A friend encouraged me to write the paper, even if I didn't submit it, as a means of self-reflecting.

Are we talking about the same thing.

I apply for jobs because I want money. Not to reflect or learn about myself.

It’s just business, even if you do the song and dance to get hired they can still fire you later.

Oxide's process involves submitting writing with various questions about you, what you've done, and what you're looking for in your career. The process of doing so inherently means reflecting on the answers to those questions, and so some people find it a useful exercise.

OK.

But that should be done later in the process. I'd rather an LLM auto-reject my application vs spending 5 hours on a writing exercise.

Think about, I apply to a minimum of 5 jobs per day. If I need to spend 5 hours for each application I'm spending 25 hours a day on job applications. Obviously this isn't possible.

I think that you are (naturally) approaching it from your side, and they're (naturally) approaching it from theirs, and it sounds like it's not a fit. That's a successful outcome for a hiring process.

> I apply for jobs because I want money. Not to reflect or learn about myself.

We are not the same.