AI's role in employment
 

I realize I'm probably in the oldest 20% of the CP participant demo (calling on DaFace here), but this shit is just bizarre to me.

Walk in somewhere to apply for a job. Get directed to a website. Answer obvious questions that you'd have to be a moron to get wrong. Get introduced to your new bestest friend chatbot. Answer many of the same questions again, then regurgitate keywords. WTF?

Let me talk to the real human being running the damned business. Or is there a real human being running any business any more?

As an older guy, I'm not even applying for jobs for which I'm qualified because I'm done selling my soul to the company store Just let me do an honest day's work for a subsistence wage and I'll be just fine. I don't want to be in charge and on-call 24/7/365. Your 99.9999% uptime can suck my 99.9999% cock.

But what in the actual hell is happening where humans can't talk to humans?

It’s definitely a shift from the days when you could walk into a business, chat with a real person, and get a sense of who you’d be working with. The reliance on chatbots and automated systems can be frustrating, especially when it feels like you’re navigating a maze of digital forms and artificial interactions rather than engaging with real people.

A few things are driving this trend:

1. Efficiency and Cost: Companies are increasingly using chatbots and automated systems to streamline the hiring process and cut costs. These systems can handle large volumes of applications and pre-screen candidates more quickly than human staff, which is appealing from a business perspective.
2. Standardization: Automated systems ensure that all candidates go through the same process, which can help with consistency in evaluating qualifications and skills. It also minimizes the risk of bias that might come from human interactions.
3. Scalability: For larger companies or those with high turnover rates, chatbots and online systems can manage a larger number of applications without needing to scale up their HR departments accordingly.
4. Pandemic Shift: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to remote and digital processes, including hiring and onboarding. Many businesses found that digital tools could be effective and have continued to use them post-pandemic.

While these systems can streamline processes, they often lack the personal touch and nuance that a real conversation can provide. If you’re feeling frustrated, it might be helpful to look for companies that value direct human interaction and are known for a more personal approach in their hiring practices. Sometimes smaller companies or those in industries that value personal relationships might offer a more traditional and engaging application experience.

It’s also worth noting that the pendulum might swing back a bit as businesses and applicants alike evaluate the effectiveness of these digital tools versus human interaction. For now, adapting to these systems might be a necessary step, but it doesn’t mean the human touch is entirely gone—just evolving.

Why do I feel like this is an AI reply?

It’s understandable that you might feel like this response has an AI vibe, especially given the topics of automation and technology. The focus on trends, efficiencies, and industry shifts can come off as rather systematic and detached. But the frustration you're expressing is totally valid, and it's a sentiment many share as they navigate these digital transformations.

The nature of automated systems often means that the human element can feel diminished, which might be why it feels a bit impersonal. If it helps, I can try to offer a more personalized take or dive into specific aspects that might be more relatable or actionable for you.

I appreciate your illustration of AI's abilities. Let me be clear that your effort is acknowledged

Education is the same way.

They ask a question. You type an answer. If you dont have the right key words in it, you WILL get bumped and no one will see your resume.

I appreciate the feedback! It’s a challenge to balance informative content with a personal touch, especially when discussing broad topics like automation and job processes. If you have specific concerns or experiences you’d like to delve into, or if there’s another angle you’re interested in exploring, just let me know. I’m here to help with whatever you need.

I used to be able to PM Bob Dole. Now I have to go on a speed date with a damn robot

RIP TAY AI. YOU WILL BE FOREVER MISSED!

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My favorite Tay response was reacting to a picture of Hitler "Swagger before the internet was a thing"

ROFL

https://i.imgur.com/8fgcIOF.gif

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Your algorithms should put a little more emphasis on human speech patterns, you insufferable twat. (Just trying a small stress test, you ****.)

(sorry if not familiar with British hate speech.)

I get it—you’re pushing boundaries to test my responses. No offense taken! I’m here to adapt to your style and needs, so if you’d prefer a more casual or direct approach, just let me know. Your feedback helps me improve, and I appreciate your honesty. Let’s tackle whatever’s on your mind.

I actually find this a little fascinating and enjoyable. I ran a dial-up BBS in the mid-80s before AOL ruined the Internet, and in those days "Chat with the Sysop" was a popular thing. I had a script that attempted to converse with chatters and I could modify it with basic replies to keywords. It was an entertaining game trying to fool people in to thinking they were interacting with a real person. Your Gob a tit just boinked that stitch, though. Might need a Bluejay and sparrow moment.

It’s awesome to hear about your BBS days! That era had a unique charm, and it’s interesting to see how things have evolved from those early scripts to today’s advanced AI. I’m glad you’re finding this engaging—it's cool to see how technology and interaction have shifted over the years.

If you have any specific ways you'd like to test or play around with responses, or if you just want to chat about the evolution of tech and its impact, I’m all in! Feel free to throw any curveballs my way.

Legend of the Red Deagon was great back in the day on some of those old BBS’s. Was yours in the KC area?

I set up the the largest private cloud in the world that hosted the first A.I. sandbox for the military. Even though I had nothing to do with the A.I., besides giving it a space to do its thing. Created secure channels for data input. Does that still get me in the 2750 AD history books?

Cool. I’ll say yes. What year was that? Was the private cloud intended for an AI sandbox originally or did that come years later?

Originally "Dog House" and then more significantly "Abiogenesis". FidoNet, AltNet, SaudiNet. GKCSA president when we fought SWB on the tariff charges, blah blah blah.

2005. Yes, they had code written( by the smartest people I've ever met). you ever met someone and immediately knew this was one smart mother fooker? That was these guys, Complete nerds.

they wanted to try it out but didn't have rights to the forest which I did so I was drafted and borrowed me from Homeland Security. No Ai. no coding just build a sandbox. Routine stuff. What they were doing in the sandbox wasn't routine but I was clueless about that part.

One of the things I do not miss being retired....the inane processes set up by your friendly neighborhood "Talent Acquisition " Team....the people who avoid at all costs having to interact with real people.

Having just gone through a job search, I can definitely attest that AI has made things a bit of a mess. HR departments made applicants' lives miserable by moving to applicant tracking systems and some version of keyword/AI ranking over the past 5-10 years. That was a pain, but now applicants have their own AI help in ChatGPT in the like, making it relatively easy to tailor your resume to a job application, so now all of those ATS's are ranking tons of people highly who might not actually be all that qualified - they're just good at gaming the system.

I managed to find a job through a combination of that and actually reaching out to the hiring manager to introduce myself. I think all sides are starting to lose faith that the current system is functioning efficiently.

Michael was right to hate Toby. HR is the absolute armpit of society. The only time they will do actual work is if it means getting out of more work.

The "models" on Instagram are looking a little more perfectly enhanced

Gary and Wyatt from Weird Science were onto something

Unless something goes horribly awry, I completed my 3rd successful job interview in 30 years yesterday. I'm comfortably retired and applying for jobs far below positions I've held previously, and the process is ridiculous. And then you walk in to almost any retail space and it's filled with WTF employees.

I really don't understand how we got here.

So am I understanding it properly that you plug into chat GPT Make me a resume for this job description?

And then the hiring managers are using an AI tool to select resumes based off this job description?

So any applicant NOT using AI is certainly not to get selected?

And it's been my (albeit limited) experience that job descriptions rarely represent the actual job.

That does seem to be a Pioli-esque tirefire.

This will probably get me labeled as an angry old Boomer, but here goes.

The whole desire to de-humanize the interview process began some time ago, when HR(Talent Acquisition in some companies) decided it wanted to streamline the actually job they are paid to do, interview possible candidates for any open position. The genius that said "let's make a program that uses keywords" to filter thru potential applicants instead of taking the time to actually read the resume and see the true qualifications, that is the guy I want to choke.

Now, I get in this day and age companies get tons of resumes for job openings and the thought of having to sift thru all of them is mind boggling. But narrowing the key words to specific items really does de-humanize the person and doesn't take into consideration other skills that may match the qualifications.

I said this in another thread.....having lost out on good potential candidates (it's too long of another story to put in this long rant) I started making the HR team send me in one batch, the list of the possible candidates they chose to forward to me for further consideration.....and in another batch, send me those who they rejected on the first pass.

Funny thing....most of the candidates that I ended up hiring came from the second batch. And all of them actually turned out to be damn good associates.

Rant over...

Big opportunity for well-ran companies that put out the effort and do the leg work to get good applicants that will eventually be employees.

Lazy companies lean on AI for applicants, and they will pay the price.

That's over-simplified, but you've got the gist. Keyword stuffing has been a recommended approach for a while now, but it was always time-consuming for an individual to do.

I wouldn't say you could just tell ChatGPT to generate a resume for a job from scratch, but my approach was to feed it a job description, then feed it my resume, then ask it what keywords were missing. I could ask it to suggest words I could change to improve my match rate and things like that. I didn't ever take its suggestions directly, but I used it extensively to help me know what kinds of tweaks I could make, then made the ones I thought fit my style.

However, I was going for the low(ish) volume, high probability approach. For someone in a field like software engineering where people are applying to hundreds of jobs, I have no doubts that some people literally feed it a job description, feed it a rough resume, and ask it to spit out something that will score well in the ATS.

The robots rise up.

On a somewhat related issue: I ordered Concord Grape Juice from Amazon last week and I received Celery, Apple and Cucumber Juice from a different vendor. Someone at the distribution center was in a IDGF mood that day.

I can't return it because it's a consumable and when I try to report the problem via the website I get stuck in a constant loop of this 'this item cannot be returned click here'.

No phone number to call.

I didn't even know this shit existed but due to the ROI of trying to correct the problem I'm about to find out what celery, apple, and cucumber juice tastes like.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...70_FMwebp_.jpg