Algorithms vs Authenticity: Why Social Media Advice is Sabotaging Job Seekers

As usual – I was on the phone with one of my dearest friends. She works for a well known not-for-profit organization and one of her responsibilities is hiring. 

“Why is it so hard to hire someone?” This was a rhetorical question. “It’s TikTok. TikTok has made people stupid.” 

I laughed because she meant it as a joke – we have had many, many (so many) conversations about the challenges of contemporary hiring and we both know how complicated hiring has become.  

But then I was on social media later that day and indeed there were dozens of posts from people who had either been laid off or had been job searching and expressing their frustrations and fears because it can be hard and scary. 

Then . . . and I knew I shouldn’t . . . I went to the comment section. The people in the comments who were suddenly “coaches” giving the advice that varied from meh to really terrible far outweighed the people just expressing sympathy.  

You have to assume that candidates aren’t taking every bit of advice in their comment section but at a time when the average job search is taking double digit months, even taking some bad advice could lead someone to be less prepared and less able to make solid decisions going forward in their job search.  

Overall, I think social media is pretty great. I’ve learned a lot of things thanks to social media! I’ve kept in touch with friends and family so easily that I think the connectivity is one of the best things about social platforms. And I sometimes find it entertaining.  

But like everything there are downsides. 

We are seeing resumes stuffed with job description key words because a social media post promised “beating the ATS/AI.” We are seeing candidates mass-applying to hundreds of jobs with AI-generated materials that might sound good, even if they don’t represent them at all. We are seeing people convinced that every employer is trying to trick them, every interview question is a psychological trap, and every rejection is evidence of corporate greed.

Even worse, social media has likely contributed to the short attention spans around the entire job search process. Many candidates now expect instant results from minimal effort. They want a resume written in 10 minutes, interview preparation from a chatbot, and a six-figure remote role after clicking “Easy Apply” fifty times from the couch. On social media it’s become a little bit of a “flex” to say something like, “I’ve applied to five hundred jobs and I haven’t even had one interview!”

The job market is chaotic enough without adding armchair experts to the mix. Undoing misinformation with clients becomes a regular part of onboarding and clients meetings. Setting realistic expectations with job seekers can feel discouraging when social media experts claim they were hired in two weeks. Explaining why networking still matters, and reminding candidates that authenticity is more effective than whatever “hack” is trending this week has become a frustrating barrier to getting clients hired.

Social media can be a tool. But when job seekers allow it to replace authenticity and human connection, it stops being helpful and starts getting in the way.