It’s not you, it’s AI.
At least that’s the popular refrain on social media: The thing standing between you and a new job is an algorithm. It’s an idea that can help make sense of a dizzying job market where applications can meet speedy rejections or, worse, go unanswered.
Yet, often, technology isn’t directly to blame.
Even as AI and applicant tracking systems are playing a larger role in many parts of the hiring process, most of the time it’s still a person, not a bot, who actually nixes your application, hiring experts told Business Insider.
“People have gaslit themselves into believing a story that’s not true,” said Bobby Miloev, a researcher with the résumé builder Enhancv, referring to the way many blame applicant software or AI for challenges in the job market. He added that he doesn’t fault job seekers who might think this way.
It’s understandable why people who’ve been hunting for a job might look for someone to blame, said Daniel Chait, CEO of hiring-software company Greenhouse.
“They’re applying to many, many more jobs than they used to, and yet they’re not getting hired,” he said. “When that happens to you, you look for a reason.”
When tech actually tosses out your app
Some job seekers have taken to social media to point out that they’ve received a rejection email not long after putting in an application.
Where tech might be a deciding factor upfront involves so-called knockout questions. Those can include inquiries such as, “Are you authorized to work in this country?” or “Do you have a degree in nursing?” Software can weed out the applicants who say “no” when a question is a dealbreaker. Ultimately, though, those are parameters a recruiter sets.
There are also high-profile examples around the use of AI in hiring. A lawsuit against the HR-services company Workday has raised questions about what types of AI screening of applicants might be appropriate.
A Workday spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider that the claims in the suit are false and that the company’s products — AI-enabled and not — are designed to help customers manage an increasing volume of applicants “with a focus on human decision-making.”
Miloev, from Enhancv, said that, often, applicant software generates “quite simple” scores based on how many keywords in a résumé match a job description.
Yet that’s not always a big help — especially as AI has made it easier for people to tailor their résumés to match a job posting. For that reason, he said, many of the recruiters he speaks with don’t rely on those scores to screen out résumés.
Miloev said that such scores don’t yet tend to involve parsing résumés for deeper insights or involve “complicated understanding by large language models,” he said.
“There aren’t very many magic hacks,” to reviewing résumés, Miloev said.
What recruiters actually do
Often, he said, recruiters simply read through incoming CVs chronologically — another reason it’s good to apply quickly to a role that looks good, he said. After a certain point, there will be too many to go through.
Mark Jensen, a recruiter with Upswing Talent Acquisition, said that when applications start to pile up for a role, he’ll stop accepting them. Otherwise, he said, those doing the hiring are “waiting for perfection to fall into our lap, instead of working with what’s available.”
Chait, who runs Greenhouse, said that hiring technology is getting better at helping recruiters identify applicants who possess the necessary skills or qualifications for a job. Software can read a résumé and application materials, and generate analytics about the applicants, he said.
That’s a departure from years ago, when applicant tracking systems were little more than glorified inboxes.
“It used to just be like the line at the deli — everybody shows up and goes in order,” Chait said.
The ‘AI doom loop’
Many employers are being bombarded with applicants because so many more résumés are zipping across the internet. People desperate to land a role or hoping to find an in with an employer can, in some cases, easily click “submit.” Employers, in turn, then have to sift through a taller stack of résumés.
The result, Chait said, is an “AI doom loop” that’s unspooling as it’s getting harder to get a job while getting easier to apply for them.
He said that means job seekers often feel as though they’re “shouting into the void and not getting anywhere.” Meanwhile, Chait said, recruiters face a mountain of applications and ask, “What the hell do I do with that? How do I get to the person I need to hire when there’s all this noise?”
When job posts get so many applicants, Miloev said, it’s understandable why people would blame technology. But that doesn’t mean it’s “randomly rejecting résumés,” he said.
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