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The application process takes three clicks: Submit your resume, attach your cover letter and hit “apply.” But then — silence. No handshake, no eye contact and no chance to make an impression. That’s not a fair shot at a job; that’s luck.

If you’re on the hunt for a job, you have probably found that the job market is weak, leaving the unemployment rate at 4.3% as of August 2025. Whether you’re trying to lock in a full-time career or just a part-time job, the struggle is real, and the digital aspect is not helping.

College students spend years stressing about their futures. You pick a field from the beginning and then spend the rest of your college career preparing for the “real world.” This preparation includes building a LinkedIn profile, setting up an Indeed account, attending career fairs and maybe squeezing in a part-time job. In theory, college sets you up well. But in practice, it doesn’t prepare you for the biggest gatekeeper of all: technology.

The truth is if you want to land a good job, you will find it online. We’re told that technology has made the process easier, but for whom? Employers, maybe. But for those looking, the digital job hunt is impersonal and discouraging.

LinkedIn is the first step. It sounds easy enough, but if you’re unfamiliar with the website, it gets stressful. How are you supposed to know what to put in your professional summary? Which strangers do you connect with? How do you make three years of babysitting and that one barista job look like experience? What skills are they looking for? I don’t think juggling counts. Without guidance, it’s stressful, and not every college class teaches you this.

When the entire process is done through a screen, those who aren’t privileged get skipped over.

Many companies also use automated resume screeners, where AI filters and rejects candidates before a human even sees them. That’s right — a robot decides whether you’re worth considering. At that point, your personality and experience don’t matter because the algorithm has already judged you incapable. If you don’t use the right keywords, then boom — your resume goes straight to the digital shredder.

If you are lucky enough to get past the algorithm, that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Instead of walking into someone’s office and shaking their hand, you get to introduce yourself over email. You’re swarmed with online portals where you upload the same resume 10 times, answer the same boring questions and hope the “applied” status changes to “in review.” 

Digital hiring isn’t only a hassle; it’s a privilege. It only favors people who have access to a fancy headshot, connections within the hidden rules of LinkedIn and those who can make a summer internship sound like a polished experience. First-generation students, low-income students or those who might not have frequent access to technology and insider knowledge are also immediately at a disadvantage. When the entire process is done through a screen, those who aren’t privileged get skipped over.

And let’s be honest: the process is unfair and discouraging. Nothing kills motivation quicker than applying to 40 jobs online and not hearing back from a single one. Ghosting is normalized when it shouldn’t be. Imagine training for years and spending money to glamorize your resume, only to have your application fade into oblivion. 

Some call this “modernization,” but we have completely lost human interaction in the job hunt. There is no real conversation, no chance to explain yourself and no opportunity to show employers your personality. There is no time to showcase your award-winning smile, which truly does make a difference. Technology was supposed to simplify hiring, but instead, it completely stripped the humanity out of it.

We have let the job search become too digital and too robotic. The future of work shouldn’t depend on keyword searches and automated rejections; it should look like people talking to one another. Until we bring back the human element, the job hunt process will remain broken. 

Reach Charlotte Seymour at letters@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.