Artificial intelligence is reshaping the job application process, simplifying some aspects – and creating new potential frictions in others.
The introduction of the technology into the recruiting and hiring process comes at a time when job searches are at record highs, with more than 28% of Americans looking for a new job as of August 28. As the use of AI in hiring and interviewing increases, many job seekers are having to make an extra effort to stand out.
“You have to be willing to be fucking crazy,” content creator Jeff said in a TikTok, describing his AI-powered preparation process for a series of job interviews. The creator said that to land the job, he used ChatGPT at every stage of his application – to help build his application, connect with current employees, and practice interview questions.
On the other side of the table, recruiters and hiring staff have mixed feelings about AI.
“What AI does is actually just create more noise. … Normal people who don’t use AI are having a hard time in the job market, and then they have to start using AI to apply for jobs to be competitive,” said Maddie Macho, a reverse recruiter (an applicant service provider that manages applications and communications ). with companies), said in a TikTok video.
Using new AI software, applicants can now review their resumes and cover letters, receive live interview scripts, and launch chatbots to submit thousands of applications almost instantly.
For some, the use of AI is seen as a useful tool that improves job applications in a competitive job market. For others, it raises questions about the credibility of applicants and the integrity of the hiring process.
Chantal Cowie, a self-described “zillennial,” started looking for a new job when AI software like ChatGPT and Gemini first took off.
“I was working about 60 hours a week at the time, so any time I could save was valuable,” she says.
As Cowie applied to jobs, ChatGPT fueled her experience and used the AI tool to write cover letters and answer interview questions, which she says allowed her to “apply to more (jobs) in a shorter amount of time.”
Although she got a job, she was fired and re-entered the job market nine months later. At that point, AI had advanced significantly. She was able to use more specialized AI platforms like Teal to build her resume and Claude to analyze company websites and job descriptions.
“I would get further in interview rounds. For most of the interviews I had, I made it to the penultimate round or the last round,” Cowie said. “And I think that’s because I was able to come to them so prepared because of the extra tools I had.”
Cowie took to social media to explain her AI-powered process, which she said landed her a six-figure “fully remote job.”
“AI will be integrated into our lives at every level, and it is here to stay,” she told NBC News. “You might as well learn how to use it to your advantage and add new skills.”
As the usefulness and popularity of artificial intelligence grows, more and more platforms have found success in serving job applicants.
LazyApply, Simplify, and AI Hawk are all AI services launching assistants to help collect applicant information and submit automated job applications through sites like LinkedIn and Indeed. Using the tools, job seekers can save hundreds of hours – and apply for as many as thousands of jobs per day, according to the services.
AI Apply, which claims its users are “80% more likely to get hired,” offers tools like a cover letter and resume builder, an auto-apply feature, an interview practice generator, and a specialized interview buddy. A premium membership starts at $38 per month, according to the website – the cost of AI Apply notes is much lower and more accessible than the cost of a career advisor.
“We do what every job seeker is told to do by a career coach, and that is customize your resume and tailor it to each job you apply for,” Aidan Cramer, CEO of AI Apply, told NBC News.
Watchdogs have warned about the risk of hallucinations and errors with AI tools, but Cramer says AI Apply is specifically designed to translate skills into language that best suits a particular application – not to invent experiences.
“AI is prone to hallucinations,” Cramer explains. “When someone uses ChatGPT to update their resume, you’re giving it a very small amount of context. It’s more likely to make things up because it doesn’t really understand what exactly you’re trying to do.
“The way we tried to build it is that when you enter the job description, it acts as a kind of foundation. So the level of hallucination is a lot lower,” he added.
A spokesperson for OfferGoose, a company that claims a 300% higher-than-normal success rate with its AI interview assistance features, echoed that sentiment.
“We believe it is important to clarify that AI is a tool designed to support and enhance human capabilities,” the spokesperson said in an email interview with NBC News. “The quality and accuracy of AI-generated content largely depends on the training data and how it is used.”
“Employers should not fear this tool, nor should they oppose it as a form of cheating,” the spokesperson said. “We encourage job seekers to discuss their use of OfferGoose with potential employers.”
According to the company’s respective websites, OfferGoose has helped applicants land more than 17,000 job openings, and AI Apply has more than 340,000 “freelancers and job seekers” using the service.
Nevertheless, many companies have introduced additional safeguards to detect the use of AI. Some employers now require e-confirmation codes to submit applications and prevent automated submissions. Others have added prompts that ask AI bots to use specific words like “banana” in responses to figure out chat-generated interview answers, according to Mike Peditto, a veteran recruiter and technical director of talent at a technology agency.
But job seekers are not the only party using AI in the application process, according to a recent study from the University of Washington. The researchers estimate that “99% of Fortune 500 companies already use some form of AI assistance in making hiring decisions,” and found that resume screening tools have an incredible bias toward white, male applicants – with the major language models favoring white candidates. associates men about 85% of the time and disadvantages black men “up to 100% of the time.”
The use of AI by both applicants and employers has created a clear dynamic, where applicants use AI, but are also cautious about employers screening them with AI.
A Capterra survey found that 58% of job seekers use AI when looking for a job, and 83% of the same respondents also used AI to “exaggerate or lie about their skills.” But about 66% of Americans say “they would not want to apply for a job with an employer that uses AI to assist with hiring decisions,” according to a 2023 Pew Research survey.
“The mission is all about helping job seekers get an edge in a world where they’ve been fighting AI tools, so to speak, that have screened them,” Cramer told NBC News, encouraging hiring managers to “turn off the automatic pre -reconsider screening.” processes” and “giving people more opportunity to stand up for them and shine as people.”
Raechel Boston, a retail product manager whose social media presence is focused on educating potential applicants about the capabilities of AI, explained that such technology takes the work out of manually tailoring resumes or cover letters.
“To get past applicant tracking software, you need to have a specific type of resume that matches the job qualification and job description,” Boston told NBC News. “If you were to do that manually, one by one, with every crazy job application, it would take hundreds and hundreds of hours, which would exhaust even someone who becomes unemployed.”
“If I were unemployed and had the means to pay for a resource and a service that would help me get ahead, I would do it without a doubt,” she added.
Ruth Edwards, head of Tiger Recruitment’s New York office, who has more than two decades of experience in senior commercial recruitment, expressed her excitement about the potential of AI in her workplace.
“Eighteen months ago, I think people were pretty put off by the idea of AI,” she told NBC News, adding that AI quickly became “part of everyday life.”
While Tiger Recruitment does not use AI to screen personal information such as resumes due to data privacy concerns, the company does use it to assess demographic diversity and create competitive salary benchmarks.
“The entire recruitment process for (clients) has now become more time-efficient and cost-effective,” she added.
But recruiters also warn that using the software incorrectly can drastically harm job applicants.
“It’s not that you’re being eliminated for using AI, it’s (that) you’re being eliminated because you didn’t use AI properly,” Peditto, better known as @realisticrecruiting to his nearly 150,000 TikTok followers, told NBC News.
“You can only get so far if you try to manipulate the AI tool,” Edwards said. “You notice certain keywords, key phrases that tend to pop up when something is artificially generated.”
Peditto, who screens and hires applicants for a living, emphasizes the need to use AI carefully to increase — not hurt — your chances of getting noticed by a company. He acknowledges the use of AI as a good “starting point,” but advises applicants to always review the responses generated, noting that “AI misses things too.”
“If you just let AI do 100% of the work, I think it’s going to hurt you in the applications,” he said. “AI is not perfect. I think you have to persevere and make sure you talk to the right people and still look for things you missed.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
