Should you use AI when applying for a job?
As a global head in tech recruitment, this is a topic that’s come up a lot since the use of ChatGPT blew up in late 2022. It’s raised questions about the ethics of using tools that generate text based on existing documents, as well as whether it could produce misleading information. There’s also the case of “AI fatigue” - I’m starting to notice when messages aren’t written by a human, which makes me less likely to engage.
But are there ways you can use AI to help you to write a CV or pass a job interview? And could AI improve your access to the right jobs in the future? I sat down with James Hutt, an AI expert at the tech consultancy Paradigm Junction, to ask him about the benefits AI could bring to job searching.
“In the UK, the Hays’ What Workers Want study last summer found that 50% of candidates believe they're getting a significant improvement in their chance of getting a job when they're using AI to help write their CVs and cover letters.
“That's a massive productivity boost. I think the 50% number sometimes worries people, because they think that means that 50% aren't seeing an improvement. But those other 50% aren't getting worse, they're staying exactly the same! The only effect is that half of applicants are getting a big step change.”
“You can now use AI tools that you can access for free, even ChatGPT, to be an interview coach. They can research which questions you're likely to be asked and help you work out what the answers might be. It can stress test what experience you've got and say whether it's relevant or not to improve your ability to perform in the real interview.
“I think this is the way candidates will use this most: as a support tool to help them get better and to put their best foot forward. Those applicants are really going to start standing out. They’re going to use AI tools to present the best version of themselves in these human conversations and be the ones that not only do well in the application process, but probably be the people that organisations want.
“It’s not about automating yourself out of the job application process, by having ChatGPT write an answer. Most organisations are working hard on ways to spot this or finding ways to test for something more. It’s more about using the tools to improve your skills and get some practice, so that your application - and ultimately your work - benefits.”
I advised somebody recently for a C-level position and we were talking about the use of generative AI. We fed the job description, the core competencies and the organisational overview into ChatGPT and asked it to come up with some potential questions that might be asked in the interview. Of the seven questions it devised, five came up almost word for word!
It meant the candidate could prepare in advance and go into the interview with a greater level of confidence. That individual's getting an advantage over people who weren’t using that technology. Of course, those people could perform equally as well or better than that individual, but that individual's given themselves the best possible chance of getting that role. And subsequently, the person did get the job as well.
James Hutt continued: “It's like spellcheck. If you're applying for a job and you've got spelling mistakes in your application, that shows a certain lack of care that you've applied to the process. I think we'll start to see this in other areas. If you haven't anticipated the common questions, if you've not asked for feedback from a tool like ChatGPT, then that's going to show a lack of preparation. These tools are out there, and people should really be using them to help improve their applications.”
“My hope is that we can get a bit more real understanding into both what companies are looking for and then what candidates are offering. At the moment, there's lots of keyword searches and then some language processing that is a bit more sophisticated, but ultimately, we're looking for ticks and crosses. Does this candidate say that they have expertise in this area or not?
“However, in the future, large language models (LLMs) will be able to better understand what jobseekers are saying in their applications. For example, a candidate working in sales might mention a deal that they were leading. Now, the traditional process might not recognise that this meets the hiring party’s requirements for someone with experience in selling £50,000 annual contracts. But, if you have a greater level of understanding, then you might be able to pull out from that candidate's conversation that, actually, they meet this criteria. They just haven't described it in exactly the way that some of these traditional systems need them to. And so, with more sophisticated AI, there's a chance we might be a bit more intelligent in that matching and find candidates we previously would have missed.”
A candidate is far more than a piece of electronic data in their CV - they're a human, they're an individual. And there's lots of different ways you can engage with that person and get information.
Everybody who’s been in recruitment has the story of the person whose CV didn't look relevant to the job, but we knew from the conversations and the relationship with them that they were the right person for that organisation. If you’ve got AI that can look for the comparisons between a job specification and the CV, then that will benefit everyone.
If your organisation is looking for advice on AI and other tech solutions, get in touch with Hays or Paradigm Junction today.
James Milligan Global Head of Hays Technology
James Milligan is the Global Head of Hays Technology, having joined in 2000. In his role, he is responsible for the strategic development of Hays' technology businesses globally.
