AI rejected – Tony Tellez says he received an email declining his senior managed-services application just six minutes after submitting it—prompting him to message the firm’s HR director and argue an AI screening system rejected him despite his 17 years in IT.
When Tony Tellez hit “apply” for a senior IT role, he expected at least a normal human process. Instead, he says he got a rejection almost immediately—an email stating, “We have declined your application”—six minutes later.
Tellez, a 49-year-old IT professional in Indianapolis, said the timing and the lack of explanation left him stunned. “It didn’t make any sense,” he said, especially because the job posting indicated a bachelor’s degree was preferred but not required.
He was also dealing with real-life pressure, he said: children, rent, and animals. “Nobody likes to be rejected,” Tellez said, and those responsibilities “start to weigh on you.”
What made the rejection sting more, he said, was what he believes happened behind the scenes. He told Misryoum that he suspects an AI screening tool processed his application and kicked it back because he does not have a bachelor’s degree.
Tellez said he had 17 years of continued growth in the IT space, including work in healthcare and lab environments.. He added that his last six years were in service delivery and operations management.. He also said he worked to ensure his résumé matched what applicant tracking systems typically look for—running it through an open-source applicant-tracking system after making sure his resume included the right keywords with help from his best friend. who he described as an HR consultant.
The message he sent to the company’s HR director
After the rejection email came in, Tellez said he went to the company’s LinkedIn page, found their HR director, and reached out directly with a blunt note. In his message, he wrote:
“Hi, I just applied for your Service Desk Manager role, and was immediately rejected.”
He continued by describing his background and arguing that the screening process seemed to treat the bachelor’s requirement as a hard stop, despite the posting. He wrote that the “AI that […] uses is kicking me back within minutes of my application because I do not have a Bachelors degree.”
He also said the company’s approach could be costing it qualified candidates, telling the HR director that “you are missing out on highly qualified candidates because of a reliance on AI.” He asked the director to “review my resume and credentials manually in order to better evaluate my candidacy.”
“I haven’t heard anything back,” he said.
He said the listing is no longer up, so he does not know whether the position was filled. But he said he has no plan to retire soon. “I love working. I love fixing things,” he said.
What he says he’s doing next in a changed job market
Tellez said he has since used AI tools to make his résumé more “AI-friendly,” because he believes the system is now a gate he has to work through. At the same time, he said he is targeting employers who state in their job listings that every résumé submitted is reviewed by a human.
In past roles, he said he was responsible for hiring people and “prided” himself on reading every résumé that came in. “It’s crazy how much the job market has changed,” he said.
job rejection AI hiring applicant tracking systems IT careers HR director managed-services firm Indianapolis