In a surprising incident shared on Reddit, a tech lead from Bolivia exposed a critical flaw in his company’s applicant tracking system (ATS), resulting in the firing of half the Human Resources team. Frustrated by his company’s inability to hire developers for three months, the tech lead submitted a pseudonym-modified version of his resume, only to be auto-rejected by the system within seconds.
The ATS, designed to streamline recruitment, had been dismissing all job applicants—including internal staff—without any human oversight for months. The issue had gone unnoticed, with the HR team attributing the lack of hires to a shortage of qualified candidates.
Sharing his experience, the tech lead recounted, “I created a fake name and sent in my CV. Within the same minute, it was rejected without review.” His discovery triggered widespread criticism of automated hiring systems and the HR team’s oversight.
Reddit users expressed their outrage, with many sharing similar frustrations about ATS systems. The tech lead’s investigation revealed that the system was screening for the wrong skills, mistakenly seeking AngularJS developers instead of Angular experts.
Following the revelation, upper management took swift action, resulting in the dismissal of half the HR team, further fueling debate about accountability and the role of automation in recruitment processes.
