AI is killing the hiring industry
ZipRecruiters and others like them make it impossible to find a job
With the risk of sounding like “that guy” but over the last few years, AI has ruined recruitment process and makes it nearly impossible for the everyday qualified person to find a job. This undoubtedly varies from industry to industry. The road to become a physician, lawyer, dentist, teacher, nursing, or any other professional service is clear. It simply requires complete undergraduate school, attend a professional school — Medical School, Law School, Dental Schools, etc. — complete an internship/residency and you seamlessly transition into a career. That is not to say that getting accepted or completing any of the programs is an easy feat. As hard as those applications for the professional schools are, they have one caveat, the applicant is informed and advised. This is not the case with jobs for those of us who graduated with degrees — undergraduate or graduate — in the humanities.
There is no clear path to employment after graduation for those of with a Poli. Sci., Sociology, Communications or any other liberal arts degree. Even so before the spread of AI recruitment tools. It was not that far-fetched to send an application for an entry-level position job within your background and expect an interview at minimum if not expect to get hired within the first few months after graduation. Moreover, the probability that your application will be seen by a real human was a lot higher than it is today. There are a couple of reasons for this; One, most of the AI recruitment services use very simple applications. Most Application Tracking Systems (ATS)require very little time of the applicant to complete the application, creating a cesspool of applicants that are grossly unqualified and saturates the applicant pool, meaning no matter how qualified you are, your application may never ever been seen. Two, because of the saturation effects, recruiters might get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of suggestions and recommendations.
What algorithms are the AI using
Another point of frustration for applicants is that very few — outside the coding rooms of these organizations — really know how the algorithms are working. Experts have written at great lengths about the potential racial and gender bias that might be affecting how these algorithms function and what applications are being moved forward along the process and which are not. Nicole Martin of Forbes AI and Big Tech said:
There are many studies that show that candidates with “minority sounding names” are shown bias against in the hiring process and that more “white-sounding names” are more likely to receive an interview. — Nicole Martin
What will not work as an applicant
Most of the recruitment tools and services — apart from a few — are simple to figure out. They screen keywords on your application against a set of keywords that are present in the ad description or set by the recruiter and then determines which applicants move to the next phase. Some believe that if you litter your resume and cover letter with keywords that are on the ad description, they might have a better chance of being reviewed. In theory this is true, but as I mentioned above is part of the problem. Because it is easy to do so many do and once again the application pool is saturated and qualified applicants are over-looked. Not to mention, should you be fortunate enough to have been selected, if your resume is essentially a bunch of paragraphs and lists with relevant keywords, odds are you are not getting a call back.
Emailing the same cover letter to hundreds of jobs will also not work. While some recruiters argue that cover letters are a waste of time, I would suggest including one with each applicant, especially for those positions where almost every applicant will send a cover letter to. It is very important to follow the guidelines of the cover letters. Some applicants have specific questions and information they require you to include in the cover letter, such as salary requirements, and job/industry specific question. My suggestion is this. Create three types of covers letters; One, very generic that you will send out with your resumes to jobs that are very entry-level or where a cover letter would not add much value, entry level sales jobs and non-competitive internships are a good example of this. The second tier is a more detailed orientated cover letter that speaks in detail about your qualifications for a very industry specific position. i.e. if you want an entry level communications job at a media outlet or PR company, your cover letter should highlight your qualifications — be it academic, internship, or previous employment. The third is a totally customized and cover letter that is job specific. These should be written from scratch and should focus on why and how you are qualified for that specific job.
Recruiters can do more too.
It is understandable that recruiters cannot respond to every applicant they receive and for most applicants a simple automated email is even enough. At least it allows the applicant to know that if not a human being, a robot looked at their application. With that said, most applicants understand that if they have not heard back in a while it means they were not selected.
What is frustrating is that those recruiters who “ghost” you after you have been well within the application process. If you are a recruiter and you have at least communicated with the applicant, it does not hurt to contact the applicant again. These days applicants find themselves ghosted by recruiters after an initial or even second stage of the recruitment process. This I would argue is the most frustrating for applicants.
