Is AI in recruitment a ‘race to the bottom’?:
It’s my first job interview in more than eight years. Even though it’s a video interview, I’m still keen to impress.
When I log on, my interviewer, whose name I didn’t catch, looks relaxed and friendly.
He asks carefully articulated questions, listens intently, and even asks follow ups regarding particular examples I mention.
But then, strange things start happening.
He takes a while to process what I’m saying, and his facial expression remains unchanged. Then, halfway through asking me to explain a particular work scenario, he disappears without another word. He’s an AI – and he’s crashed.
Just yesterday, I used Indeed Apply for what looked to be a startup job which was right in my wheelhouse. However, immediately after submitting, I got a text and an email from an AI-based job board–it liked my resume and wanted to schedule an AI-screener call and have me complete an AI-assessed technical screening. I’ve avoided the particular job board, which posts a hella lotta job listings on other job boards, because I realize it was a third party trying to gather resumes and submit them to jobs to try to glean finder’s fees, and the more resumes it gathered, the better for it. I then looked closer at the company I applied to on Indeed, and it looked like a third-party platform gathering resumes to submit to the AI-based for its fee. Neither showed me the job description I had applied for. Ah, what a fool I was!
I’m working hard to dodge those job postings, which are a majority of the job boards these days–at least the big ones. These companies use technology to exceed the worst of recruiters out there who gather resumes like lottery tickets, who send out cold emails for jobs wildly incompatible with one’s background just in case, and who generally don’t follow-up after getting the resume.
I’ve done one-sided video introductions, and I’ve done on-camera, screen-sharing recorded live-coding assessments–not to mention the take-home assignments–and I’ve started to just ditch some applications that require them.
Pardon me for a moment while I ignore another text message from AI recruitment firm. Ah, now where was I?
Oh, I guess I was just going on again about the state of job-hunting and the layers of grift getting built atop it. But, as the Philosopher said, “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” Or, in the words of the Philosopher (a different one):
(Link to the story from…. Somewhere. I couldn’t find the source link this morning when I decided to post.)
