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“The Hiring Process Is Not Broken — It’s Working Exactly as Designed (To Filter Out People Like You)”

Imagine this.

A bright young designer wakes up at 6 a.m., pours a cup of coffee, and opens her laptop.
She’s got five tabs open: Indeed. LinkedIn. Glassdoor. Company sites. One Notion page full of “customized” cover letters.

She tailors each resume. She triple-checks every bullet point. She even rewrites her intro to fit the company’s values.

Then… silence.

No response. No rejection. Nothing.

Weeks pass.
Then months.
And she starts to wonder—what’s wrong with me?



But What If Nothing’s Wrong?

What if the problem… wasn’t her?

What if the hiring process she’s trying to impress wasn’t built to find people like her in the first place?

Because here's the uncomfortable truth no recruiter will say out loud:

The hiring process is not broken.
It’s working exactly the way it was meant to—
to filter out people who don’t fit the mold.

A System Designed for Sameness

Look closely.

Despite all the talk about innovation, creativity, and “diverse talent”—most hiring systems still reward the same traits:
Linear paths. Polished resumes. Ivy League degrees. Familiar job titles. Cultural fluency. Obedient branding.

If you’re self-taught, neurodivergent, introverted, experimental, opinionated, chronically ill, emotionally expressive, too quiet, too bold, too real?

You're a risk.

Not because you’re not capable.
But because you’re not predictable.

"Culture Fit" Was Never About Culture

You’ve heard it in every job rejection email:
“We just didn’t feel the culture fit was right.”

But let’s be honest:
“Culture fit” is a sanitized way of saying “You don’t match our comfort zone.”

It doesn’t measure how well you collaborate.
It measures how easy you’ll be to manage, how little you’ll disrupt the norm, and how well your identity aligns with the people already in power.

It's not about creativity.
It’s about compliance.

Silence Is Part of the Design

We talk about ghosting like it's a fluke.

But silence—after applications, after interviews, after polite enthusiasm—is a feature. Not a bug.

It wears people down.
It makes applicants question their worth, lower their rates, shrink their personalities.
It trains them to expect less.

And when someone finally says yes, you’re so relieved, you don’t question if the system was ever fair to begin with.



But Let’s Be Clear

This isn’t a conspiracy.
It’s just capitalism.

Corporations optimize for efficiency, not empathy.
They want talent that can plug into an existing matrix.
Not voices that might rewire it.

So they build filters. And gates. And invisible standards no one talks about but everyone’s expected to meet.

If you don’t know the rules, you lose.
If you question the rules, you’re dangerous.
And if you refuse to play—
you’re out.

You’re Not Broken

If you’ve ever been ghosted after pouring your soul into an application—
If you’ve ever been told you were “overqualified,” “too creative,” or “not quite what we’re looking for”—
If you’ve ever left an interview wondering if you were too much or not enough—

Know this:

You are not the broken one.
The system just wasn’t built with you in mind.

So What Now?

You stop begging for a seat at someone else's table.
You build your own room. Your own work. Your own community.
You shift the power back.

  • Start a newsletter.

  • Publish your process.

  • Create the things they said wouldn’t work.

  • Connect with people who see you without asking you to shrink.

Because when a system filters out everything extraordinary to keep things running as usual—
being un-hireable might just mean you’re too original for their metrics.

The system isn’t broken.
It’s just outdated.
And maybe… it’s time you stopped trying to fit in.

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