Chess, Cars, Career Strategies and Time for Kids

Employers and job seekers are locked in a cat-and-mouse battle, each side leveraging AI to outmanoeuvre the other. Recruitment is beginning to look like cybersecurity where hackers and software builders constantly try to outwit each other.

As someone who has spent several years recruiting talent at all levels, automating some tasks is easy to understand. I would want to spend my time building long term relationships with high potential talent and top thinkers, promoting the employer brand, and doing high value tasks. Companies like 赛默飞世尔科技 are already using AI to enhance their recruitment processes, with impressive results.

Read more: Examples of companies using AI for Recruitment

Using AI in recruitment is changing the decision-making process itself with software. In the high-stakes game of recruitment, AI has become the ultimate weapon. Let's break down the moves and countermoves in this endless game.

Employer's Opening Gambit: AI-Generated Job Descriptions

Companies like Mastercard, Electrolux, and LinkedIn are using AI to craft perfect job descriptions, automate job postings, and screen resumes. But this move has a dark side: fake jobs and layoffs during periods of hypergrowth.

Applicant's Counter Move: AI-Powered Resumes & Mass Applications

Job seekers are fighting back with AI-crafted resumes and cover letters, optimized to trick algorithms into seeing them as ideal candidates. They're using bots to apply to hundreds of jobs in a single day, exploiting the weaknesses in the hiring process.

Employer's Next Move: Chatbots and Automated Interviews

Companies respond with chatbots and automated interviews, filtering out weaker candidates with programmed questions. Efficiency rules, but humanity takes a back seat.

Applicant's Counterattack: Automated Mass Applications

Job seekers throw everything they can at employers, hoping to slip past the screening algorithms. It's a standoff, with no progress or checkmate in sight.

The Hiring War Resembles Cybersecurity

This battle is starting to resemble cybersecurity, with employers trying to patch vulnerabilities and job seekers finding creative ways to exploit them. It's an endless loop, a stalemate.

Breaking the Stalemate: 3 Creative Solutions

To end this hiring deadlock, companies need to:

1. Be Transparent: Post realistic job descriptions, be upfront about layoffs or business challenges. Job seekers respect transparency.
2. Use Targeted AI: AI should help build relationships, not break them. Employers can use AI to nurture talent through personalized feedback or help candidates improve for future opportunities.
3. Add a Human Touch: Balance AI with human-led final interviews and human-generated feedback. A good conversation beats an automated rejection any day.

It is time to rethink the game

There is no doubt that the candidate experience is very poor. While AI is terrific at making the hiring process more efficient, 89% of even the Fortune 500 companies score poorly on this. While 95% of the career sites are mobile friendly, 87% have well-crafted job descriptions, most don't offer an intuitive job search and apply process.

If employers can use AI to discover great talent and reach out to them then they owe it to the candidates to give them specific feedback that will help them find their next role.

Read: The State of the Candidate Experience from Phenom

By combining AI with transparency, targeted automation, and a human touch, we can break the stalemate and create a more effective, more humane recruitment process.

The game is on. Who will make the next move?

Read: The Talent Acquisitions Trends Report 2024 by 光辉国际

Obesity kills

America's love affair with bigger cars is killing them.

The popularity of heavier cars in US is a killer. Using data for 7.5 million crashes in 14 American states in 2013 to 2023, researchers found that for every 10,000 crashes the heaviest vehicle skilled 37 people in the other car compared with 5.74 cars of a median, weight and just 2.6 for the lightweight cars. In 2023, 31% of new cars in America weighed over 5000 pounds (roughly 2.27 tonnes compared with 22% in 2018. The number of pedestrians killed by cars has doubled since 2010. A car in Europe is 25% lighter and a Japanese car is 40% lighter than an American car.

Read more at The Economist ($$$)

In a chaotic world, which career strategy do I recommend

You could aim to be the youngest big boss in the room. Speed is what gets them to the top. You race from role to role and arrive at the top job breathless. Looking at the older folks in the room can be evidence that you did something right.

In this article there are two other approaches suggested. Let me know which one gets your vote?

Read the article <click this>

The Great Detachment

Wall Street Journal recently stated that work is not as central to the life of employees in US. I wondered what my readers would have to say. "The Great Detachment" is reshaping workforce dynamics, as younger employees are voicing boundaries, and seeking purpose and balance.

You too can cast your vote here. Voting is open till Sunday 15th Sep 2024. If the voting option is closed, you can leave a comment below and tell why you would vote the way you did/ would. https://tinyurl.com/yc4xpwcv

The Indian Express reached out for my view. Here is what I said: https://bit.ly/4gedH9X

Time is experienced differently by kids

Researchers showed groups of children and adults two videos, both one minute long and asked them which video felt the longest and which felt the shortest.

Watching?frightening films can make time appear to lengthen , for example, as?can looking at images that disgust us . Other research has shown that unpleasant experiences, such as a journey on a crowded train during rush hour, also?feel like they take longer than a quieter journey .

BBC wrote a lovely post about it: Read that now

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Until next time

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