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Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It’s now used in everything from online shopping to medical diagnoses. One of the most commonly associated tasks of AI and automated processes using large amounts of data involves job applications.
The plight of modern job seekers is that humans don’t screen their materials and they are forced to copy and paste elements of their resumes and CVs into an employer’s applicant tracking system, or ATS. This complaint goes back to the late 1990s when employers began using ATSs to manage the influx of applications submitted online.
The use of AI within ATSs is not new. AI is defined as systems or machines capable of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence (thanks, ChatGPT). But now, with faster processing of data and more sophisticated technologies, there is an even greater convergence of AI and ATSs. There are also fewer gripes from applicants with better resume parsing.
So what is happening behind the scenes after job applicants click submit? And what can job seekers do in an AI-powered environment to improve their candidacy and be as efficient as employers?
Here’s a glance at how AI is changing the job and talent search with input from representatives of PageUp, one of the leading ATS and talent management platforms in higher education.
Efficient Screenings
More than 200 campuses at 119 institutions use PageUp as an ATS provider, making higher education the company’s largest market.
“ATSs have evolved beyond their original purpose of simply tracking and managing job applications,” said Susan Osterlitz, PageUp marketing manager for North America. “Modern ATS platforms now integrate AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics that enable advanced candidate matching and automation of repetitive tasks.”
They provide institutions a tool to be more efficient to free up time and energy for the core function of search committees: evaluating talent.
“I hear about AI in every other conversation I have with customers these days,” said Sarah Forbes, PageUp’s senior vice president of sales for North America. “Our philosophy with AI within our platform is we want to take away some of those tedious activities. We’ve built tools into our platform around screening resumes. AI enables (employers) within our platform to view a CV in the same format so (they) can screen a lot more quickly.”
Search committees struggle with screening. They must scan and retrieve information on resumes and CVs that have varying placements, designs, and formats. This slows their evaluations and distracts them from pertinent details that they intend to find.
Having standardized and anonymized profiles to evaluate is not only more efficient for the employers, but it’s also fairer to the applicants by helping filter the most relevant information on their behalf and it helps correct for evaluators’ biases.
Humanizing the Process
Estimates about how many resumes or CVs catch the gaze of human eyes are difficult to determine. It depends on the number of applicants, the type of role, or an employer’s preference for using the tools and their capacity.
According to Forbes, when employers have higher volumes of applicants, they will use tools within the ATS that automate screening, such as questions on the application form. Applicants might be grouped, categorized, or ranked using AI.
“It’s not that they are never being seen, but there are ways in the (ATSs)that can help the recruiter focus on where they should be looking first, versus (applications that are) not being touched at all,” Forbes said.
Machine learning is also used. This is a subfield of AI in which computers have the ability to learn without explicitly being programmed. So instead of, say, an employer running a search of all keywords within a batch of job applications, the ATS can identify patterns for them that can assist with candidate selection.
“It’s not about running 15 candidates through a screening process and popping out who you should be making an offer to at the end,” Forbes said. “We see it as enabling people to focus on humanizing the process and having the right interactions with people and focusing on the right conversations.”
AI Beyond the Application
A tricky part of the talent evaluation process is when it comes to actual conversations. Recruiters can keep relying on AI. There are AI-driven technologies used by companies like HireVue that judge candidates based on their language use, tone, speech patterns, and other factors.
PageUp will soon be adding features that provide employers AI-powered assistance for recorded interviews, including summaries and questions to ask in real time based on candidates’ responses. This allows interviewers to remain present and engaged and also minimize bias in interviews, which are fraught with human subjectivity and rash decisions with coin-flip reliability.
But when used to make judgments and hiring decisions, scholars in the field of AI, such as Princeton University’s Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, question whether predictive AI can accurately predict job performance.
Osterlitz and others at PageUp say it’s up to employers to decide how much AI is too much.
“The key to successful hiring is finding the balance between machine and human, the artificial and the authentic,” Osterlitz said. “This requires HR tech and the institutions that use it to take a close look at their existing processes to identify where and how AI can be leveraged to support the HR function and allow recruiters to evolve in their roles and do their jobs better. AI allows them to humanize the right moments by giving them time or extra help when they need it.”
Do’s and Don’ts for Job Seekers
Employers are using AI and ATSs to improve how they manage their search for talent, but how can job seekers use AI to get hired?
- Use generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to provide recommendations for rewording or refining your resume/CV and cover letter. You can simply paste a link to the job posting into ChatGPT and type “Write a cover letter for this job.” Don’t overdo it. Employers have ways to detect AI-generated copy, and you risk submitting materials that are too similar to other applicants or worse, misrepresent your background.
- For the same reasons, don’t try to automate applications using AI. Yes, there are bots that can automatically submit your applications to hundreds of jobs on sites like LinkedIn. But you’re better off pursuing quality instead of quantity and relying on AI-powered job alerts provided by sites like HigherEdJobs to source opportunities.
- Try saving time by using AI for other job search tasks such as brainstorming and inspiration for writing teaching philosophy statements, skills assessments, or generating interview question answers. Just don’t use generative AI during an actual interview. Many employers are avoiding phone interviews for this reason. And, depending on your state’s wiretapping laws, it could be illegal without consent.
- Don’t try to stuff keywords into your resume or paste parts of the job description as white text. These tactics have become obsolete. ATSs are advanced and employers are savvy enough to detect these attempts to game the system. Even the file types (Word doc or PDF) and formatting you are using (one column or two) don’t matter because the resume parsing technology that ATSs are using can extract what’s needed.
- Finally, AI can help your job search in new ways well beyond the application process. You can more easily perform a job market analysis within your discipline or engage with a chatbot to explore careers and find gap analysis with your skills or discover opportunities to advance that you would not otherwise realize.
In Conclusion
Employers are using AI in new and innovative ways to optimize the search for talent. As a job seeker, you are subject to the tools they are using at the top of their funnel. But remember, you are funneling opportunities and have access to AI technology to find your match.
A lot of artificial and dehumanizing processes occur at the top of both funnels, but the goal is to get to the bottom of it and find real, human interaction. It just takes AI to get there faster.
