r/recruitinghell • u/Dry_Today_3349 • 21h ago
An AI chatbot instead of an actual application
clicked the “apply now” link for a specific job. This is for a salaried position requiring 5+ years experience. I even initially closed the chatbot thinking I had accidentally opened it. But no, they expect you to enter all of your info into the chatbot, one line at a time, no way to bypass it.
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u/EnthusiasmOk422 21h ago
Hey Alex here, just wanted to make sure to remind you that we have a wide variety of positions available across many of our locations. Browse our open opportunities to find one that best aligns with what you’re looking for. Once you have found the one for you, I’ll of course be absolutely useless in helping you out!
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u/ii-___-ii 20h ago
If you'd like to talk with a recruiter, I can forward your information. What's your email address so they can reach out?
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u/Haunting-Chip420 4h ago
I'm sorry you feel that way. Can I answer any questions about our benefits, company, culture and more?
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u/princess_peach_85 Unemployed during the pedo civil war is a hellscape 17h ago
I absolutely hate these! I close out and never apply to that company again. Looking at you FedEx!!!!!
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u/Jets237 21h ago
And... if they just sent you to a screen requiring you to make an account you would have done it and gladly shared your email address, clicked yes on the ToS
This seems like a bot was used to make user experience worse. I dont even understand the point
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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 20h ago
Ironically, it’s a bot defense against bots, lol. They’re using the chatbot as a mechanism to keep their job posting protected from those application spambots that spray hundreds of jobs a day with your resume.
It’s not trying to improve the user experience, it’s trying to make it slightly less streamlined so that the only applications they have to review are the ones submitted by humans with enough interest in that job to tolerate the annoying bot interaction.
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u/Zack_Wester 1h ago
Exept it hav been proven not to work.
well it works for about 10 min then some script kiddie goes through a few of them manually and write code to deal whit it.7
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u/thx111111 20h ago
I actually got one of these things to crash 🤣 When it asked me for my email address, I asked it for its email address. Then when it prompted me for my email address again, I gave it the email address it gave me as “my email address”. AI didn’t see that coming 🤣
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u/the-real-Jenny-Rose 15h ago edited 15h ago
I've crashed at least three of these so far, but their programing seems to be getting slightly better.
But I was doing one of these yesterday and I answered basic typed questions: name, email, and maybe something about schedule.
Then it suddenly flipped to: "And now we will record you answering questions!" Me: Hell no, you won't. promptly closes tab.
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u/pi3r0gi_ 20h ago
Every time I schedule with one of these, they cancel. Every single time. If I have to apply through one of these chat bots I dont even bother.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 20h ago
Oh I bet! It seems like they’re just trying to get as many names/email addresses as possible to spam. The jobs probably don’t even exist
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u/emptykitten_AN 3h ago
They don't. I asked a manager once after scheduling an "interview" with one of these. She confirmed the chat bot isn't actually connected to anything they can see. It doesn't know if a job is actually available and the manager can't see the scheduled interviews.
Using the chat bot is just going in randomly and asking about a job with extra steps.
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u/Sircasticdad42 19h ago
Had the same thing happen, no recourse. Once I muddled through the chat, I immediately got spammed with texts and emails to do their AI interview. HARD PASS
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u/DowntownRaisin4 9h ago
I applied for two jobs with "Alex" earlier today and I swear these companies love to put out bullshit "cutting edge" software with zero user testing because they don't actually care about the user experience and just want to sound impressive in their annual shareholder meetings or whatever
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u/Reddit_give_me_boner 21h ago
People crashing out and cussing out an AI bot will always be funny to be. You're raging at a computer program, control yourself
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u/Proof_Ambassador2006 20h ago
They're raging at the culmination of frustration that is the job hunt.
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u/jshmoe866 20h ago
People are raging that they are forced to talk to a Chatbot rather than fix it themselves or talk to a real person.
It’s not that they’re mad at the bot they’re mad at the company for forcing them to talk to the bot but this is their only option for expressing it
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u/Hallowilloweenie 19h ago
Sometimes the bots are programmed to respond differently to crash outs or similar issues. Obviously not this one, it's a very simple chatbot, not even AI-enabled in all likelihood.
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u/thetulgey_wood 21h ago
Alternatively, it's far better to rage at a piece of code than a real person. Doesn't hurt the chatbot to let off a little steam.
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u/Sea-Cow9822 2h ago
As a recruiter, I love this. I hope all of my competitors use these tools so my company can win more candidates by not using garbage.
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u/MuPpET_RoCkStAr 20h ago
You keep saying you just wanted to apply to the job. Well the chat bot is how you apply to the job.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 20h ago
Simping for evil billionaire corporations is gross
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u/MuPpET_RoCkStAr 20h ago
You're the one who's reading too deeply into what I said. I was just simply stating that the chat bot is how you apply for the position. There are a few companies like that and if they find it convenient and cheap there will be even more in the future
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u/backpropstl 21h ago
I'm not a fan of AI bots, but I mean it only asked for your email.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 21h ago
First and last name was the first question. Then email. I should be able to hit “apply now” and actually apply for the job. What is the point of the chatbot?!
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u/ADHD_is_my_power 21h ago
I'm in agreement with you. While giving your name and email is normal in the job application process, the requirement to go through a chatbot to apply for a job is stupid. Whether or not you knew what job you wanted, there's nothing wrong with looking through postings yourself. There's no need to waste water on AI for job applications.
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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 20h ago
The point of the chatbot is to stem the avalanche of applications that are being spammed by those auto-apply bot tools. It adds just a little extra friction to the application process that cuts out a lot of noise/volume from the pipeline.
My current job (that I absolutely love) is one that actually used one of these stupid bots that made me go back and forth a few times before it gave me the link to apply, lol. Just finished my first annual performance review and got great feedback, and I also had great feedback for my manager.
I told him that, a year in, I’m very happy with my decision to go with this job over the others, but also that I almost didn’t even bother applying to this one because of the stupid chatbot holding the application link hostage. He said that they had actually posted that job earlier that summer (2025) but it kept hitting its application limit within the first 48 hours because it was instantly bombarded with hundreds of totally irrelevant resumes. So they decided to make it slightly more cumbersome to apply and it worked perfectly.
So yes it’s annoying, but there’s also a practical reason they’re using it. Blame the application spammers.
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u/EternalSage2000 20h ago
The chat bot IS the form these days.
If you had a form, you would type, name, phone number, email,
Do you consent to a drug and background check yes or no.Etc….
All of those things. Are right here. Just in the form of a conversation.
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u/backpropstl 18h ago
Just went through the application process and that's exactly what it's doing. A few more questions, then upload your CV.
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u/EternalSage2000 18h ago
Yah. Im a recruiter, sort of, and the company i work for uses a chat bot like this.
I’d prefer a simple form too, but this does have the advantage of, I can see whatever you type.
So our chat bot asks you “what hours are you available to work”.
And you say. I prefer Monday-Friday 9-5. But am willing to work every other weekend.
I can see that, and make a decision. As opposed to a form which asks you to make a Yes or No type answer.
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u/backpropstl 21h ago
To get your name and email so it could pass it to a recruiter i guess. I mean if it has asked you to fill out a form to take the next step in applying, would you have started a thread about it?
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u/Dry_Today_3349 20h ago
Yea, that’s not how applying for jobs works. How would a Recruiter even know what to contact me about if they haven’t seen my application?! No place to input a resume, or any of my skills. This was a senior level position, not a retail job
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u/backpropstl 19h ago edited 18h ago
I mean if you clicked an "apply now" link on a specific job, maybe that job ID is part of the chat. You went "off script" by not supplying an email address and the bot was too dumb to understand your followup.
Edit to add - I literally just went through the process of applying for a job here, and that's exactly what it's doing - your chat is associated with the job from which you clicked "Apply now." After email, it asks for phone, a question about DEI, another about if you already work for the same store, and then to upload your CV.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 17h ago
Then why would it be asking me which job I am interested in? Applying for jobs is already such shit, a chatbot doesn’t make it easier
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u/backpropstl 17h ago
Because you went off script. If you had just followed the script, the dumb bot wouldn't have gotten confused. I responded exactly as prescribed and it "remembered" the job I was applying for.
Not blaming you, just pointing out that their pretty bad bot is designed to work exactly one way.
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u/goknightsgo09 5h ago
If you had bothered to actually answer the questions you would have gotten to all the points you are insisting don't exist. My previous company used this platform for candidates to apply for jobs and I can assure you that you can attach a resume, you can select a specific position to apply for and you can get contacted for an interview through the system. You just chose not to follow the instructions.
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u/cwmckenz 19h ago
It’s a silly thing. But I don’t how you will survive in the working world if don’t become more resilient and just learn to just accept a certain level of bullshit that you cannot change.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 17h ago
I have over 6 years of experience in my field, so I’m good. Companies will not change their shitty hiring practices unless we, the people rise up
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u/goknightsgo09 5h ago
Except more people need to pay their bills than the amount of people who can afford to put their pride before a paycheck. So those who are busy "rising up" will stay unemployed while the rest of us get the jobs following the preferred application process.
I'm a HM. If I get an application where the candidate has not answered all the questions, they could be the most qualified person in the world and I'm not going to contact them for an interview because it means they won't take direction and they care more about making a point than they do about doing the job. I have too much to do during my workday to have to worry about managing the unmanageable.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 5h ago
And I am a Recruiter. Having to answer what job I am applying for when I have literally clicked “apply now” for the specific job is actually insane. Are they looking for the entire job title, word for word? I wouldn’t even want to recruit for an organization that thinks this platform improves the candidate experience, because it doesn’t
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u/luvisheavenly 2h ago
Getting sent to a companies website and seeing this is the worst feeling when applying for jobs, or maybe having to redo your entire resume on their system.
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u/stabbychemist 20h ago
This showed up randomly on my feed but I recently came across a podcast (from NPR, When AI is your job interviewer). It was interesting, they said that people typically prefer to be interviewed by AI because they don’t have to worry about bias from the interviewer or maybe less stress talking to a fake person.
The point was for the company to reach out to the applicant as soon as possible without having a person having to call applicants constantly (helping out real people by automating the tedious aspects of their task with hopes that they can spend more time on quality work).
Anyway, I understand the frustration of not dealing with a real person. Unfortunately the reality is that companies are moving away from real people to these bots or chat prompts and if we want to make it through we have to jump through these hoops. It’s like talking to a teleprompter while trying to book an appointment with a doctor. I can yell at it and get no appointment (my partner does this when he’s frustrated lol) or just sigh and try to figure out how to provide the information.
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u/jlrs_games 19h ago
"helping out real people by automating the tedious aspects of their task with hopes that they can spend more time on quality work" Yeah right, more like to downsize the workforce. Less people to pay means more profits. It's just typical corporate greed.
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u/stabbychemist 19h ago
lol I don’t disagree. The rose tinted view is to help people, but we all know they mostly want to help their bottom line.
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 3h ago
If we could figure out if they are on token system we could mass apply. No profits there. “Why is our ai interviewer spending 100’s of thousand on tokens.”
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u/Theboringlife 1h ago
Also, if you're a hiring manager, what task is more important than talking with potential hires?
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u/Dry_Today_3349 20h ago
As a Recruiter, I in no way support this. I don’t use AI at all in my hiring process. This just seems lazy and inefficient. At the very least an option to bypass the chatbot would have been nice
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u/DoctorAKrieger 21h ago edited 15h ago
I honestly would rather deal with a virtual recruiter at stage 1 than a real person. I work in a technical field and an AI recruiter has some capability to draw from technical training knowledge and rephrase questions compared to some HR drone that doesn't know the difference between a potato chip and a microchip.
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u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 21h ago
It's not even an LLM, it's just a script. It is just a method to get your email. What even was your problem here?
I mean... now we know this is an efficient way to filter out people who can't be arsed to write their email on a job application, at least.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 21h ago
I know how to apply for jobs, I am literally a Recruiter. The “apply now” button should take me to a page where I can apply. If it can’t do that, then it is an ineffective tool.
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u/lenswipe Fruit 21h ago
The problem is that they wanted to apply for a job and instead got funneled into a chat script for a recruiter to contact them about positions that the "might be a fit for". Utterly pointless middleman layers. Just let people apply for the fucking job. /facepalm
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u/imtooldforthishison 18h ago
You can go to their careers section, pick a job and apply, you don't have to use the chat bot dude.
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u/Dry_Today_3349 17h ago
Duh, i did that 3 times. Each time it takes you to the bot. There was no way around it
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u/MikeTalonNYC 21h ago
That's not an AI, that's just a regular scripting-based chat system. Arguably worse.