We Don’t Need Faster Horses — We Need Better Stories
- Joseph Haecker
- Nov 8
- 3 min read
Rethinking the Resume System in the Age of Algorithms
I recently had a conversation with a human resources professional that perfectly captured what’s wrong with the modern hiring process.
She told me her HR department serves over 1,200 employees and processes around 4,000 resumes every time they try to fill a single job vacancy.
You could hear the fatigue in her voice.
She said, “We need a faster way to sort through all those resumes. Our algorithms just can’t keep up.”
At first, that might sound like a reasonable goal — efficiency. But the more I listened, the more I realized she wasn’t solving the real problem. She was trying to make a broken system move faster.
The Resume Arms Race
I told her, “The reason you have 4,000 resumes to sort through isn’t because your system is slow. It’s because job seekers have been conditioned to send resume blasts — mass submissions that overwhelm your inbox before you even begin.”
She nodded, half in agreement, half in frustration.
It’s a cycle we’ve all created:
Job seekers send thousands of resumes because they think quantity is the only way to be seen.
Employers respond with filters, AI sorters, and keyword algorithms to manage the flood.
So job seekers learn to “optimize” their resumes with keywords, and the flood gets worse.
Employers buy faster, smarter software to compensate.
And around and around we go — in a race no one actually wins.
We don’t have a hiring process anymore. We have an algorithmic arms race.
The Horsepower Moment
That’s when I asked her, “Do you know why we measure car engines in horsepower?”
She tilted her head and said, “No, not really.”
I explained that when cars were first invented, people didn’t understand what a “car engine” was. They understood horses. They knew how many horses it took to pull a carriage.
So, engineers invented a measurement — “horsepower” — to help people understand the new technology in terms of the old.
There’s no real “horse” inside the measurement. It’s a metaphor. A bridge.
And like most metaphors, it stuck — even long after it outlived its purpose.
We’re Still Asking for Faster Horses
I told her, “As an HR leader, you think you need more horsepower — a faster sorting engine, a smarter algorithm, a better filter. But maybe it’s time to ask whether the whole system even works.”
Because the faster we build our sorting systems, the faster job seekers will build resume-blasting tools to beat them.
The result? A race to nowhere. A system designed to get faster, not better.
And the humans — the job seekers, the recruiters, the hiring managers — get lost in the noise.
What If the Answer Isn’t Faster?
I asked her to imagine something different.
“What if instead of trying to out-speed the problem, you slowed down? What if, instead of sorting through 4,000 resumes, you read five stories?”
She smiled politely. But I could see the wheels turning.
Because the truth is, the answer might not be about horsepower at all. It might be about human power.
What if the next evolution in hiring isn’t faster algorithms, but simpler conversations?
What if we stopped optimizing for keywords, and started listening for stories?
What if, instead of pushing job seekers to fit into filters, we invited them to share what makes them unique — their ideas, experiences, and perspectives?
The Story Revolution
That’s the foundation of Open To Work Social — a story-first job seeking platform where candidates don’t just upload résumés. They share their journeys.
Employers don’t sift through piles of digital noise. They browse stories, discover personalities, and find the people behind the paper.
It’s a human-first approach to what has become an increasingly robotic process.
Because in the end, the best candidate isn’t the one with the most keywords.
It’s the one with the story that moves you — the story that says, this person fits.
We Don’t Need More Algorithms — We Need More Humanity
We don’t need faster resume sorters.
We don’t need better keyword scanners.
We don’t even need to invent the next great AI recruiting platform.
We just need to remember how to connect — one story at a time.
So maybe the next time an HR department asks for more horsepower, we should remind them:
The point of a car wasn’t to make a faster horse.
It was to go somewhere new.
And that’s exactly what storytelling can do for hiring.
🧠 Let’s build a better way forward.
📖 Read more or share your own story at https://www.opentoworksocial.com
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