Daybreak - Your ChatGPT-written résumé maybe reducing your chances of getting a job

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Recently, there was a study conducted by Hirepro called No résumés Please” where the firm went through 4 million CVs. They found nearly 85% of candidates were lying or exaggerating on their CVs in 2023.Employers and hiring managers are having a tough time dealing with it. Another study found that around 40% of HR professionals actually think using AI during the hiring process is a dealbreaker. And turns out, it's not very hard for recruiters to tell the difference between a CV written by the applicant and an AI-generated one.Should you stop using AI tools to write your CV then?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Sometime in May this year, a college professor in Texas failed his entire class because he thought they'd used AI to do their assignment.

And here is where it gets ironical. The professor actually used Chad GPD to come to this conclusion. But chat GPD is not built to detect any AI-generated content. In fact, it can't even tell if the content is written by itself. And I don't know if you've heard about this, but generative AI-based chatbots tend to hallucinate, which means they can make up stuff. Basically, they can lie. And people have been using chat GPD for all kinds of things.

Not just writing college assignments. Millions of job seekers around the world have been using it to. write their CVs. Recently, there was a study conducted by HirePro called No Resumes Please, where the firm went through 4 million CVs. And guess what they found? Nearly 85% of candidates were lying or exaggerating on their CVs in 2023. Employers and hiring managers are obviously having a tough time dealing with this. Another study found that 40% of HR professionals, actually think using AI during the hiring process is a deal breaker. So, is AI actually helping job seekers increase their job prospects?

Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nickda Sharma, and I don't chase the new cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday, the 8th of December. A job posting on an average usually receives around 200 applications. Recruiters say that for some common roles, the number of applications is even higher. Which is why it is not very hard for those who are hiring to see this new pattern emerging,

especially among early career folks. My colleague, the Ken reporter, Alifia Khan, spoke to Majid Ali, a Pune-based HR professional with over 20 years. of experience. He said that the use of AI to write entire CVs has become common and even more so in candidates who have zero to five years of experience. But senior candidates still like to personalize their resumes based on their achievements or their learnings. So while companies have still not started actively using specialized tools to detect AI generated resumes, recruiters can still tell the difference. According to Ali, the vocabulary is actually,

actually a sure, short way to find out. Alifia spoke to Hire Pro's chief operating officer S. Pasopati, and he gave the example of a software developer role. He said, you can easily spot an EICB if you get to see a lot of flattering, flurry language in a resume that is for a technical job. For example, an engineer wouldn't say something like built a world-class application in a collaborative fashion across continents doing XYZ. they would instead probably use tech language.

So considering how the job market is huge and there are thousands of candidates with similar career backgrounds, candidates have to show their personal brands to stand out. And this is where AI resources like chat GPT kind of fall short. Stay tuned. The thing is, AI uses data that already exists to create responses. So a candidate who is applying for the same job as you will prove. probably be adding the same job title and description as you did. So, AI will give you both almost the same CV.

How will you ever be able to stand out? This also leads to other issues with AI generated CVs. They mostly are verbose resumes and they always overuse certain phrases. AI is not capable of customizing your CV for you. It does not know exactly how to fine-tune your profile to highlight your past experiences so that they match the role that you are applying for. So what should you do? Should you stop using an eye altogether?

The answer is, no, not really. You just need to learn how to use it smartly. An IT talent acquisition associate who spoke to the Ken recommended using the paid version to produce a more concise and compelling resume. Hiring managers like CVs which are short and have actionable pointers. which is why the associate said that focusing too much on a scale or behavioral strength in multiple sentences is a waste of time when compared to a candidate telling them what they did with it. So even though many recruiters think that the use of AI is a hindrance for applicants,

there are quite a few who believe that AI can actually help you increase your job prospects if you do it thoughtfully. Stay tuned for more on this. In most cases, the hiring journey is a tedious, multi-process step, but some of it can be made easier with the help of AI. Jerry Joes, who is a hiring manager, told a Ken, and I'm quoting, AI is a great starting point. It is extremely helpful to people who are starting out or want to do a career pivot to.

You can create a resume template that will have all the needed sections and candidates can use that to personalize it. The biggest advantage, though, comes when hiring managers themselves are bots, or ATS. ATS is applicant tracking system, which is a commonly used hiring software that rejects applications based on keywords. Manswi Gurg, who works as a headhunter for executive search firm native consulting, explained it to us. She said ATS works on keywords, which candidates may not be able to put in. But AI tools pepper resumes with these keywords that help these candidates get past the ATS. And of course, it also helps you do a basic hygiene check, you know, formats, spellings, grammar, etc.

In fact, chat GPD can even give you valuable insights into why your job application may not have worked out. You just need to prompt a chatbot to behave like a hiring manager and a recruiter, reviewing a resume for a particular role. Manzi told us how it works. She said, and I'm quoting, input the JD or the job description and instruct chat GPT to tell you what discussions could take place

between the recruiters when the candidate isn't selected and it will highlight the flaws in your resume. So basically, the idea is to use AI to your advantage. Don't let the convenience of it stop you from proactively writing your own CV, personalizing it. AI, as smart as it may be, still doesn't know you as well as you do. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform.

What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only apps and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Thank you, Sharma, your host, and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.