Can AI Pick the Right Talent?

I faced a surprising question recently when I went to submit my resume for a job: Did I want my resume reviewed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or not?

I paused. Was this a trick question? If I say no, is my resume ignored? If I say yes, does it get quickly scanned by bots and dismissed because I don’t have enough keywords matching the job description or qualifications?

I wasn’t sure. But I said no. I figured I had a better chance of a human reviewing it if I declined the AI scan. 

I didn’t get a call for an interview, even though I believe I was qualified for the job. Was the number of resumes too large for a human to review, so mine was never considered? Did the HR manager think because I declined the AI review, I wasn’t qualified? Or did they truly believe I was not qualified?

I’ll never know. 

Are you Keyword-Optimized?

In our new AI world, Resume Optimization for job seekers has become as critical as Search Engine Optimization for companies and brands. AI is weeding out the un-optimized.

Resume optimization has become so desirable there are companies that offer their own AI service to help job-seekers optimize their resume. AI compares your resume to the job listing and identifies which keywords you need to emphasize or add. If you match 80 percent of the keywords, your resume is a go.

Missing the Intangibles of a Great Employee

The problem with this, in my view, is employers miss important intangibles, experience or character that can make a great employee.

I was talking recently to a friend who is a retired lawyer, and he said he would almost always interview candidates with a military background or who participated in the sport of crew. A veteran and former crew coach himself, he knew the kind of character and grit and qualities veterans and rowers possessed. He wanted them as employees.

But with AI, this kind of intangible can be missed or excluded from consideration when bots only scan for keywords in resumes. Consequently, a lot of people who “look good on paper”, according to AI, leapfrog those who don’t. 

It’s not that good candidates haven’t been overlooked in the past. Or that managers or employees with stellar credentials sometimes turn out to be lousy bosses and colleagues. But I fear it’s happening more as employers and their bots keyword search instead of people search.

Note: The image with this blog post is AI-generated. The writing is not.