Team lead applied for his own job opening and was rejected immediately

The team lead of a nine-developer team said he had tried to get a job in his own department and received an automated rejection just six minutes later.

Rejected from his own team

The story appeared on Reddit in August 2026. According to the post’s author, his team had been looking for a senior specialist since April, but HR kept saying there were no suitable candidates. Most résumés failed the initial screening, so the position remained open for months.

Suspecting something was wrong, the manager decided to test the system himself. He created a new email address, used a fake name, tweaked some dates, and sent in a résumé that almost exactly matched his own work experience.

The situation was absurd: the person who had written the job requirements himself and led the team turned out to be an unsuitable candidate.

Reason for rejection

It took the manager a week to find out why he had been rejected. It turned out that the automated filter required the keyword “React.js.” But his résumé used the more common name, “React.”

Both names refer to the same JavaScript library for building user interfaces. But, according to the author, the system searched for an exact match and did not account for alternative spellings.

The manager suspected that since April the company may have rejected many qualified candidates for the same reason. Meanwhile, HR regularly attributed the lack of results to a difficult job market.

Automation error

It is unclear whether artificial intelligence was used in the screening process. Similar mistakes can also be made by standard ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software, which automatically filters résumés based on set criteria.

The problem is not new. A 2021 study by Harvard Business School and Accenture found that 88% of surveyed employers acknowledged that qualified candidates may be screened out for failing to meet a job’s formal requirements.

However, the team lead’s account has not been independently verified. The author did not name the company or specify which system was used to screen candidates.