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Richard Noel, director of security operations and infrastructure for workplace software firm Eptura, has seen a surge of job applications in the past year, with many cover letters and résumés seemingly written by artificial intelligence.
Mr. Noel, a Quebecker living in Minnesota, says he used to get about 100 to 120 applications for each job posting. That number has tripled, meaning more work for him and his human-resources colleagues when it comes to discerning who is actually a good candidate and who has used AI to appear like one.
“The question we keep asking ourselves is, what’s the end goal for a candidate who isn’t qualified, if they manage by some miracle to make it through the hiring process?” said Mr. Noel, whose company has several offices around the world, including in Winnipeg.
“There’s only so much ‘fake it until you make it’ with AI,” he added.
How AI is both hurting and helping the next generation of workers
The challenges faced by Mr. Noel’s team are becoming more common in many industries. With AI tools making it easier for applicants to tailor their résumés, and high unemployment pushing more people into the job hunt, employers are being flooded with applications, especially for entry-level positions.
As a result, recruiters and hiring managers are giving additional scrutiny to anyone whose application clearly leans heavily on AI.
“If they used AI to get the interview, then it’s possible they’re using AI to get through the hiring process,” Mr. Noel says, adding that his team has seen candidates try to do online interviews with their cameras off, which suggests they may be getting help from AI with their answers.
To cut through the glut, Mr. Noel has started offering an interview to anyone referred by someone he knows – provided they fit the job profile.
“This way, at least you know you’re getting genuine candidates,” he said.
AI becoming unavoidable for recruiters and job seekers
Katrina McFadden, chief people officer at cannabis company Organigram, says her team has changed the types of questions they ask in interviews.
“In the past you might have asked questions that build on the CV. Now you have to ask questions that dig into the CV,” she said, adding that they have started asking job seekers to attend interviews in person more often.
Ms. McFadden says her company’s entry-level postings sometimes get more than 300 applications a day, but she can spot an AI résumé right away. They tend to be more generic and not especially good at highlighting someone’s unique experience and specific abilities, she explained.
“We want to know how the person has used these skills, the outcomes they had and the progress they made,” said Ms. McFadden, who is based in Toronto. “Rather than say, ‘I participated in something,’ say, ‘I did this specific project, I was looking at improved sales in this type of product, and I generated additional sales of this much money.”
AI adoption is upending the job market for entry-level workers
A Robert Half survey conducted in April found 79 per cent of about 1,500 hiring managers say they can identify when a candidate has used AI to generate their application materials.
But many applicants feel an AI-generated résumé is the only way to get past the AI screening tools widely used by recruiters. Research from U.S.-based Career Group Companies suggests AI is being used by 65 per cent of candidates.
Cristina Schultz, a recruitment manager with Calgary’s About Staffing, says a résumé that is too closely matched to the job posting is another tipoff that it has been generated with AI.
“AI tools that are created to support in keyword matching sometimes take it a bit of a step further, where the content of the résumé is almost verbatim the job posting,” she said.
Her organization, a recruitment firm, uses tools that can detect whether a résumé is “AI-supported or fully AI generated” – but she says she can usually tell without them. That isn’t a deal-breaker for her, but it does signal that she should “pick up the phone and have a conversation with them before bringing them in for an interview.”
Not using AI – and allowing your own voice to come through in your application – is a great way to stand out, Ms. Schultz says, as is visually differentiating a CV, since ChatGPT résumés tend to follow a standard format. She also encourages job seekers to network, as “it is trending back to that ‘who you know?’ kind of market.”
The AI application glut has led many companies to seek help from recruitment firms such as hers, Ms. Schultz said.
“Businesses call us all the time after they’ve put up a posting on their own, got hundreds of applications in 24 hours, and said, ‘None of these people have what we’re looking for.’ We have seen an uptick in applicants but, regrettably speaking, it’s not the quality that’s upticking.”
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