Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

Note: You’re being fooled by well-written AI-generated resumes, cover letters, and interview answers. Yes, within two and one-half months, many candidates have learned that they can dramatically improve their chances of getting interviewed and hired by using information generated with AI-driven ChatGPT.

If you’re not familiar with it, ChatGPT is a “narrative copy-generating” Chatbot that is driven by an extremely powerful machine learning/AI process. It can instantly generate complete and complex narratives, reports, job descriptions, and resumes. In fact, it can provide almost immediate, compelling answers on almost any topic. This tool is so effective that it has successfully passed medical, MBA, and law school exams.

And in the area of recruiting. It can be used to increase a candidate’s chances of getting hired. For example, if you are applying for a Head of Talent position, you could simply ask ChatGPT to generate a list of the most powerful interview questions that you are likely to get for that job. And it would generate what I would characterize as an amazingly comprehensive list of likely interview questions. Of course, with these questions in advance, a candidate would gain a significant leg up on all of the “uninformed candidates.”

The Many Ways That ChatGPT Will Disrupt Recruiting

Below, you will find a quick snapshot view of the many ways that AI-driven chatbots will disrupt and harm recruiting. In this list, the recruiting areas that are likely to cause the most recruiting damage are listed first.

With the support of AI-driven chatbots…

• Face-to-face Interviews will be less genuine and authentic – face-to-face interviews will be much less genuine and accurate when a chatbot has provided the candidate with the likely questions (and often the answers) in advance. This powerful information gives them a competitive advantage because they have time to “practice” and pretest their answers. Mitigate this issue – run your own ChatGPT search for the likely interview questions for this job. Then ask each candidate at least one new interview question outside of those provided by ChatGPT.
• Remote interviews will become much less accurate – ChatGPT provides answers in a matter of seconds. So if a candidate has a mobile phone out of sight of the camera. A candidate can secretly obtain complete answers from the ChatGPT in time to answer the interview question. And if the phone is not visible from the screen, the recruiter will never know when the candidate is getting prompted by a chatbot. Others will gain an advantage by having the provided questions and answers taped up so that they can view them outside of the camera’s range. Mitigate the issue – ban the use of mobile phones during remote interviews. And where possible, utilize virtual meeting software that uses broad-view cameras so that you can ensure that a mobile phone is not being used for support.
• Resumes will be much closer to perfect – with the help of AI chatbots, in many resumes, you won’t find a single grammar/spelling/typo error. And every keyword in your job description will also be included. And as a result, the overall average ATS rating of all received resumes will go up. Because all Chatbot written resumes will be rated higher by your ATS. Mitigate this issue – be on the lookout for perfect resumes without a single grammar, typo, or spelling mistake. Also, cross-check the suspicious resume with the candidate’s LinkedIn profile. To see if the resume is more embellished.
• Almost all cover letters will now be perfect – no one likes to write cover letters any more than recruiters bother reading them. And because ChatGPT instantly creates effective ones. Eventually, almost every cover letter will be written completely by an AI chatbot. Mitigate this issue – by no longer requiring or ever again reading a cover letter.
• Technical tests will be less accurate – because most technical tests are taken remotely or in an isolated room. With ChatGPT on their phone, most candidates will be able to cheat. Resulting in overall higher (but less accurate) test scores. Mitigate this issue – ban the possession of mobile phones during testing.
• Writing sample test results will be less accurate – when a great deal of writing is required in a job. Many organizations require a writing sample. Unfortunately, with the widespread use of ChatGPT in the possession of a smartphone. Many of the past or currently generated writing samples won’t accurately reflect the candidate’s actual writing ability. Mitigate this issue – run AI content detection software on all writing samples.
• The information from references will be less precise – because the people that are providing reference information dislike responding to reference questions. Don’t be surprised when references begin using Chatbot-generated content in their provided responses. Mitigate this issue – try to call important references directly and avoid written narratives.
• Elevator speeches will be less accurate – because programs like ChatGPT can easily generate powerful elevator speeches. Don’t assume that a candidate’s effective pitch was actually written by the candidate. Mitigate this issue – be on the lookout for those presented pitches that are amazingly similar to others you have recently received.
• Candidates will have higher levels of confidence – because so much of their submitted material related to recruiting will have been written effectively by a chatbot. With this high level of preparation, many candidates will come across during meetings and interviews with high levels of confidence. That high confidence level may unfortunately last only as long as the hiring process. Mitigate this issue – ask job-specific interview questions in technical areas that will reveal the candidate’s broader confidence level.
• Diversity hiring may be negatively impacted – because most disadvantaged and many diverse candidates will have had restricted access to and less experience with technology. Expect diverse candidates to perform not as well during recruiting assessment processes. Simply because they haven’t taken advantage of chatbots. Mitigate this issue – minimize the use of candidate screening tools that can be influenced by the use of technology. And rely on face-to-face assessments.
• Many college hires will have weaker writing skills – because ChatGPT is already widely used on college campuses. So even though their writing samples may be excellent. In reality, expect many of the recent graduates that you hire not to actually excel at writing and research. Mitigate this issue – give your candidates your own in-person writing test that is videotaped. And ban the possession of mobile phones during it.

Broad Actions To Limit The Damage From AI-Generated Content

Because the use of chatbots will continue to expand. Here are some broad current action steps to consider.

• Start by being aware, cynical, and investigative – the biggest chatbot-related mistake is being unaware or unconcerned. Instead, you must assume that a specific percentage of materials and information that a candidate provides are AI-generated. So when in doubt, you should investigate. You should however avoid assuming that all of the content generated by every candidate is AI-generated. Because that unfairly punishes all honest candidates.
• Use AI content detection software – there are a growing number of software programs that are designed specifically to detect AI-generated content. Some of those programs that others have recommended include Jasper, Writesonic GPT3, and Copy.ai.
• Enforce a ban on the use of mobile phones – start by realizing that the candidate scores of almost all remote candidate assessment approaches, including interviewing, phone screens, and technical tests, can be improved with the help of support information from a smartphone. And when these assessments occur in person, be aware that confiscating their mobile phone doesn’t mean that they won’t have ChatGPT access. Because some candidates will bring a second hidden backup phone that they can use.
• Look for content that seems “too perfect” – some argue that the complete absence of errors (language, grammar, typos, or spelling) is an indicator sign of the perfection level that can only be provided by AI chatbots. So, in addition to perfection, also look for cover letters that are exactly the same as other received cover letters. And assume that when the candidate’s use of keywords “too closely matches” every keyword that is contained in the job description. You should be suspicious because only machine learning software can generate such a high level of keyword matching.

The Undisclosed Use Of ChatGPT By Candidates – Should It Be Punished… Or Rewarded?

Obviously, the initial reaction on the part of most recruiters and hiring managers is almost always. That the undisclosed use of an AI chatbot to generate a candidate’s hiring-related information is clearly deceptive, dishonest, and unethical. However, in my experience, you should also give due consideration to the alternative perspective. Which would consider a candidate’s knowledge and use of chatbots as a sign of innovativeness and creativity. As well as the fact that they are clearly able to use the latest technology tools for many inevitably mundane tasks. And if you adopt this alternative perspective. The effective use of AI chatbots may be a positive reason that supports the hiring of effective AI users.

If you only do one thing – go to the ChatGPT website and ask it for the most likely interview questions for one of your open jobs. And if you find that the provided interview questions closely coincide with the same questions that you frequently use. Start realizing that your AI-savvy candidates have a unique but deceptive advantage. So you must identify when AI is used.

Final Thoughts

In my research, I have found that most in the recruiting field that research and write about AI-driven chatbots focus exclusively on how recruiting can use these programs to improve recruiting-hiring results. In my view, presenting only that one-sided perspective is a mistake. Because candidates now have multiple alternatives other than writing their own materials. And that means that if you trust their content completely, you, unfortunately, will end up hiring many candidates that use deception and mistruths as often as George Santos. And because of that negligence, you, unfortunately, will end up with a larger number of hiring failures and poor-performing new hires. So my best advice to those involved in hiring. This is to continually track and learn about the ways that AI-driven chatbots can impact recruiting (both positively and negatively).

Note: You can gain free access to the ChatGPT tool here.

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