The post wanted an “experienced” marketing leader. Check! It wanted a candidate who could develop unique strategies. Check, again. But then the list of other needed skills and desires just started piling up: strong collaborator, five years in stakeholder management, clear writer, comfortable operating across ambiguity. And that was before requiring a host of AI skills.
It’s no surprise that firms want some critical skills from job candidates, but the list has turned job postings into what candidates call “tireless manifestos.” One study found the average number of words in job postings jumped nearly 15 percent between 2020 and 2025. But for many, it’s the list of qualifications firms now demand that seems to have ballooned.
To be sure, in a job market as tough as today’s is, it’s no surprise that companies would place more demands on candidates. And repeatedly, CEOs have cited the “skills shortage” among workers as the Achilles’ heel of their operations. But experts say the paradox of such laundry lists is that by adding more information in an effort to draw better hires, companies can appear unsure of what they’re looking for.
“The more I see job descriptions getting longer and longer, it comes back to me as almost corporate indecisiveness,” says Angela Blum-Finlay, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and author of Skill Stacking: Taking Ownership of Your Career in Changing Times. “We’re in a space where a lot of organizations don’t know what jobs are supposed to look like anymore.”
To no one’s surprise, AI is part of all this, with both sides—candidates and hirers—relying on it. Ask AI to write a job description, and it will likely produce an exhaustive inventory of responsibilities and qualifications, lacking the context to distinguish what’s truly essential. “If the best prospects need AI to summarize the post before they’ll read it, you’ve probably already lost them,” says Quincy Valencia, Korn Ferry’s vice president of talent transformation.
This creates an AI feedback loop: companies use AI to write increasingly detailed job descriptions, candidates use AI to tailor their résumé to those postings, and companies use AI to filter applications. Candidates face prolix and restrictive postings, while employers face a flood of nearly identical, AI-generated résumés. “All we’re doing is having AI talking to AI,” Blum-Finlay says.
Experts say AI should still be a part of the hiring process; indeed, it needs to be in a world with so many applications pouring in. But it should be evolved to account for candidates’ practical skills and potential—not simply their past titles or ability to match keywords. One study found that job previews that gave candidates an accurate picture of what the role would entail are associated with lower voluntary turnover and higher performance. Investing in more human-centric hiring can lead to better-fit hires, lower turnover and stronger long-term growth for employees and organizations.
As candidates place greater weight on organizational culture and values, most HR pros say companies are better served defining their mission and trusting people to bring the skills that help them advance it. “If we get to a skills foundation and less fluff, we get a better alignment,” says Blum-Finlay.
