Gen Z won’t really believe this, but there was a time you could walk into a job interview with no CV, shake a hand, and start work the following week.

Now the entry checklist for a simple $25/hour role often looks like:
- A university degree
- 3+ years of experience
- 5 professional references
- Multiple interview rounds
- A personality or aptitude test
for work that used to be considered straightforward hiring.
What’s usually missing from this conversation is the uncomfortable truth: the bar didn’t just rise because companies got “picky” it rose because applicant volume exploded, automation filtered out humans early, and employers shifted risk onto candidates. The result is a system that looks like merit on paper, but often functions like gatekeeping dressed up as process.