Interrogation Instead of Hiring: The Systemic Failure of the Modern Job Market

Modern hiring in the private sector has completely lost its primary function—finding a suitable specialist to solve business problems. Instead, we have acquired a giant bureaucratic mechanism that exploits the candidate’s vulnerable position, turning the hiring process into a tool for total control and data harvesting. If we view the industry as a system, it becomes obvious: this is not the mistake of a single recruiter, but a deeply broken algorithm where business interests are sacrificed for administrative arbitrariness.

People in the job market, especially those acting under deadlines or attempting a radical career change, face the phenomenon of “recruitment absurdity.” Everywhere, from local boards to international portals, we see the same picture: the employer has stopped viewing the candidate as a partner. Instead, they are treated as an object to be “scanned,” turned inside out, and evaluated not by their professional contribution, but by their susceptibility to psychological pressure.

The foundation of this mechanism is the fetishization of data. Requiring candidates to fill out multi-page forms that duplicate an already completed resume is not an attempt to know the specialist better. It is a test of a candidate’s willingness to sacrifice their time and personal dignity. In international practice, this is classified as a violation of the data minimization principle (): collecting information unrelated to the actual job function is not only pointless but creates significant data breach risks. Yet, companies continue to grow these “digital dossiers,” viewing candidates as resources to be exploited without taking any responsibility for their mental well-being.

What is most alarming is the instrumentalization of stress. When a recruiter demands that a financially vulnerable person complete a “free project” or answer a series of personal questions about family, finances, or pregnancy plans, they are using psychological manipulation. This is pure gaslighting: candidates are made to feel “not good enough” so they won’t ask uncomfortable questions about their contract terms. This turns an interview from a professional negotiation into an act of psychological dominance. Ageism, experience-based discrimination, and the demand for “ideal loyalty” have become the norm, justified by corporate culture.

Moreover, job search platforms, which should connect supply and demand, have become intermediaries that encourage this chaos. They maintain “activity” metrics on job postings even when companies aren’t actually hiring, creating the illusion of a market where none exists. This leads to professionals wasting weeks of their lives in a “resume spam war” for applications that will never be read. The true goal of these processes often lies beyond hiring: it is the collection of massive datasets, behavior profiling, and the formation of databases for marketing or other purposes that the candidate is entirely unaware of.

Ultimately, the hiring system has turned into a mechanism that feeds itself. It burns out professional potential, filters out those who maintain critical thinking, and rewards those willing to accept boundary violations as a given. The job market has ceased to be a space for exchanging competencies, becoming a zone of legal and psychological expansion for the employer. The longer this “mechanism” operates in a mode of unchecked data harvesting and manipulation, the further we drift from a reality where work is an exchange of labor results, rather than a labyrinth designed to suppress human will.

Systemic Failure Points: Behind the Process

The real-world experience of many people navigating the “hiring maze” confirms that these violations have become the norm. Key forms of pressure include:

• Bureaucratic Fetishization: Collecting excessive data under the guise of “standardization.”
• Intellectual Piracy: Using “test tasks” as a source of free labor.
• Stress Interviews: Intentional psychological pressure used to hide HR incompetence.
• Ghost Vacancies: Collecting data without real intent to hire.
• Discrimination: Ageism and barriers for those changing their career path.

Legal and Psychological Context

These practices clash with international standards and cause significant harm:

• Privacy Violation: According to Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, collecting data outside the scope of an employment contract is a violation of the right to privacy.
• Security Threat: Collecting personal questionnaires without verifying job postings creates an ideal environment for phishing and cybercrime.
• Psychological Exhaustion: Constant manipulation leads to the destruction of professional self-efficacy () and chronic stress, undermining the candidate’s health.

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