AI job applications

It appears that AI is helping people to apply for a LOT of jobs. In the UK, it seems that the job "market is awash in people applying for jobs" (Financial Times, 2024, 4:50). Application numbers have increased, and the supposition is that it is because tailoring a CV and application letter has - with the rise of AI - become significantly easier. However, recruiters are noting a lot of "sameness[, ...where] the same phrases" (5:02) are occurring in candidate applications. Not only are candidates finding roles to apply for via AI on social media, but they are pasting the ad and job descriptions into an AI platform to create the application letter and CV for each job; which can be done very quickly. Candidates then indiscriminately apply for EVERYTHING that crosses their paths and looks remotely promising (effectively putting in hundreds of applications). 

So candidates "aspirations and experiences [are] now being synthesized by machines", where employers too are jumping on the AI bandwagon, "increasingly relying on their own AI-driven tools to sift through the deluge of applications" (Naveen, 2024, p. 1). We appear to be creating a process where "applicants and employers should consider the broader implications of this technological arms race" (p. 2). Recruiters say "they're not actually seeing many good candidates using AI" tools, and that they are now considering standard documentation alternatives, as they feel they "just can't trust" this mass of AI generated applications. "Others are saying, if [candidates] use AI, we will immediately throw it out" and not forward the application to employers (Financial Times, 2024, 5:48).

There is also the issue of the black box nature of AI. AI brings with it "concerns about transparency and" explicability (Atwell, 2024). We cannot open the box and see what is going on: and without being able to do that, both candidates and recruiters are blind to "the rationale behind AI-generated recommendations to make informed choices and avoid overconfidence in automated results" (Atwell, 2024). We end up in that space of low trust in the model (Financial Times, 2024). If there were more "Transparency[, it could...] build trust and allows individuals to identify potential biases in the algorithms" (Atwell, 2024).

There appears to me to be no sense in creating "a macabre dance between applicants wielding AI and employers deploying their own algorithmic filters", with "humans and institutions are entangled in a digital tug-of-war" (p. 1). Perhaps we might start seeing job ads with the warning 'do not use AI in your application', similar to academic submissions, and which also use AI detection systems to reject applications (Financial Times, 2024). Or perhaps we might start relying on job assessment centres where our skills are validated before we can apply. 

It will be an interesting space to watch.

Sam

References:

Atwell, G. (2024). AI and career counseling, advice, information and guidance and Generative AI. AI Pioneers. https://aipioneers.org/ai-and-career-counseling-advice-and-guidance/

Financial Times. (2024, October 7). Recruitment is broken, what are businesses doing to fix it? | FT Working It [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/FrQFFH2V8g0

Naveen, P. (2024). The Rise of AI in Job Applications: A generative adversarial tug-of-war. AI & Society. Advance online publication, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-02054-3