Should Job-Seekers Stop Using AI to Write Their Resumes? (yahoo.com) 63
When one company asked job applicants to submit a video where they answer a question, most of the 300 responses were "eerily similar," reports the Washington Post (with a company executive saying it was "abundantly clear" they'd used AI.)
Job seekers are turning to AI to help them land jobs more quickly in a tough labor market.... Employers say that's having an unintended consequence: Many applications are looking and sounding the same...
It's easy to spot when candidates over-rely on AI, some employers said. Oftentimes, executive summaries will look eerily similar to each other, odd phrases that people wouldn't normally use in conversation creep into descriptions, fancy vocabulary appears, and someone with entry-level experience uses language that indicates they are much more senior, they added. It's worse when they use auto-apply AI tools, which will find jobs, fill out applications and submit résumés on the candidate's behalf, some employers said. Those tend to misinterpret some of the application questions and fill in the wrong information in inappropriate spots. If these applications were evaluated alone, employers say they'd have a harder time identifying AI usage. But when hundreds of applications all have the same issue, they said, AI's role in it becomes obvious.
The article acknowledges that some employers could be using AI tools to screen resumes too. One job-seeker in Texas even says he'll stop submitting an AI-written résumé when the recruiter stops using AI to evaluate them. "You're saying, 'You shouldn't be doing this' when I know a good chunk of them do this!"
Obligatory XKCD.
It's easy to spot when candidates over-rely on AI, some employers said. Oftentimes, executive summaries will look eerily similar to each other, odd phrases that people wouldn't normally use in conversation creep into descriptions, fancy vocabulary appears, and someone with entry-level experience uses language that indicates they are much more senior, they added. It's worse when they use auto-apply AI tools, which will find jobs, fill out applications and submit résumés on the candidate's behalf, some employers said. Those tend to misinterpret some of the application questions and fill in the wrong information in inappropriate spots. If these applications were evaluated alone, employers say they'd have a harder time identifying AI usage. But when hundreds of applications all have the same issue, they said, AI's role in it becomes obvious.
The article acknowledges that some employers could be using AI tools to screen resumes too. One job-seeker in Texas even says he'll stop submitting an AI-written résumé when the recruiter stops using AI to evaluate them. "You're saying, 'You shouldn't be doing this' when I know a good chunk of them do this!"
Obligatory XKCD.
meh (Score:2)
Weed them out. (Score:2)
hahaha. I filter candidates by detecting AI use, so yes, Job applicants should let AI write their resume so we can weed them out better.
Re: (Score:1)
I see nothing positive in your behavior.
Re:Weed them out. (Score:5, Interesting)
That doesn't mean AI can't help write a CV, e.g. to make a sentence punchier or more brief. But if it's overt, unapologetically machine generated then that person can fuck right off and be some other company's problem.
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Well it's too bad for this hypothetical supposedly intelligent but struggling person who decides to put themselves forward for a job with slop.
There are literally thousands of applicants for any good job. A person of today has to apply for around ten times as many jobs as they did ten years ago in order to get the same number of responses. You want them to do ten times more work for the same chance, with a smile and a thank you, massa!
We'll weed you out, AI or not AI. (Score:2)
If you rewrite your CV for each application, you're fully bullshitting.
Yep. We'll weed you out, AI or not AI.
Be a real person, sucker.
Re: (Score:2)
Competition is a bitch. People are desperate in times of recession. Always have been. Always will be. Welcome to human society.
Re:Laziness, is perceived both ways. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, OR you could be simply seeing intelligent people struggling in a job market forced to re-write their resume purposely with AI to try and see if that might have any better luck when combat those abusing AI to filter for human employment. It’s a weird time right now.
Imagine you’re a new job seeker. Ever consider when AI employment filtering gets hyper-viral-marketed by AI, and now you’re forced to fucking encode your resume just to get past this cool new hiring tool people seem to love like a gun, only good when the barrel is pointed AWAY from themselves?
AI will eventually be capable of writing your resume better than you ever could. Most human resumes probably have basic grammatical errors that AI would learn and remember to avoid, so let’s hope the grammar nazi isn’t leading AI filter development anytime soon. You’d end up talking to potential bots all day because to err is human, and AI ain’t got time for that shit.
It's more than that. The main reason candidates have to resort to AI is ATS resume filters, which can toss out a resume even before it gets to be seen by a human at the employer's office - be it Recruitment or the hiring manager.
Oh, and don't even get me started on when AI does one's interview, asking one everything that a bunch of interviewers would ask. If that company's staff doesn't have time for me, then they sure can't expect me to have time for them. Yeah, yeah, I know about buyer's markets and seller's markets, but that's the minimum courtesy that should be afforded
Re:Weed them out. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm between gigs at the moment, so have been hitting up job boards and the like. One really, really wants you to "tailor your CV with AI". It seems laughable to me - I've spent quite a bit of time weedling my CV down to two pages by taking out a word here or there and rewriting sentences and whatnot. The AI does none of those things, it's like an angry foreign bull in a china shop - it hacks about at the contents and leaves you with an utter mess of a document.
So I've politely declined to tailor my CV with AI - I'm sending out essentially the same CV to everyone. Sure, they might not see as much of $skill27 as they would like because I've kept it "down" a bit, but that's probably more realistic than trying to fudge my CV to shout about things that aren't my main skills.
If you consider your CV/resume to be an extension of you - you wouldn't even let your SO or parents edit it without running it past you first. Taking "you" out of it by using AI seems to me to be the most obvious way to shoot yourself in the foot.
All that said, the job market is properly sh!t right now, so I guess people are using anything they can to get anything they can. I'm still not sure it's a good thing in the long run, but I guess any port in a storm?
Re:Weed them out. (Score:4, Interesting)
That works both ways. If you have ATS filtering out resumes before a human has had a chance to look at it, I think that using AI to crash that gate is justified. If resumes were only looked at by the in-house recruiter who'd have proper support from the hiring manager, then I'd agree w/ you - toss out those resumes that were written using AI
I know that the time of the hiring managers are valuable, but given that they are budgeting for these people, they need to be obligated to put in the proper time and effort in helping pick the suitable candidates, as well as the interview process. If they, or rather the recruiting office, tosses that important job to AI, then they can't bitch about it when their candidates have AI impersonate themselves while projecting achievements way beyond their actual capabilities
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Have you tried putting your own resume through those? You can take most resumes from prior to 2019 and pump them through and get over a 50% AI-positive rate. So you're using broken shit software that doesn't work to try to find broken shit stuff that doesn't work. Looks like all the potential candidates are dodging a bullet with you.
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What do we have to do to get you to read the resume to start with? We use AI to get past the stringent AI that trashes our resume before it gets to a person because we didn't get all the HR buzzwords right. Now you are throwing it out because we did that?
I have applied to hundreds of jobs (Infrastructure Engineer with dev experience) but never get responses because I never get past HR to an IT person that would understand my worth.
It's AIs all the way down... just can't win.
Resumes: have they been "Solved"? (Score:2)
Unless AI goes away somehow Resumes are probably going the way of college essays as homework.
Instead there will be cold, hard databases from data brokers, there will be your portfolio and your solo-projects to show off, and most importantly of all, school friends or your dad's bro's company hiring you just because. Also, perhaps, something like Palantir will furnish anyone who wants it a social credit score, keeping track of how many times you go to church and what porn you watch.
Damn right. (Score:4, Insightful)
One job-seeker in Texas even says he'll stop submitting an AI-written résumé when the recruiter stops using AI to evaluate them.
You can't cry about AI usage when you're the one using it without being a massive hypocrite. If you're a massive hypocrite, why should anyone give a flying fuck what you think?
Re: Damn right. (Score:2)
Following that logic, the employer should be fine with an AI-supported application that addresses XYZ. But you're missing the point. The point is that if you ask people to do a certain job without a certain tool because you want them to be able to work without that tool, then use that tool yourself to evaluate how they performed, then you signal that you cannot work without that tool yourself and you should not expect to be taken seriously.
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I haven't seen using no AI being a requirement in the job offers talked about here.
IF that is part of the job then indeed using AI to create your resume is a pretty stupid idea.
However, if it's not a requirement then I'd say I don't understand the article... Everything starts sounding tye same? Good! Filter those out. Find the ones you are unsure whether AI was used. Follow up on those.
Responsible use of AI is like using your friend's class notes to learn. Irresponsible use is like handing in a copy of your
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Do you have much experience with large corporations? There's usually an HR/recruiting team. They are not experts. They probably have trouble with basic tech terms. They interview the internal teams that actually need hires, and do what they can to find suitable external candidates.
When the team wants someone competent and experienced, they will absolutely reject anyone who uses AI as a crutch. When the recruiters sift through potentials, they will probably use AI themselves, either because they need the h
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if you ask people to do a certain job without a certain tool... then use that tool yourself to evaluate how they performed, then you signal that you cannot work without that tool yourself and you should not expect to be taken seriously.
In school I was regularly asked to answer questions or solve problems without using an answer key. The teachers/graders often used an answer key to evaluate my work. I didn't see that as a sign that they couldn't solve problems themselves or shouldn't be taken seriously. They just had different objectives, different responsibilities, different constraints, a different situation altogether from that of the student.
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You can't cry about AI usage when you're the one using it without being a massive hypocrite.
You're talking about the recruiters, right? Because if you have found yourself on the same side as HR, you're on the wrong side, every time.
AI is for us only (Score:2)
You should never have AI write your resume for you (Score:5, Insightful)
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I've started getting those automatic AI suggestions from google for "improving" my writing in emails. It really wants to turn my writing into bland American corporate slop.
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Looking for a job can be pretty soul destroying, especially when a lot of the rejections are done by AI. That's why people turn to AI to do the application for them.
It's one of the few times where I might actually want an AI agent working for me, along with trying to buy a house. If my AI could sift through all the crap it would make my life a bit better. Of course the problem is that the employment agencies and house sale sites will just enshittify even more in response.
Re:You should never have AI write your resume for (Score:4, Interesting)
Looking for a job can be pretty soul destroying,
You can say that again.
I've seen it from both sides. People get rejected for bad reasons, for no reason, for nonsense reasons. I've seen an extremely competent rejected because suddenly the company ran out of budget. The poor guy had no idea why.
I've also recently seen recruiters reject people because they want a job too much. So act like you don't actually want the job or something.
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Why? What's the worst that can happen? You get a job?
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I don't think anyone should be worried about not getting any results when they don't put in any effort. It would be different if there were any measurable correlation between writing your resume yourself and getting called in for an interview, but the article doesn't say there is, so there probably isn't.
Honestly if they can't be assed to write a resume. (Score:2)
... why should I assume they'll actually put any work into work?
On the other side, if the potential employer uses AI to screen the applications, why should I want to work there?
Re: Honestly if they can't be assed to write a res (Score:2)
No way. There are so many people submitting 1,000 job postings every day that practically every position gets flooded.
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That seems to contradict No one wants to work anymore!
Maybe candidates ARE similar. (Score:2)
Or maybe the hiring methods need to change too? They never were perfect.
non AI using applicants got the job (Score:3)
yes stop it (Score:2)
your a moron e
expose yourself and be honest because your hiring manager is a moron as well
network effect
JJ
Auto apply tool that works? (Score:2)
Expectations for the Job ... (Score:2)
Should Job-Seekers Stop Using AI to Write Their Resumes?
If they are to be expected to use AI in their jobs ( which is invariably going to be the case ) - shouldnt Job Seekers demonstrate an aptitude for using it ?
Cant have it both ways....
I'm not sure AI made that much difference (Score:3)
I've seen a lot of resumes over the past few decades. I've *always* found many, many of them to be very formulaic, structured on top of particular templates, using very similar phrasing and what-not.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, typically the worst offenders were "applying up" - meaning they weren't really qualified for the position they applied for.
So while TFS indicates that AI is perhaps exacerbating this practice even more... it's not exactly a new thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Whenever I see the words "passionate", "proactive", "results driven", "team player" etc on a CV I want to barf and if I'm vetting them they head for the bin.
Re:I'm not sure AI made that much difference (Score:4, Interesting)
...Perhaps unsurprisingly, typically the worst offenders were "applying up"....
That reminds me of a funny (to me) story of how I got the job I've been at for nearly 25 years now. When I graduated from College/University, I had thousands of dollars of student loans. I was working on fun software at home, and I didn't want a full time job yet. I substitute taught (babysat) Middle School a day here and a day there for a bit of spending money, but that was the extent of what I wanted.
I had gotten my student loan payments deferred once, and needed to get them deferred again. I needed six job rejections to prove that I was looking for work, and I had zero rejections for zero attempts. The rejection notices were due to be submitted to Sallie Mae soon (in a week, if I remember correctly), so I panicked a bit. I check local employment sites, found six listings for which I was woefully under-qualified, and applied for them all. I got six job rejections in record time! I submitted them to Sallie Mae, and quickly dumped them into the round file. Back to my pet projects.
A day or two later, I got a mailing (physical mail) from one of them asking me to come in for an interview. "Shit, shit, shit!" I told them about the rejection letter I got, and was told it was a clerical error. Translation: the hiring manager arm-swept off his desk, and my application was in that pile of paperwork that went into the trash. It happened to fall on the top of the contents of his trash can, and caught his attention when he went to empty his trash. I went in for the interview, got home, and found a message on my answering machine asking me to sub the next day. I agreed, and thought nothing of it.
I got called in the next day for a second interview, and hesitated because I had told the school I would sub. I canceled the subbing for the day, and went to the second interview. When I got home, I found a message on my answering machine with a job offer from that company. I hesitantly accepted, and have been there for nearly 25 years. I have a reputation there as being a miracle worker.
Moral of the story? There isn't one. I just thought it was funny.
An assault on reality (Score:2)
AI is crossing a sort of digital Rubicon, in that its engaging in an outright assault on objective reality.
It *seems* clever to use AI to screen resumes. Then AI gets democratized and the candidates are using it. So the AI screening gets amped up, no AI submissions. And all the while the Anthropic "agent employees" are moving in for the kill. The slop benefits the machine, not the meat.
This happened on Xitter from 2022 to 2024. It had been insanely toxic for years, but the arrival of automation was really o
Everything changes, everything stays the same (Score:2)
As ever, you want your CV to stand out. Don't use AI; it will stand out a mile from all the CVs that begin "In today’s interconnected world, ..."
Should HR stop using it? (Score:2)
Should the useless, clueless HR drones stop using AI and actually do their job?
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Should the useless, clueless HR drones stop using AI and actually do their job?
Yes, obviously. But they won’t. The lazy HR bot doesn’t want to do actual work.
What you want (Score:1)
Obviously a company wants a real human candidate who has used Widget products since he was a kid and who is willing to spend hours working on their application to WidgetCorp because he loves the company. U
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With thousands of applicants per position in some cases the practice of carefully submitting applications to the jobs that are a best fit is a waste of time for the candidate, and he knows this. Posting jobs to job boards is also a waste of time for the company involved, if they want qualified applicants.
Posting AC to avoid burning mod points
The wise and extroverted job seeker will COMPLETELY IGNORE THIS WHOLE PROCESS and make friends with real humans using this network to get a job. The wise and introverted job seeker is out of luck, especially in this down market.
Yes, mostly. Networking is the number one way to move up. And it is not about sucking up either. Networking allows people to know you, and to form some opinion of what you are like. If the tech lead says you do good work, and if the non-tech leads understand that you are not a problematic personality, the networking they do with others lets them make informed hiring decisions.
Now for the introvert thing. Introverts can do networking, unless their introversion is path
How about just employing people (Score:2)
Depends on how you use it (Score:1)
Obviously, if it's just slop, or totally not you, then don't send it, no matter who made it.
But if it's just a tool to polish a bit? So what?
Yeah, I'd just hate to hire someone who uses tools to help accomplish goals. "Og no need flint to start fire!"
If you use it... (Score:2)
They should, if nothing else verify that the generative AI didn't add lies to their resume. Because it will. And then you're the one who comes off as lying.
Nothing says ‘I’ll go all out for your (Score:2)
Or perhaps... (Score:2)
They all simply gave a short but correct answer to a technical question, and you're expecting some sort of an unrealistic answer to a 0 or 1 question.
Here comes Sylvester McMonkey McBean (Score:2)
And his AI off machine.
A resume's job is to catch the reader's eye (Score:2)
When (if-ever, these days), the resume gets read by a human, the first purpose of the resume is to catch that reader's interest.
Your suitability for the job must come first. Then the reader must be encouraged to read on. Everything in the cover letter must serve to reinforce the view that you are the person they want for the job.
AI-written text tends to be lengthy and wordy, tiring to read and void of nuance. But by all means do use writing tools to catch mistakes.
Use it as a tool, not a crutch. (Score:4)
My only real caution is not to upload anything you don't want the LLM to be trained on. Remove or substitute any personal information and if the format of your resume is unique and you don't want it stolen, only feed it plaintext. Don't put in anything you don't want coming out elsewhere.
It's a sponge soaking in an overflowing toilet (Score:2)
The company was hiring for two positions, a QA person, and a developer. I wrote the job posting, and both of them were clean, clear, and straightforward. Out of over a thousand applicants, eleven got a first round interview, whi
Do As We Say... (Score:2)
Stop using AI only if you want a job (Score:2)