How AI is Hurting the Application Process
I’m not sure if the electronic “ink” is even dry yet on my article regarding AI hurting the hiring process from the hiring side and I’m now reading an article on LinkedIn regarding how AI is hurting hiring on the applying side. I’ll beat this drum until I retire, or am roundly proven wrong, that hiring is a human-centric experience. This extends to all steps in the process, including how you put your resume together and subsequently submit it. I’ve complained in the past about how resume writing services create and fill a template, causing resumes to look and read very similar. Job descriptions have been plagued by this for years. Some written so poorly that I’ve actually had a candidate and Hiring Manager come back to me after the interview and question why the interview was ever set up in the first place. We all recognized at that moment something needed to change. I worked with that client to improve their JD’s and, amazingly, they started attracting more qualified candidates.
The article was interesting and sad at the same time. I remember a friend telling me in college during our master’s program that he paid for a service that would complete and submit his homework through the university web portal where students accessed their classes. No, I’m not ever going to tattle on him, mostly because I think a good portion of students are doing this in one way or another. The same goes for job hunting. I did a presentation at the University of Michigan a few years ago to a group of IT students who were set to graduate. When discussing resumes, one asked if it was a good idea to leave room on the bottom of the last page so they could copy and paste the job description in white, 1pt font. The idea was that Google or Apple’s AI program would grab all the keywords and push their resume forward. Obvious pitfalls aside, it was a shocking realization that tech has led us to a point of creating whatever reality we want.
Job hunters are now using AI to write and submit resumes based on the job description, complete applications, even answer surveys, and take pre-employment tests. How is a Hiring Manager supposed to know who he’s interviewing if one program is actually being used to submit dozens or hundreds of resumes? This dehumanizes the process and just as candidates complain about generic job descriptions and feeling like a number in the process, HR departments and hiring managers are frustrated with tech being used to present generic resumes. Behind pay and a bad boss, a leading reason why candidates resign is that they feel like what they applied and interviewed for is a different job than what they are actually doing. This ambiguity driven by more tech and less human interaction is only going to further exacerbate these problems
How do we address this? As I’ve mentioned countless times, this is why I recruit. Mier Talent Consulting is a human-centric recruiting firm that recognizes experience and skillset as only 50% of what makes someone successful. Always remember: candidates apply for jobs but they stay there because of the people they work with.
