The Future of Recruitment: AI for Job seekers
In my last article about the future of recruitment, I described how chatbots are taking over the recruitment process. Companies already employ smart software that interact with job applicants through online chat and voice on different platforms. This software screens, communicates with applicants and presents them to the recruiters for decision making. So if you plan to apply for a job in near future, it is likely your first interaction will be with chatbot software.
So, what about the job hunters? Now that there is AI that represents recruiters, where is the AI that can represent us? Here is the good news. You can also use the Artificial intelligence to get rid of the drudgery of sending out CVs and motivation letters and represent yourself in pre-screening. Let’s look into chatbots for job hunters!
Representation bot
I think most of us have gone through the rigmarole of creating a CV or a resume. Since it not advisable to have a CV of more than two pages, a lot is left to be said about the applicant as an individual, their diverse skills, quirky interests and or how they behave in a team.
Now you can build your own resume bot to find the next job and for much more. Esther Crawford was one of the first to do so. She learnt that building a simple conversation bot is easy, what is difficult is to add flair, intrigue and personality to your bot. As we all know, compelling conversational flows are crucial.
Based on her experience, she has started her own company, Olabot, which helps you create your own bot on Facebook Messenger. I am working on one for myself. Right now, I am answering questions to teach and train the bot about me.
The advantage of chatbots is that they can be more descriptive and provide a better multilayered insight into your personality than the typical resume. They can be easily programmed to cover the recurring questions asked by the recruiters. And when the other party is interested enough to chat with the ’real’ you, they can be redirected for an actual conversation. I think in the future chatbots for professionals will be used as an avatar not only for job applications but for providing attractive introductions.
Job hunting bot
Well if you don’t want to build a bot for yourself, you can ask Job Pal to hunt for you or Boost to give you strategic advice on negotiating a raise or navigating workplace politics.
Job Pal asks you for a job profile and preference for a city; it then looks for vacancies in its database which are suited to your input. I tried a few searches. There are glitches in terms of options and job matches, but it does get your some options which you can apply from directly from the messenger. It definitely needs more work and polishing, but it has a potential to change how we look and apply for jobs.
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Boost claims to play a role of a personal advisor which is powered by both real people and technology — it understands your situation, taps into its database and gives you advice how to act.
The challenge for current chat bot developers is to create bots that are actually engaging to talk to and don’t feel like navigating a menu or querying a database. As of now, scripted answers for cookie cutter recruitment questions do the trick, but we will surely need more intelligent and interactive bots in the future.
Boosting your job-hunting game with technology
Experiment
Just building a bot to send out resumes may not land you an interview call the next day. However, experimenting and playing with technology will help you figure out the right approach or a combination of approaches to make the technology work for you.
If you decide to develop a job hunting bot, consider the questions which are asked when you go through myriad personality assessment tests while applying for a job. You are helping the recruiter here. For example:
When making a decision, you rely more on your feelings than on analysis of the situation?
- Yes
- No
- Uncertain
Before you do Technology, do Personal Branding
Technology is not the place where it all starts. Before you start building your own bots and asking software to do the job hunting for you, you need to discover and build your personal brand. It is about figuring who you are, what you want to associate with and how you deliver value. The chances are big that if you don’t do it, you will not be able to stand out from the crowd and land the right job, no matter how great of the bot you use to help you. Remember, technology can only represent you.
Interested to know more on this subject? Drop me a line.
Here is a a list of tech products to boost your job search.
