The real reason people are not getting interviews is not “Atas scores” or “AI rejections” it’s actually a lot more boring (and dumb)
Former recruiter here who’s moved off to a new role and wanted to share sometime I see on here that often gets the wrong answer.
I’ve spent 8 years hiring in house and lik everyone noticed a massive drop off in people with good experience getting interviews.
It’s easy to blame “ATAS scores” (which don’t exists or “AI” which has very limited uses and is absolutely shit, but the real answer is something else.
Up until 2023 I had a simple task, fill the roles that were open, make sure Hirinh managers were happy and do it within a specific timeframe (usually 30-60 days role depending). It was great I had years of it and hired some great people.
Since 2023 I’ve been in 3 company, and all of them had a big shift to not only fill the roles but now there was a ton of KPIs around “activity”.
I’ve had incidents of roles being filled but managed unhappy about “lack of reach out” which is why you likely get ghosted after a inmail. So to recap they were unhappy I filled the role without sending needless messages.
But the main one is now in each company they introduced “passthrough targets” on each round, so now 75% of people I spoke to on the phone had to move to the hiring managers and 60% had to pass the first screen with the manager.
In one company the bonus and variable pay was based on this.
So ultimately now it’s not longer worth while to screen people who don’t seem like they meet 100%, coming from the same industry and are not showing any red flags they might reject are the only people worth dealing with.
It’s shit because pre 2023 a lot of my hires came from non standard backgrounds, did not meet 100% of the criteria but after a call they just really impressed.
In 2026 that’s not worth it any more, and taking a risk , or too many risks and the score dropping can land you on a PIP.
On top of that hiring manager expectations are through the roof and any hint of someone not being perfect results in a big push back on them, and ultimately it feels like nobody in the company wants to be seen as responsible for making the “wrong hire”.
I get this probably isn’t any solace to job seekers, but I often see AI and ATAS scores mentioned as a reason for not getting interviews and wanted to let people know it’s much more boring than that.
TL/DR - no such thing as ATAs scores and AI doesn’t reject. Most companies are rejecting good talent now because they have stupid targets on “astrology rates” for recruiters rather than just letting them fill the roles like before.