Optimise /ˈɒptɪmʌɪz/
Verb: make the best or most effective use of (a situation or resource).
The use of the word ‘optimised’ has flooded hiring—ATS ‘optimised’ CVs, cover letters that are ‘optimised’ to hit every keyword, passion that now has to fit a pre-packaged ‘optimised’ ideal.
What exactly are these processes optimising for?
- We end up treating humans, with complex stories, pivots and trajectories as ‘resources’
- We’re labouring under the assumption that an ‘optimised’ CV = good quality CV
What if we told you that you end up losing out on so much more than you stand to gain from ‘optimisation’?
The advent of generative AI (genAI) in particular, has been well-documented to have contributed, en-masse to a culture of language-flattening (Turk, 2025). This has led to an increased catch-22, wherein authenticity ends up being compromised for ‘polish’, where genuine commitment is easily to generate and write about (lowering the value of well-written cover letters).
This has two major consequences:
- Genuinely passionate talent that may not necessarily fit into neat ‘keyword’ boxes gets lost while people who are only seen through an ‘optimal’ lens without passion are seen through these lenses.
- Hiring/Recruiting teams face immense issues when sifting through applications, because every application sounds similar owing to the ‘flattening’.
When you do end up choosing a candidate who is perfect on paper, with the right keywords, you still end up running the risk of finding someone who was not genuine/would ghost you attrite after a couple months, wasting a lot of time and effort in the hiring process.
Let’s move away from ‘optimal’ to sincere, let’s place humans back into the hiring process.