According to a recent Harvard Business report, AI systems used to screen job applicants are preventing approximately 27 million people from finding work. What’s even more discouraging is that 75% of employers utilize these systems.
The conversation around AI recruitment tools tends to be controversial, especially since they can be discriminatory—just a few years ago, Amazon decided to do away with their own AI recruitment engine after discovering that it showed preference to male applicants over women.
And that’s just the beginning of the problematic nature of these automatic systems. Instead of finding people who are genuinely fit for the position, job seeking becomes more like a lottery. Instead of being a genuine, viable candidate, job seekers are made to come up with ways to “trick” the system, right down to plugging in job description buzzwords in their resumes, or even putting the job description itself in 1-point font within their resume’s footnotes.
Finding work pre-pandemic was hard enough. COVID-19 has only exacerbated the problem, which means it’s not getting any better. If only 15% of hires are even made from job boards, and less than half of open positions are even posted to boards, it’s becoming even more clear that these boards aren’t exactly the job solution they’re made out to be. So if you have such a minute chance of landing an interview after applying to job boards, what can you do to navigate a broken and problematic system of recruitment?
Understanding the Process and the Context
First of all, job seekers should understand the whole picture. People generally assume recruiters are going through and reading each and every resume and application. And, actually, these kinds of recruiters do exist. They are doing hard work, and it would be great if every recruiter in corporate America operated that way.
The problem is that these kinds of recruiters are few and far between. They’re doing great work, but it's just not realistic when the talent pool is so vast. More often than not, talent teams are implementing applicant tracking systems (ATS) that collect and sort through thousands of applications without much human involvement. They not only rank applications according to automated estimations of who qualifies, but they often provide a match rate for employers.
To complicate things further, automated systems of all kinds are bound to be flawed. Your resume and application information can become distorted in the system. What you think is most valuable to put on a resume can easily be lost in translation through technology.
Another reason why the traditional hiring process is so broken is that job candidates are now getting so desperate that they will start applying to anything and everything, even if they’re not qualified. So, regardless of AI recruitment technology, they’re flooding the system and making it even harder for hiring managers and recruiters to find their ideal candidates, and making it harder for applicants to find their ideal jobs.
Currently, job seekers are coming up with ineffective solutions to AI problems: they tend to tweak their entire persona and brand according to each and every job description in hopes that they might make it through the machine. There are entire articles about how to tailor your resume to get filtered through AI recruitment tools and “beat” the broken system.
Instead of navigating through the process, job seekers should start thinking about how to navigate around the process.
Solutions to Broken Hiring Processes
Oftentimes, job applicants are operating on complete faith toward the job descriptions. However, the people who build the job descriptions are usually different than the decision makers feeling the pain of having an opening on their team. As a job seeker, what you don’t want is to tailor your entire resume and application according to the description, get filtered through an automated system, only to find out that this isn’t the kind of job you want in the first place. By the time you actually talk to a hiring manager, you might find the job you thought you were interviewing for is actually something entirely different.
The answer isn’t easy to hear. Most people balk at networking; it’s such an overused term in the industry of career development. And most people think of networking as rubbing elbows at cocktail and fundraising events, being a charismatic, extroverted individual who can charm their way into any conversation.
But what if you slowed down and thought about strategic networking in ways that are accessible to the average person? When it comes to job seeking strategies, and navigating around AI applicant tracking systems, it’s helpful to consider networking with the thought leaders and decision makers who are directly involved in this process. In fact, it’s actually inadvisable to try and start networking at large conference and convention events—most of the time, you’re more likely to get lost in the crowd. And the thought leaders of your industry are more likely to connect with other people over more intimate situations like in restaurants and bars.
Talk to the People Behind Hiring
Instead of crossing your fingers in hope and going through the machine, what effort have you made to connect with the humans behind the tools? It can be uncomfortable, but networks like LinkedIn have been proven to effectively connect professionals and build meaningful relationships.
When you talk to someone who can help or hire you throughout the hiring process, you can ask them the important questions instead of the other way around. What are their challenges? What are their goals? This opens up an avenue of dialogue in which you can then describe how you’ve overcome similar challenges, met similar goals in the past, show them your results and tell them how you can make an impact on their team. You can’t do that with a robot or a machine or by playing the job board lottery.
When you’re networking and connecting with leaders in your industry, what you’re doing is creating a robust network of thought leaders at your ideal companies and building job security for the rest of your career.
Find the Kind of Networking that’s Right for You
There is no quick 5-second fix to a broken system, and there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution. Everyone is different, and that’s the one great thing behind hiring—you are unique, and not every job is right for you. That’s the very issue with these AI systems in the first place.
Networking takes time, effort, and patience. Nothing happens overnight. But more importantly, you should think about networking in ways that are most comfortable to you. Think about your particular and unique communication skills. Are you more confident with verbal or written communication? Do you have an active social media presence or are you better with email communication? Now that the pandemic changed the nature of social gathering, perhaps you’ll find yourself comfortable attending virtual events, of which there are plenty. Take stock of what’s changed and find the opportunities that are flexible to meet your particular needs.
"traditional" - Google News
November 22, 2021 at 06:53PM
https://ift.tt/3qWm56D
The Traditional Hiring System Is Broken. How Job Seekers Can Navigate Around It - Forbes
"traditional" - Google News
https://ift.tt/36u1SIt
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The Traditional Hiring System Is Broken. How Job Seekers Can Navigate Around It - Forbes"
Post a Comment