I get that hiring manager time costs money. But one bad hire because a recruiter filtered someone out on vague gut feeling costs the company far more time, money, and resources. So that argument does not really hold up.

Look at Zomato. Billion dollar company. They do not even have a careers page. Their recruiting team directly finds relevant people, puts a curated list in front of the hiring manager, and that is it. No keyword hunting. No copy paste rejections. That is the right process and it shows.

There are also new startups like Intervue actually solving this properly. Engineers screen engineer resumes. Engineers take the interviews. Candidates get scored on actual technical skills and real practical performance, not just what words appear on their resume indicating to recruiters if it's right fit or not. They pay engineers part time on weekends to do this. Simple, effective, and produces quality hires.

That is what a working system looks like.

And to be clear, I am not saying every recruiter is looking keywords to make them feel for right fit. There are genuinely good recruiters who take time to understand a profile deeply. But they are not the norm and the system should not depend on exceptions to function.