This story is from Christopher Harris at the Sydney Morning Herald. Yep, there are resumes generated by AI, AI keyword scanners and AI-driven scanners dedicated to detecting resumes and cover letters written by AI. AI robots are also conducting job interviews. In the UK, recruiters have noticed that successful job applicants can’t do the work because AI wrote their resume and selection criteria. What a world…
One of Australia’s top graduate recruiters, Lendlease, recently started to notice strange behaviour from its job candidates.
One step of the application process required applicants to film themselves answering questions within a set time-frame.
Judging from the videos, it soon became apparent some were reading scripted or AI-generated responses.
Software multinational company Canva encourages candidates to use artificial intelligence software in the application process and noticed it had a similar problem.
“The rise of AI interviewing tools has changed the landscape entirely,” its head of platform, Simon Newton, said in a post on the company’s website.
“Candidates are increasingly using AI assistance during technical interviews, sometimes covertly through tools specifically designed to avoid detection.”
The explosion of AI has turned recruitment into a minefield, in which it is difficult to assess if candidates are actually saying what they’re saying, or have the skills they might appear to be able to demonstrate.
At the same time, recent graduates must navigate a digital recruitment process that includes AI software designed to filter them out, amid broader fears that the very entry-level jobs they are applying for will soon be replaced with the same technology.
While candidates are using AI in interviews at the company, a Lendlease spokesman said AI had also “helped streamline” its recruitment process, although he said the firm remained focused on “attracting strong undergraduate and graduate talent” through its early careers program.
Recruiters are also seeing candidates use AI tools to help them complete, and pass, assessments such as aptitude tests, or to answer personality questionnaires. Individuals are also using Chat GPT to prepare their answers for video interviews, if given the questions in advance.
According to a recent study by Resume Genius, an AI-generated CV is one of the biggest red flags for recruiters, with 53% of those surveyed naming it as the biggest warning sign that an applicant isn’t suitable (just ahead of frequent job-hopping at 50%).
“If you use AI to write a resume for you in minutes, it tells me you didn’t put a lot of time and thought into applying to my job,” says Michelle Reisdorf of recruitment firm Robert Half.