Jessica Alba just rejected me (kinda)

Hi! I’m Peter, CEO of Kickresume, and these career-related stories caught my attention this month — and might catch yours too.

Getting rejected for a job sucks. But you know what sucks even more? Getting ghosted.

At least with a rejection, you get some sort of closure. Someone took thirty seconds to write "you’re not the right fit at the moment" and you know you can move on and apply to the next company and do it all over again.

Ghosting, though? That's a special kind of awful. Do you follow up? Do you wait? Should you assume it's over? You're stuck guessing what went wrong and whether there's still a chance.

…After a while, you realize there likely isn't. But you still have no idea why.

But it turns out I was wrong about ghosting being rock bottom. 

There's something companies are doing now that will make you wish you were ghosted instead.

And not even Jessica Alba can make it better. (Or should I say, Jessica AI-ba?)

From bad to worse (and then to whatever this is)

A few weeks back, I wrote a newsletter about companies using AI avatars to conduct job interviews. 

Where instead of video there’s just this uncanny valley avatar asking you questions with an AI-generated female voice, not being able to answer any of your questions back. Oh and sometimes they even hallucinate mid-interview or get stuck asking the same question.

I assumed that was the end of the road for hiring dignity. (Though it might still be, honestly.)

Well, it turns out companies weren't done… innovating. They've now expanded into AI rejections.

Now look, I get it with AI-generated rejection emails. They suck, but automating that process sort of makes sense—it's an email they need to send to 500 people, and they do get the message across.

(Though sometimes they get a little too much of the message across. Like this one guy who got a rejection email with the actual prompt still visible at the top: "Make the candidate feel like they were strongly considered even if they weren't.")

But apparently, companies decided that cold email templates weren't cutting it anymore. They wanted to add a warm human touch to the rejection process.

Except it's not warm. It's definitely not human. And it's frankly quite dystopian.

I came across this video of a woman who posted herself getting rejected for a job. But it wasn't an email. It was a personalized video message from an AI avatar who looks suspiciously like Jessica Alba.

And if you think that's unhinged, wait until you hear what Jessica AI-ba actually said.

How to burn budget while burning bridges

It's a really short clip, but you can clearly hear the bit where Jessica AI-ba says:

"We are only working with the best of the best, and unfortunately today that's just not you."

Well, that's really tone-deaf, but at least it's completely unhelpful, too. People in the comments were saying they'd prefer to be ghosted, which says everything about how badly this misses the mark.

But the thing that bothers me most is thinking about how much time and effort it takes to bring in a new "solution" like this. People had to figure out what was worth developing (weirdly enough they all agreed that this was it), they had to design it, build it, implement it, test it.

All those resources could have been used to make something that'd actually help make this already-painful process a bit more personal and a bit less painful.

Like having a real person spend thirty seconds giving actual feedback—by all means in the form of an email. 

Something like: "Your React experience was solid, but we needed someone with more experience in TypeScript and GraphQL. We'd encourage you to apply again once you've worked with those tools." Done.

That would be genuinely personal and human, instead of whatever this is.

I guess some doors are better closed 

This is usually where I give you some sort of advice to navigate whatever fresh workplace hell I've just described.

But honestly? I'm a little lost here. There's not much you can do about this beyond hoping it doesn't happen to you. I mainly wanted you to be prepared so you won't be completely blindsided.

Though hey, if it does happen to you, you could always record it, share it, and wait for it to go viral. The original video is currently at 1.1 million views, so at least you can monetize the weirdness.

Besides, if a company is using AI avatars to reject people, you probably dodged a bullet anyway. 

And if you're in a position to influence hiring practices and someone suggests this, please kill it before it happens. Point out that they're making your company look ridiculous. Because they are.

Made it all the way down here? That kind of dedication is exactly what we're looking for on our Kickresume subreddit. If you join, you'll instantly get 15 days of Kickresume Premium free.

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Catch you later! 

Peter