For many of us, graduation is right around the corner and with it, the first step into pursuing our careers in the world.
With freshly framed degrees, and a few years of relevant experience, thousands of us begin our descent into resume submissions and LinkedIn account stalking, eager to begin the rest of our lives. Yet, as graduates await their fates, a relatively new player has already entered the ring and threatens to be the downfall for thousands of candidates.
Although having been a thrown around topic of conversation for a couple decades now, AI or Artificial Intelligence has only in the past few years been a presence strong enough in the real world to make an impact, specifically in the job market.
According to the BBC, in a 2023 survey by IMB, “more than 8,500 global IT professionals showed 42% of companies were using AI screening to improve recruiting and human resources. Another 40% of respondents were considering integrating the technology.”
From key word assessments to automated emails, before a resume even hits the desk of a recruiter, chances are its going to be analyzed through an AI filtering system before it ever sees a human eye.
Such actions are meant to ease the heavy workload a recruiter faces when dealing with a large amount of applicants. According to Forbes, on average, recruiters spend about 7.4 seconds scanning a résumé, if not less. AI is seen as a cost effective solution to the level of time constraints recruiters deal with on a daily basis.
However, this trend in job selection is not just growing popular, but dangerous. AI is meant to analyze and compartmentalize resumes that fit the job the company is looking to hire for, saving the actual recruiter time wasted on ill suited candidates. The job searching website LinkedIn, explains that these AI systems work by “often prioritizing specific keywords and formatting conventions, potentially disadvantaging candidates who do not tailor their resumes accordingly.”
This means resumes made with certain fonts, colors or designs can end up jumbled by these programs when trying to scan and analyze them, depending on the resume and the AI system being used.
This is part of the reason people often don’t hear back from jobs they applied for. Often a recruiter just never sees it.
Removing more human interaction can also become detrimental for job seekers in bizarre circumstances like those with large employment gaps, less experience than applications request or vague lists of skills, all of which could potentially be given further explanation in a face to face interview if given the chance.
A candidate who fits every qualification of a job can be pretty rare, especially when jobs that include training for entry level positions are concerned. AI doesn’t do “case by case” basis thinking. That’s a human process.
However, one of the biggest defenses held by companies is that AI is void of human biases. The logic is sound that something as methodical as a computer program would avoid filtering out job candidates for discriminatory reason like race, gender, age or orientations, since those are found in human error. Yet even that defense is not without fallacy as AI recruitment tools have been found to make preferences for those very reasons.
An early example is back in 2015 when Amazon attempted using AI to pick the five best applicants out of 100 for a job at their company-only for the AI to take Amazon’s data and use it to favor male applicants over female or non-binary applicants.
Seven years later in 2022, a lawsuit was issued by the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against iTutorGroup Inc. after an applicant who was rejected resubmitted their application with a younger birth year and received a invitation for an interview afterwards. This led to the revelation that the AI was preferring younger applicants across the map regardless of ability.
With hundreds upon thousands of job seekers’ potential futures at risk, can companies afford to be blaze about the situation?
According to Fortune magazine, as of this year only a handful of states have any sort of enforcement meant to hold companies accountable for discretions AI programs can cause in the job market, including New York, Maryland and Colorado. However, with how new the technology is, many governments are hesitant to place limitations on the budding enterprise just yet.
That said, what can we do to ensure our careers and livelihoods? Apart from waiting out for further legal protections, companies have offered their own solution: If you can’t beat it, join it.
A survey ran by Canva and Sago delved into what hiring managers thoughts were on applicants using AI themselves to help improve their resumes and cover letters. The results, as Forbes explained was a staggering 90% of hiring managers accept generative AI as part of application materials.
At the MIT Sloan School a recent study conducted by students included the difference between candidates with and without AI assisting with their resumes and the rate at which they were offered jobs. This test included 480,948 subjects in which those who received AI assistance received 7.8% more job offers.
LinkedIn has embraced AI as a tool for job seekers, with direct messaging, suggested jobs based on an account holder’s search history and they have advocated for AI to be used to make a resume’s formatting more compatible with AI filters used by employers.
AI recognizes trends and patterns in what does and doesn’t work and by design are meant to adapt with time. With more emphasis for AI to find what works for employers, it only makes sense it can find what will work most for job seekers too.
Regardless of personal opinions involving AI, the technology is here to stay and will only grow into a more prominent aspect of the modern world. As with anything, there should be boundaries and protections in place regarding Artificial Intelligence, but if we want to avoid being abused by it, we must learn to work with it.