Monsters!
It's.... alive! And.... poorly configured!
Few months back I heard a term I instantly fell in love with.
Frankenstack.
You can guess right - you don’t even have to be a Recruiter to know what this is likely referring to…..
“Dr. Frankenstein meet, your tech stack monster”. Specifically, many MANY companies tech stacks. Which feels more 1996 than 2026, once you realize how all the pieces ‘fit’ together. We’re a round-pegs-in-square-holes type of setup ‘round these parts. Why? We just are!
It doesn’t have to be this way. Technological workarounds are slippery slopes. Changing a process to adhere to a system ain’t the right modus operandum, but it may be necessary if you’re piling a spreadsheet manual tracker on top of a platform that has the capability and it’s simply not, well, turned on.
We’ve got to be very much unlike Dr. Frankenstein, we’ve got to be the ones not to flip the electrocution switch. Find another way. Shout about it loudly. Keep a baseball bat hidden firmly behind our backs so we can terminate the monster before it takes form and we’re all expected to feed it every day for the rest of our 9:00 to 5:00’s.
Proper Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) and HR Management System (HRMS) configuration can make or break a TA Professional’s effectiveness, and sanity. If you don’t get it right, out of the box, the Frankenstack monster will take form near immediately. Administrative burden can very much be self-imposed without the appropriate wherewithal to digitize things and get ready for A.I.
Which segues me to A.I. in all this: I knew, when A.I. and LLMs were blowing up last year, that a lot of Canadian organizations were going to struggle getting on the train. Exec teams were messaging, “Can’t we use A.I. for that?” without any understanding of where their respective org was at, with its tech adoption maturity….
A.I. can’t cleanup a broken spreadsheet without appropriate prompts, context and data. And when the data is layered on another spreadsheet, system, or what-have you, well, now the blanket’s off Frankenstein and he’s seeking further validation of his existence.
Don’t take shortcuts. Don’t propose solutions that aren’t really solutions but rather, more unideal workarounds.
Use the baseball bat if you have to. The Doctor will forgive you - with time, they will understand what you spared them from.
-Matt