications that do come in are rarely reliable. “We have a lot of promising candidates on paper, but when interviewed they often clearly inflate their qualifications,” the user said. They added that, in the end, it feels like the only option is to “spend hours interviewing dozens of people by hand,” a process that has left them exhausted.
Commenters on the forum quickly jumped in with advice, sparking a lively discussion among Redditors who shared their experiences and thoughts on navigating today’s challenging job market.
One Redditor was straightforward: “Spend more time in interviews. There’s no other solution.” He added that the job application process itself can be misleading, “I can apply to roles where it seems like I’m the perfect fit for them, and 9/10 they won’t ever reach out to me at all. And yet some place where I fit only moderately would reach out to me. I’ve given up being selective, it’s not worth the candidate’s time to be selective at the application phase. Especially when they have certain niche experience.”
Adding another perspective, a second commenter highlighted the broader challenges in the job market,“The problem is that so many people are looking for jobs and are just applying for every job they think they may be qualified for. I’m sure it’s an issue for hiring managers, but on the other side, for those of us qualified and needing a job, we’re having a very difficult time as well.”