Roei Samuel, founder of networking platform ConnectD, has played 14 roles in six months. However, he is beginning to wonder if the candidate's answers are even real on video calls. “You can see their eyes shift on the screen,” he says. “Then they'll come back with the perfect answer to the question.” The trust gap between employers and job seekers is growing, becoming one of the trickiest knots in modern recruitment.
From CVS that refined ChatGpt to full-scale applications submitted by bots, Genai has been heavily attacked by the job market and has become completely mainstream. For a considerable generation of job seekers – 68% of European technology workers I was actively looking for a new role at the end of 2024. It's also natural to use AI to fine-tune your CV and complete the entire application.
Tools like Sonara, LazyApply, and JobCopilot made it easy to shoot dozens of applications in a day. In June, TestGorilla data discovered it Over a third (37%) UK job seekers I'm using AI to complete the application. Among early candidates, jump Up to 60%, According to Bright Network, which connects alumni and young professionals with recruiters, this is up from 38% the previous year.
The startup is at the forefront of this AI ARMS race. Small teams, short runways and speed cultures expose them, especially to this strange new world of suspicious shiny applicants and AI support code challenges. Most don't fight it: 85% of employers Currently, we are actively accepting AI-assisted applications. But their acceptance is not comparable to indifference. Within the use of blatant AI, how do Europe's most agile companies consider who is the real thing?
New normal
I've now become a PAR for the course using troubleshooting and customization using AI. For most job seekers, genai behaves like a digital sidekick. Tighten grammar smooth, phrasing, and tuned applications faster than ever. According to a January survey by Canva, which focused on 5,000 employees across the country, including the UK, France, Spain and Germany. 45% used genai You have achieved positive results to build or improve your resume. However, recruitment managers are not sold entirely. In the UK, 63% believe Candidates should disclose if AI plays a role in the application material, meaning trust is on an unstable ground.
Other studies suggest that attitudes are context-dependent. A global survey by Experis (part of the Workforce Giant Manpower Group) shows that 28% of technical leaders AI is fine when used to personalize your resume or cover letter. Even with 26% answering interview questions, with the help of problem-solving tests. Only 15% of respondents say that AI usage is unacceptable throughout the recruitment process.
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For Duco Van Lanschot, co-founder of Fintech Startup Duna, it's all about it. “If an engineer uses ChatGpt to hone his written application, it's not a job. But for growth or sales to use it, it's clearly a big red flag,” he says. “The job itself involves public communications and sending emails to stakeholders, and in a sea of common AI-generated copies, we want them to be as human as possible.”
Technology employers and startups are adapting, although at different speeds, in many ways. Some have set basic rules for use, some inflated human-only processes, while others have blocked out the entire “traditional” employment approach. “AI is not breaking jobs,” says Marija Marcenko, head of global talent acquisition at SaaS Platform Semrush. “However, the way we interacted with candidates has changed.”
Goodbye to CVS
In Khyati Sundaram's words, hiring ethical AI employment professionals and CEOs Appliedwe are in the middle of the “ai-on-ai war.” And with fallout, traditional application materials have lost their upset. In the technology sector, cover letters have long ago become obsolete, with CVs next to the chopping block. “The huge advantage is that it exposes your resume about what they are – a broken craft,” says Sundaram, who works with the likes of UNICEF, Blover, Equality and Human Rights Commission. “Putting your resume in a keyword scanner or genai tool doesn't solve employment issues because candidates fall apart when it comes to interviews,” she explains.
Instead of cover letters and cut and paste CVs, employers are turning to structured surveys and skill-based tasks. This is a tool that not only allows you to write a prompt, but also measures how someone thinks. “Skill-based employment is no longer just high-tech employment,” Sundaram adds. “We see it plays a more white-collar role across the board,” according to TestGorilla. 77% of UK employers Currently, we use skill tests to evaluate candidates. At the same rate, they say these tests outperform CVS in predicting job success. This should have a positive effect in the long term. LinkedIn“The Economic Graph Institute has found that a skill-based approach can help expand the talent pool globally by 6.1 times, and expand gender and minority representation.
With Semrush, the shakeup is already in full swing. Hiring managers are trained to sniff out flow ency without depth and discover signs of AI in real-time coding challenges and task-based interviews. “We replaced the usual 'Tell me about yourself' prompt In-depth interviews exploring experiences, soft skills and thought patterns;” Marsenko says. “It's difficult to fake them with or without AI. ”
Applied's proprietary system uses a combination of automation and human insights. “We don't believe in AI detectors. They are rarely accurate, so we train reviewers to pattern match like AI and compare them to known GPT outputs,” explains Sundaram. “If five responses sound suspiciously and the same, humans can flag them.”
Elsewhere, startups are becoming more creative and human. Alessandro Bonati, Chief Human Resources Officer at Travel ScaleUp Weroad, dumped the cover letter to his advantage More creative and human-centric forms, including curated portfolios and “show, don'ttoll” type briefs. The company has over 210 staff in offices in Italy, Spain, Germany and France, making its candidates proactively encouraging the use of AI. “But it also involves traditional face-to-face interviews to assess candidates' thoughts, communications and cultural fits in real time,” says Bonati. His team is also leaning towards real-time scenario-based exercises that reflect not only how candidates can prepare, but also how candidates work together.
Refunds of reference and face-to-face interviews
Another ripple effect: The reference returns to the menu. Santiago Nestars, co-founder of accounting startup Dualentry, is spending more time dealing with candidates and Zoom. “It's difficult to fake experience,” says Nestales. “Usually you can know that someone has not only read about something, but that they have lived it,” he also goes deeper into references. Not just the usual ones, but they always shine, so it's a back-channel conversation with the people I worked with in person. “Someone can handle the pressure, work with the team and find a way to come out every day,” says Nestares.
By building a team from ConnectD, a platform that enables Angel investors and founders to manage startups effectively, Samuel has found that candidates are surviving their lack of trust by building more social evidence around them. “Instead of receiving candidates' words to hire a manager, we're diving into references more than ever,” he says.
The scary take-out tasks have also appeared up until now. Unpaid and time-consuming candidates have been dimming them for a long time. And now, you can use genai to fake it (until they make it), your employers are also making them sour. Live interviews, technical walkthroughs, scenario-based challenges, and even role-play simulations are becoming new standards, especially in the role of product, design and marketing. “AI detectors are being used,” says Andreas Bundi, founder of a Berlin-based HR consultant. bundles. “But most companies ask, why are they plaguing take homes when they can do live evaluations?”
Working with clients such as Pitch, Cradle and Teri, Bundi says that hybrid companies with mandatory office days are dumping takehom to accommodate the interview process on-site work. Job seekers are moving further as more candidates are on the market.
Similarly, funded companies are becoming increasingly comfortable bringing people to the local area for tasks. “When travel was not possible, I arranged a face-to-face meeting with an interviewer who happened to be nearby,” Bundi says. “I had recently planned an interview about a meeting where both the candidate and the interviewer were attending.” This “networking is filled with an employment approach” works surprisingly well.
Bundi believes that it is AI-first companies that are more relaxed about candidates using tools like ChatGpt, but that is rarely explicit. Recently, one of his leading data scientists blew the interview by manually fighting over contested and messy data instead of automating. “They thought they needed to demonstrate their raw coding skills,” Bundi says. “But the company wanted a strategy, not a human data custody. That's what ChatGpt wants.” Once AI becomes the norm, candidates and companies need to be more clear where they fit in the process. Until then, these frictions will continue.
Hire for skills and value, not job descriptions
Despite the ubiquity of AI-powered applications, most companies have yet to formalize their approach. “It's confusing for candidates because some companies don't want to use AI in their applications. Certainly. 40% of employers using Brightnetwork The service said 28% are planning for the next recruitment season but have yet to set guidelines for AI use in the process. Of those who set guidelines, 44% do not allow candidates to use AI.
“Vanguard's employers want everyone to use it and demonstrate AI literacy,” Sundaram says. Some of the Applied clients added the question “How do you use AI in this job?” However, she warns that many of the rapid fixes that employers reach (AI detectors, video screening with facial tracking, and voice sentiment tools) raises major ethical concerns. “If a company is tracking facial expressions for emotional nuances, it becomes creepy,” she says. “Where are you going to draw the line?”
Instead, she argues that the revision is to redefine what the candidate is being tested. Applied moves from traditional job architectures to task architectures, evaluating not only skills but also value resilience, adaptability, mission alignment, and more. “These are human traits that become even more important as work evolves,” she says. “Especially at startups where everyone is a generalist.”
Without a doubt, generative AI is essentially restructuring the employment process. The most advanced startups are not resistant to change. They're building a better process around it. CVS is broken, cover letters are outdated, and applications are becoming more and more synthesized, but the actual differentiators are still very human. “We need someone who can adapt and not just apply,” Sundaram says. “Because the jobs they are employed today may not exist in six months.” The startups that understand this and build their employment accordingly are not only preventing their team in the future, but are rewriting the rules of work in the AI era.
