Everyone I know hates filling in applications, myself included. They’re painful, repetitive and seem like the perfect thing for AI to help with. Surely we should all be using cutting edge technology for digital roles? But as the old saying goes, just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.
What’s wrong with using AI?
ICS Digital staff have all recently attended mandatory refresher training on recruitment. The question of AI and applications appeared a lot as it’s clear that it is being used more and more. At the moment, it’s fairly clear when someone is using AI in their application, the answer is generally less specific and as a result, often lower scoring. When you have over 200 applications (as some of our roles get), it’s also easy to spot patterns in the answers, where more than one person has used the same AI interface and received a similarly worded suggestion.
Well, what’s the problem with that you may ask? As painful as they can be, the application is your chance to let your personality shine. When you give your STAR shaped examples, we can learn a lot about you and the way you approach challenges and opportunities. Even with a word limit, your tone of voice can tell us a lot about the type of person you are.
When we’d recommend that you use AI
AI can still have its useful place in the process. Once you’ve answered the question with the examples that are specific to you, there’s nothing wrong with using AI to help structure your answer. It’s very good at summarising and structuring content in an engaging way. For example, I recently asked our AI to summarise my own CV in an engaging way of no more than 2 pages (it was 7 to start with). It managed to do that in the blink of an eye, without losing any of the key highlights of my career.
If you’re struggling to get started with an answer, it can prompt you with ideas of what you should include in your answer. But you should always personalise the answer with specific examples relevant to you. You should also be really careful to proof read the answer and not just copy and paste. If we’re looking for people with an attention to detail for example, that’s something we’ll notice.
What are we doing to adapt
The process isn’t just about the applicant. We also need to adapt how we’re looking for people in this new age. We want to make sure that the right doors are opening for the right people, so that they grow and develop while meeting the business needs we have. In a constantly changing environment, we have to adapt, so that we keep making sure we can attract the right people for the roles we advertise. Whether that’s moving towards strength-based questions or changing the types of questions we ask. We will keep finding the best way to find out about you, your skills and experience. We also regularly seek feedback in the process, so if you’re asked, please do help us improve.
What do you think about using AI in the job application area?
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