A new Personal Interview Coach is available to students applying for graduate jobs this summer. Submit your specific job description and receive customized interview questions and answers, as well as feedback on your own answers, all for free.
The coaches provided by job search engine Adzuna are not humans, but artificial intelligence bots known as Preppers. From tech and financial services to manufacturing and retail, he can generate interview questions for over a million real-world jobs.
For graduate student employment in PwC’s actuarial practice, the chatbot spits out questions such as, “What skills do you think an actuarial consultant should have?” “How would you explain actuarial concepts to a customer with no financial experience?” When a user answered the question, Prepper generated a score out of 100, telling him which parts worked well and what Tell the user what was missing.
Prepper is part of a new wave of chatbots powered by generative AI, from ChatGPT to Bard and Claude. Chatbots are trained on large amounts of text retrieved from the Internet, such as books, newspapers, blogs, videos, and image captions. Create plausible, polished text that is almost indistinguishable from human writing.
“In the last 12-18 months, things have gotten really bad,” says Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter. “Of course it’s very hyped at the moment, but there are a lot of smart tools out there. [to aid] Drive recruitment and help people find jobs more easily. “
AI is not a new tool in hiring and job seeking. Over the past decade, it has been primarily used to make processes for employers more efficient and less expensive, from keyword searches on resumes to filtering video interviews for candidates.
But generative AI tools are rebalancing power over applicants. “A lot of the AI improvements we’re seeing these days are on the candidate side,” says Thomas Chamorro He Premusic, an organizational psychologist and recruitment technology expert. “A few years ago, recruiters used to pretend they were using AI to make it look cool, even when they weren’t actually using it. are doing.”
Chamorro Premzic recently asked candidates if they had experimented with generative AI when trying to hire for a role. “They said, ‘If it wasn’t for ChatGPT, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you right now.'” Their resumes, cover letters, and application forms were all written by AI. rice field.
Chamorro-Premjic valued integrity and hired tech-savvy people because he thought it was worth hiring. Some, less enthusiastically, warn that AI could spell the end of the traditional job search process.
“Generative AI can create very good profiles. There may be some mistakes, but only individuals, not employers, can recognize them,” said Matt Jones of recruitment technology firm Cielo. say. “This raises questions about the relevance of reviewing resumes, cover letters and applications, especially in the early stages of a career. Will this mark the end of resumes?”
For graduates in an increasingly competitive job market, chatbots offer a way to deal with a potentially overwhelming process. Cambridge University sophomore Ayushman Nath said many of his colleagues asked him to write cover letters to specific companies using ChatGPT, a public chatbot released by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. said there is He knows people who have used cover letters and applications written on ChatGPT to win early rounds or secure internships.
“From what I’ve experienced, they’re good at jumping over the first barrier. The first round of filtering feels unpersonalized, very remote and impersonal. Everything is very It’s automated,” Nass says of today’s hiring process.
Nass and his colleagues have also been subjected to automated video interviews conducted by recruitment technology providers such as HireVue, typically with time limits for each answer and recorded by applicants answering pre-determined questions. be done. Employer recruiters may also view the recording. Alternatively, the platform’s AI algorithm evaluates each candidate’s performance and looks for different keywords in the job description.
The company has yet to launch a generative AI product, but chief data scientist Lindsay Zuloaga said her team is testing tools like interview prep chatbots, as well as new ways to extract information from video interviews. Told. “These systems are powerful, but they can also be wrong. How can we do it ethically and carefully?” she says.
Grace Rhodan, an economist at the London School of Economics and director of the Inclusion Initiative, which studies diversity in the corporate environment, says that companies, particularly technology groups, are using generative AI to conduct initial interviews. Say you’re experimenting.
“One of the areas where bias exists the most is actually interviewing,” she says. “That’s when people’s affinity bias — the representativeness bias of choosing people who are similar to others in the organization — comes into play.”
AI-conducted interviews could somehow help remove that bias, she says. “Generative AI is very compelling as an avatar. Using AI as another key data point allows for backlash from machines [against human bias]”
Amid global skills shortages and labor shortages, and as we push for greater diversity, more employers are using new assessment methods to broaden the pool of candidates they hire. With automated systems designed to hire a more diverse workforce, candidates who may be missed due to health issues, tenure gaps, or lack of a degree or non-traditional background can be found.
But while ChatGPT is a useful starting point for cover letters and background on potential employers, recruiters argue that ChatGPT is no substitute for writing your own application. increase.
Cambridge University student Nath said: “Companies are looking for relationships with local people, such as contacting someone in the company or getting information not on the website. It can only be cultivated through meaningful interactions.”
Adzuna’s Hunter agrees. “I want to warn job seekers that AI can act as a good co-pilot, but don’t let the technology do all the work … This is very early technology, it’s a cookie-cutter The answer is: If you let AI handle all of your initial interactions with your employer, you won’t be able to get the job done.”
