McKinsey Asks Graduates To Use AI Chatbot in Recruitment Process (theguardian.com) 26
McKinsey is asking graduate applicants to "collaborate" with an AI tool as part of its recruitment process, as competence with the technology becomes a requirement in competing for top-level jobs. From a report: The blue-chip consultancy is incorporating an "AI interview" into some final-round interviews, according to CaseBasix, a US company that helps candidates apply for posts at leading strategic consulting companies.
In an online post, CaseBasix said candidates in "select final rounds" in the US have been asked to complete tests using McKinsey's internal AI tool, Lilli. They are required to carry out practical consulting tasks with the help of Lilli. "In the McKinsey AI interview, you are expected to prompt the AI, review its output, and apply judgment to produce a clear and structured response. The focus is on collaboration and reasoning rather than technical AI expertise," CaseBasix said.
In an online post, CaseBasix said candidates in "select final rounds" in the US have been asked to complete tests using McKinsey's internal AI tool, Lilli. They are required to carry out practical consulting tasks with the help of Lilli. "In the McKinsey AI interview, you are expected to prompt the AI, review its output, and apply judgment to produce a clear and structured response. The focus is on collaboration and reasoning rather than technical AI expertise," CaseBasix said.
That is what stupidity looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
Hiring the people with entirely the wrong qualifications. Yes, it may make them a bit faster. But they need to be able to do everything competently without the tool or they cannot reliably check what it gives them. At the same time, "learning" to use a chat-bot is really simple and anybody that passes all the other requirements should easily be able to learn it. This is not a "core qualification" in any sense.
Re:That is what stupidity looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
I feel bad for the people who are turning AI into a crutch. When the floor falls out on all of this they'll realize that they robbed themselves of years of opportunity to develop their skill set. I hope they've got a jump to conclusions mat, or some other million dollar idea in store or they're going to find themselves up that proverbial creek.
Re:That is what stupidity looks like (Score:4, Insightful)
I feel bad for the people who are turning AI into a crutch. When the floor falls out on all of this they'll realize that they robbed themselves of years of opportunity to develop their skill set. I hope they've got a jump to conclusions mat, or some other million dollar idea in store or they're going to find themselves up that proverbial creek.
People using AI as a crutch will never do anything other than get themselves into trouble eventually if they don't know how to spot check results. If something AI responds with seems off, there's a good chance it is. Want to use AI to do menial tasks like "create an array where each entry is the name of regular file found in a specified directory" because you don't want to remember the language syntax of every scripting language available is fine. It also does an excellent job of taking large documents and providing summaries. But asking it to do "research" for you? You'll end up getting in hot water because it could generate false results. Always verify.
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People using AI as a crutch will never do anything other than get themselves into trouble eventually if they don't know how to spot check results.
Like using speed-dial and then forgetting peoples' phone numbers. :-)
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That needs to be drilled into the heads of anyone who even thinks of using AI. You aren't the person who will benefit the most from AI, it's Wall Street that will laughing at you all the way to the bank. You, meanwhile, will be doing good to get bread crumbs while living in a ditch filled with your own piss.
AI as a "skill" is just business speak for "teach everything you know to it so we never have to pay you again." Such statements should be grounds
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It is an excellent idea to stay away from McKinesy and basically all management consultants. They are not your friends, even if they pretend very hard they are.
Best explanation I know is by Jenny Tian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: That is what stupidity looks like (Score:1)
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In other news, a former teacher was scouted by ChatGPT's PR division. A juvenile delinquent tries to get out of juvie claiming new evidence that quote "proves my inn
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LLM-type AI is very good at slop creation. What you describe is exactly that. Another valid applications is the additional information to the core proposal you need to supply when doing an application for research funding. Totally useless, nobody reads it, but they will make sure it is there. An LLM has no trouble creating that part.
Isn't it amazing? All that effort, all those data-centers, raising electricity prices, RAM shortage, etc., and the thing it does best is automate useless bureaucracy!
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Yes, but this helps the company use these people to train up the AI so those people eventually won't be needed any more.
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I have heard it say that a primary role of a management consultant is to simulate being a "friend" to their "principal". Maybe that is just the more senior ones though. LLM cannot do that.
From the summary (Score:5, Insightful)
"The focus is on collaboration and reasoning rather than technical AI expertise," CaseBasix said."
Nah, the focus is on whether the person can use AI, get paid for 4 hours of time and McKinsey can bill the client for two months of "work" through some contractual hoops.
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That is probably what they hope for. Liability and spectacular failures will kill the idea after a while. If the next "AI Winter" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter) does not do it first. The history of AI is full of grand promises, hypes and delivering very little compared to the promises.
Replace McKinsey with AI (Score:5, Insightful)
AI can fully replace McKinsey. Whenever I need a degraded business strategy and a sub-optimal process, I ask AI for an analysis "The McKinsey Way". Note: the AI often outperforms it on the first run so you may need to go a few extra rounds to get it exactly right. That's all part of the McKinsey way too.
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Also good for replacing McKinsey: A magic 8-ball
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I can do that cheaper: Replace McKinsey with .... nothing!
That actually gives you good value because the realization that you need to solve your problems yourself sets in much earlier and at a time where you may realistically still be able to fix them.
Good! (Score:4, Informative)
This should immediately make it clear to applicants how badly you will be treated at McKinsey.
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Management consulting is a meat-grinder. It has the primary purpose of extracting money from the customer while giving the appearance of "doing something". Obviously, a business this fundamentally depraved will not care about its employee's welfare either.
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And people should know that before getting into it.
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Indeed, they should. But really, people should investigate any career or employer before they commit.
McKinsey? (Score:2)
training the AI? (Score:2)
This reminds me of the stories where a company would give applicants a "coding test" and it turns out the company was using the resulting code for their own production.
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Yes. There are people that refuse to do any real coding tests because they made that experience. Obviously, the copyright in that case rests with the applicant (unless they signed something stupid), but try enforcing that.
Batshit Crazy (Score:2)
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AI tends to do that time and again and people learn nothing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]