From Rejection to Opportunity: How a Frustrating Job Application Led to the Open-Source TalentMatcher
The idea? An AI that checks whether a rejected candidate might fit another role in your organization. This candidate chose your company, took the effort to apply.
The Start: An Impersonal Rejection
When I decided to leave Growf AI, I started applying to some large companies. Small disclaimer: I wasn't invited anywhere. No, this isn't a story about how unfair that is. They probably had good reasons. What matters to me are two things.
Everything went through impersonal portals: no phone number for questions, no email address, no human. In the best case, a generic rejection landed in my inbox after three weeks of waiting.
That got me thinking. Surely this can be done better? Of course, you don't want AI to take over the entire application process. But if recruiters don't have time to deliver a rejection better, let alone look at alternative roles, why not have a smart assistant that takes over that piece after the rejection?
The idea? An AI that checks whether a rejected candidate might fit another role in your organization. This candidate chose your company, took the effort to apply. Why would you throw away that talent?
The Bigger Problem: Recruitment's Leaky Bucket
You might recognize this frustration. Thousands of candidates and recruiters experience this daily. The numbers speak volumes:
- Missed Matches Harvard Business School discovered that 88% of employers think their systems filter out qualified candidates.¹ A candidate doesn't fit perfectly for role A? Then they disappear into the black hole, while role B is right there.
- Lost Potential Your Applicant Tracking System probably contains 30-70% outdated candidate profiles.² You archive profiles without ever updating or revisiting them. Moreover, they're currently looking for a new position.
- Time Waste A recruiter spends an average of 18 hours on administration per vacancy and 16 hours per week manually scheduling interviews. Time that can't be spent finding the right match.³
The Solution: A Smart Assistant for Recruiters
From that frustration, I built TalentMatcher: a smart talent pool that works as your assistant. The system doesn't decide for you, but ensures no talent slips through the cracks.
How Does It Work in Practice?
- Centralize your vacancies: Add vacancies and build your database: manually or via the API.
- Track every application: Manage candidate status per vacancy in real-time.
- Automatic re-matching: Reject a candidate for role A? TalentMatcher immediately scans all other vacancies and shows you the best matches. No more manual work.
The Benefits: Efficiency and a Better Experience
- Better candidate experience: Show candidates you value their talent by automatically considering them for all suitable roles.
- Higher conversion: Discover the "hidden gems" in your own database. Candidates you would have otherwise forgotten.
- Save time: Stop searching manually. Get targeted matches in seconds for every new vacancy.
Ready to Stop Throwing Away Talent?
Stop with generic rejections where perfect matches lie hidden. TalentMatcher is open-source, so you can deal with talent smarter and fill your vacancies. Need help using the tool? Contact me.
Check out the code and documentation on GitHub: github.com/MajesteitBart/TalentMatcher
Sources
- Harvard Business School & Accenture (2020): "Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent"
- Actonomy Research: Database management studies
- Totaljobs Research (2024): Recruiter time allocation study