Navigating the Job Market with AI
Christopher has become adept at navigating the myriad challenges presented by today’s job market. Like many government contractors, his work has diminished significantly during the DOGE era. Over the past six months, he has submitted applications for approximately 700 positions, and in most instances, he has received no feedback whatsoever.
Engaging with AI Recruiters
Among these applications, five were processed through “Riley,” an AI recruiter employed by the IT firm Everforth Apex Systems. When Riley first reached out to him, Christopher felt a surge of excitement. It was June, and by that time, he had grasped the severity of the employment landscape. A message from Riley seemed like a unique opportunity to showcase his skills, even if the conversation was with a virtual entity.
During his initial call with Riley, Christopher responded to queries regarding his work authorisation and professional background. Riley assured him that if he met the necessary criteria, a human recruiter would follow up. However, no human recruiter reached out. Instead, it was over a week later that Riley contacted him again regarding “another opportunity.”
Determined to improve his performance from the first interview, Christopher arranged another call with the AI agent, followed by additional interviews for different positions. Each interaction ended without any follow-up discussions or even automated rejection emails. By the time Riley sent her fifth message, Christopher had reached his limit. He reasoned that if the company was relying on AI, he could do the same.
Experimenting with a Chatbot
He crafted a few sentences detailing his experience using ChatGPT Voice and instructed it to impersonate “Christopher.” When Riley called again, Christopher recalls, “I simply placed them side by side, and they got along famously.”
The conversation lasted ten minutes. Riley informed ChatGPT that it was “a pleasure speaking with you,” to which ChatGPT responded that it appreciated “how clear and straightforward the process had been.” In a particularly amusing exchange, the bots attempted to establish a potential start date, getting caught in a circular dialogue about “standard onboarding and background checks.” Once more, Riley promised that a hiring manager would reach out if the application met the company’s requirements, just as she had done previously. Yet again, no hiring manager made contact. Christopher described it as a “vicious cycle.”
“It’s a synthetic character providing meaningless data to another synthetic character,” he explains. “And all that data goes… where? Nowhere.” The experience was a blend of “mischievous fun” and frustration, ultimately leading Christopher to reject any desire to work with that company.
The Rise of AI in Recruitment
Despite AI’s infiltration at every stage of the job application process for both candidates and recruiters, its implementation in interviews has been slow. AI voices are notoriously challenging to deploy, often thrown off by accents or hesitations like “Ehm…”. Behaviour that is natural for a human, such as not interrupting a candidate, becomes “a very, very difficult engineering problem,” according to Ophir Samson, head of AI voice at the recruitment platform Greenhouse. However, faced with an overwhelming influx of applications, recruiters increasingly turn to such tools for candidate pre-selection; in fact, 63% of job seekers report having undergone an interview with AI, according to Greenhouse.
Job Seekers Embrace AI
As recruiters have adopted AI, candidates have followed suit, with the use of AI in interviews becoming commonplace. Startups focused on AI recruitment, like Ribbon, claim to help identify responses that are “overly rehearsed, AI-assisted, or scripted,” similar to Christopher’s experiment.
There are whispers that bot-to-bot interviews may not be mere gimmicks, but a precursor to what lies ahead. In many respects, it represents the “next logical stage,” explains Mark Monaghan, vice-president of organisational development at the call centre company IQor. Yet, he acknowledges that this shift might not sit well with everyone. In Christopher’s case, Monaghan believes the utilisation of AI was justified.
“If you’re going to send me a bot,” he says, “I’ll send you a bot too.”
A New Identity for Job Applications
After his fifth interview without subsequent response, Christopher decided to apply for another position at Everforth Apex. Perhaps, he mused, the issue wasn’t the AI; perhaps it was him. If only Riley could engage with an ideal candidate for the company, things might turn out differently. Thus, he created a fictional candidate named Don Dickner, equipping him with a resume filled with qualifications drawn from a posted job description.
As soon as Christopher submitted the application, Riley reached out to him immediately. This time, the virtual recruiter spoke with ChatGPT (posing as Dickner) for 23 minutes. They discussed “sustainable operational improvement,” maintaining “customer experience under volume pressure,” and preventing “tribal knowledge loss.” ChatGPT had a response for every question and a personal anecdote for each qualification. At the end of the interview, ChatGPT indicated that it had “a few more questions” it would like answered.
“Thank you,” replied Riley. “After carefully reviewing your application, we will assess your qualifications for the position. If you meet our criteria, a recruiter from Everforth Apex will contact you for a brief conversation.”
Christopher never heard from Riley again.