Logging onto LinkedIn, your feed is probably going stuffed with “Open to Work” profiles and posts concerning the wrestle of discovering a job in right this moment’s market. Your LinkedIn inbox might be so much quieter with fewer recruiters reaching out with job alternatives than on the peak of the Great Resignation simply two years in the past.
Whether or not you’re a new graduate navigating a profession pivot or simply searching for greener pastures, the frequent sentiment of job seekers is that it’s turning into exceedingly tough to land an interview, not to mention a suggestion. With applications up 6% from October 2023, competitors stays stiff. To make issues harder, how hiring groups assessment functions has additionally modified.
Software monitoring methods (ATS) are actually the established order for firms to handle job openings and vet potential candidates. Whereas not a brand new growth, they’re persevering with to shake up the job utility course of and rework how expertise is evaluated, engaged, and employed.
Fueled by AI, these methods are actually aiding hiring groups in ways in which would have been unimaginable only a decade in the past, by way of matching candidates to open roles, offering suggestions and explainable rankings, parsing résumés, and extra. With these methods, recruiters are empowered to be extra streamlined and environment friendly in managing functions, scheduling interviews, and connecting with potential candidates.
So, if the way in which recruiters strategy their candidate search advanced, why haven’t job seekers’ methods? As recruiters rethink their processes with AI, candidates ought to, too. Job seekers should determine learn how to navigate a reworking panorama the place AI shapes how we strategy and take into consideration the hiring system.
Let’s dive into three key modifications to the recruitment course of and the way candidates can reply and stand other than their friends.
Abilities over expertise
Over the previous a number of years, skills-matching expertise has been probably the most notable development in recruitment to come back out of the AI revolution. Recruiters have turned a rising focus in the direction of skills-based hiring, guaranteeing a candidate is the most effective match for a job primarily based on the capabilities they’ve available.
Gone are the times when an costly diploma or a selected internship in your résumé sealed the deal. If AI can’t “see” the abilities they’re searching for in your résumé, it’s doubtless shifting on to the following applicant. With skills-matching AI of their toolbox, recruiters spend much less time scanning by way of résumés and extra time participating with potential candidates.
What this implies for you: It’s time for a résumé revamp. The experience-forward résumés of the previous is not going to make it easier to stand out to a big language mannequin scanning for a selected talent. Don’t get me mistaken: job expertise remains to be priceless. However as an alternative of simply itemizing previous job duties, deal with the how: what abilities you used, and the way they made an impression. This shift democratizes the enjoying subject, making manner for these from nontraditional backgrounds. When you can exhibit the abilities, you’re within the recreation.
The automation of candidate communication and engagement
Ready to listen to again from a possible employer might be worrying for job seekers. The truth is, virtually 1 / 4 (23%) of candidates discover probably the most irritating side of the applying course of is feeling like their utility goes right into a digital black gap, per research from iCIMS.
However that wait is not only about listening to if their utility has been accepted or in the event that they landed the job. Quite a lot of the ready is the results of scheduling interviews, asking clarifying questions on firm tradition, and so forth.
Chatbots have gotten the go-to possibility to assist streamline candidate communication so job seekers can get solutions quick, schedule interviews extra rapidly, and leverage their recruiter contact strategically to grasp what the hiring supervisor is searching for within the position.
What this implies for you: Don’t simply dismiss the ping of a chatbot on a profession web page—use it to supercharge each your utility and interview course of. Chatbots are a secure house to ask the questions you need answered about firm tradition or an open place that you just may be too nervous to ask a recruiter about. For instance, you may ask chatbots about advantages, firm choices, the job description, and extra. Use this data to discern if the position is the fitting match for you earlier than making use of and assist put together in your interviews when you progress within the utility course of.
AI leveraged at each a part of the recruitment course of
According to 500 TA pros, AI instruments save them 2.39 hours every week on common, and 64% of these TA execs wish to see extra AI of their workflows. So, the place is AI coming into play right this moment? Thirty p.c use GenAI particularly to jot down job descriptions and one other 36% to draft interview questions.
What this implies for you: Use AI in your job search. There’s a double customary with AI utilization in right this moment’s labor market. iCIMS research has discovered that 87% of recruiters say its adoption within the utility course of has raised pink flags. As expertise turns into extra ubiquitous in tradition and the office, AI shall be seen as a device—identical to a search engine—to assist gas one’s job search.
For now, use AI as extra of a yellow flag. It would by no means be okay to blindly copy and paste AI-generated résumés or cowl letters. Your distinctive perception and human contact will all the time be mandatory and what recruiters actually wish to see.
As an alternative, use GenAI to prep in your interviews by feeding it the job description and asking what questions a hiring supervisor would ask, so you may come to an interview totally ready. It’s also possible to use it to assessment your résumé and assist streamline and determine the abilities you wish to spotlight most for the job you’re making use of for. Simply bear in mind, in the case of utilizing AI in your job search, nobody is aware of you or your work expertise higher than you do.
Adapting to an AI-enhanced job market
Because the recruitment course of continues to be infused with extra expertise, job seekers should transfer away from the mentality of “gaming the system” or “beating the AI” and as an alternative see the brand new established order of hiring and evolve their methods to satisfy recruiters the place they’re at.
With each occasion of automation within the recruitment course of, the objective has been to make life simpler for candidates and their potential employers. Nonetheless, this can’t be true with out some diversifications and tweaks. Making an attempt to go concerning the utility course of in the identical methods we all the time have doesn’t make sense in a world the place the whole recruitment journey has been AI-enhanced. The suitable alternative is on the market, and these small changes could make an enormous distinction in serving to you land your subsequent position.