At a time when discovering a job in tech has changed into a irritating cycle of rejections, ghostings or worse, Chris Pirillo‘s work speaks for itself — in that it makes a mockery of the entire course of.
Pirillo, the longtime tech fanatic and entrepreneur, has been displaying off his abilities by illustrating how exhausting it’s to get anybody to concentrate to his abilities. Two of his newest vibe-coded creations embody a Resume Analyzer and a pre-rejection letter generator referred to as Pricey Applicant.
Every is certain to hit residence with job seekers coping with a seemingly hopeless course of, and the recruiters and employers who’re hopefully making an attempt to fill roles with some shred of humanity.
The Resume Analyzer is precisely what it feels like — and nothing like what you’d hope. Customers are invited to stick in a job description and add their CV for what’s billed as a “semantic scan” that generates a “personalised, actionable gap-analysis report.” The punchline, in fact, is that it doesn’t matter what you submit, the decision is similar: “Nah, you’re f**ked, mate.”
Pirillo mentioned the thought began as a half-joke on social media earlier this week. The response was speedy and resonant sufficient to persuade him the joke was really a mirror. A couple of hours later, the app was stay.
The Pricey Applicant generator arrived shortly after, born from a touch upon Threads suggesting the logical subsequent step: a rejection letter that arrives earlier than you’ve even utilized. “Think about all of the effectivity positive factors,” the commenter wrote. Pirillo obliged.
I examined each and left laughing each instances, particularly on the methodology positive print on the Resume Analyzer, which learn, partially: “No resumes have been analyzed within the manufacturing of this report. No knowledge left your browser. The job market is, actually, a burning dumpster. This software confirms what you already suspected. Have you ever thought-about goat farming?”
“These apps are humorous as a result of they aren’t,” Pirillo advised GeekWire through e-mail.
The frustration Pirillo is spoofing is well-documented — and the timing isn’t any coincidence. A report final month from pre-employment testing firm Standards discovered that greater than half of job seekers had been ghosted by an employer up to now yr, a three-year excessive. It comes at a time when tech layoffs have remained brutal: greater than 178,000 tech employees have been minimize in 2025 alone, flooding an already strained job market with certified candidates competing for fewer openings — and listening to nothing again.
The stress — between the gag and the real grievance beneath it — is what offers each instruments their edge. Pirillo, who describes himself as greater than certified for positions he applies to, mentioned he’s given up on the standard job search in favor of fractional and contract work, not as a result of he needs to, however as a result of the choice seems like shouting right into a void.
“That conduct and expectation has been normalized,” he mentioned of ghosting by employers. “The whole course of that few of us are in command of teeters on abusive.”
Constructing the apps, he famous, took lower than an hour every — a pointed distinction to the hours job seekers routinely sink into tailoring resumes and canopy letters that always vanish with out acknowledgment. Pirillo has now shipped greater than 300 of those “mini-products” on his Vibe Arcade web site and is actively educating others, technical and non-technical alike, to do the identical.
The query he’s asking, implicitly, is whether or not constructing issues is now a greater use of a job-seeker’s time than making use of for jobs. For him, the reply is sure — and he’s leaning into what he calls an rising archetype: the “product developer,” somebody who exhibits their work fairly than curates a resume.
“I imagine I put extra thought into making these apps than any firm has in contemplating my utility,” he mentioned. “In all probability greater than all of them mixed — even when somebody made a private referral to the hiring supervisor.”
He’s even contemplating attaching Pricey Applicant’s pre-rejection letter to his personal future functions — partly as an experiment, partly as a result of he says he has nothing to lose.
“Worst that would occur is I get ignored otherwise,” he mentioned.
Pirillo isn’t pretending the apps are activism — or that they’ll change something. He is aware of HR gained’t discover it humorous. However that’s not likely who he’s speaking to.
“If there was an intent behind these particular apps, it’s not simply to evoke a way of ‘you’re not alone’ however to giggle on the absurdity of the scenario a few of us discover ourselves compelled into,” he mentioned.
Beforehand: Vibe-coding a brand new actuality: Chris Pirillo on the rise of AI-powered apps, options, and founders
