Hear Me Out’s Post

Read 404 Media’s full report on AI-generated job applications: https://www.404media.co/i-applied-to-2-843-roles-the-rise-of-ai-powered-job-application-bots/

Non working advice, you are not literate on the technology: Open ended questions are not a problem for an LLM at all. So now your recruiters have to read all the open ended question and they can’t tell what is AI or not. The problem isn’t that there’s a lot of boilerplate application volume, the problem is that everyone now faces planet scale inbound but their filtering processes don’t scale to it. And AI can’t help with it. Adding more friction to the funnel that also consumes your own resources does nothing. The real answer is that you need fundamental back to the drawing board on recruiting strategy in the mid term and need to switch to outbound search in the short term.

While I understand how AI bots can flood applications, most job seekers in this market do not have the privilege to just focus on cultivating their network. I would suggest the folks with the power (i.e. hiring managers and employers) focus on more efficient knockout questions (i.e questions with drop down box answers that include ranges) that will allow them to narrow down the specific candidates they need to fill roles. Poorly written job descriptions have also contributed to an overload of submissions

“We ask candidates to share books that informed their approach to interviewing.” - genius! Totally stealing this one! However… I do wonder how many companies really are interested in human connection and how many just want to fill a role. And that’s always a 2 way street. Because just as I am tired of candidates who don’t put in effort I am just as tired of dealing with companies that don’t…

Wow, I wouldn't even know how to answer the question about books that informed an approach to interviewing, and I'm a recruiter. (Except "Who moved my cheese" from 20+ years ago.)

Lovely.

<3

Really??? The fact thet hiring managers and recruting teams using automation based on keyeord search in the past and AI (claimed) scoring tools now to hire the most important aspect (human / employee or contractor) with false justification of reducing the workload - made the rntire HIRING TALENT process a null and void (and unethical, IMHO). Keyword searches resulted in adding the nonsense to resumes and AI filtering now adds to craft the resume using AI and posting them agaibst specific jobs. The entire thing is completely messed up. When I wrote a robot software to pull resumed, requsitions, and match - back in 1999/2000 for a consulting company - I thought I was helping but then it did not take me much longer to realize this path would be a disaster and seeds (legal/illegal - unethical for sure) corruption in the most crucial and vital process - the heart and soul of any company’s growth - hiring talent. Now, it is hone beyond repair. Also, now the added dimension - fake job postings - legal/illegal but surely unethical.

It's a brave new world. Ironically, in a tech world obsessed with disintermediation, I think the value of trusted middlemen is about to increase. Someone else put it less politely, but I agree that open ended questions are just a small roadblock, especially to someone willing to bullshit.