Job Seekers Are Using AI to Fight AI

“I’m serious. I lined up three job interviews in two days.” What?!? I mean, no offense. That’s what “Sam” told me last week to finally get me to meet him at a Starbucks and show me the AI app he had been using to scrape LinkedIn and apply for tech jobs while he worked on various side projects on his second laptop. Sam is not an AI developer. He’s not even super technical. All he did was download an app he read about in a forum, an app that uses AI on behalf of the job seeker to battle the AI being used on behalf of the company’s applicant tracking system — to even the odds with … volume and regurgitation, I guess. This shouldn’t be shocking to me. Over the past couple of weeks alone, I’ve written thousands of words on the posting of fake jobs, the prospect of AI using AI, and the scourge of automated content screening — all of this congealing to make a mess of the average everyday job search. I don’t know. I knew this kind of software was out there. I just didn’t think it worked. Let me assure you. It “works” exactly as I’d feared. Throwing Gasoline on a Dumpster Fire I also need to reassure you, especially if you didn’t click on any of those links above (but if you did, you should join my email list), I’ve become somewhat of a Robin Hood for the tech job seeker. In spirit only. I’m not wearing tights and I’m not handing out money. I’m also not stealing from the rich. Much. In other words, I’ve got no ties to “big HR.” And I’ve also got over a decade of experience with generative AI. My first take on Sam’s story was the same as when anyone sees David chuck a stone at Goliath and connect. Nice shot. That was immediately replaced by fear, with my inner old man kicking in to remind me that I, too, may need a job someday, and while I can play this game, I’d rather stab myself in the brain than tweak my own job-hunting algos. And then dread swooped in and that’s where I’m mired right now, as I contemplate the further devolution of a tech industry that I once thought was kind of all right. OK, Fine, You Miscreants, Let’s Talk About the App When I say Sam isn’t super technical, I mean he’s somewhat technical. He’s not a developer, but he understands tech, just enough to get himself into trouble, both good and bad. Like he was hard into crypto. He’s got two laptops, and he’s not above burning one. He’s also not afraid to download Python and screw around with GitHub and have an OpenAI account. Which is exactly what you need to get started with AI Hawk, the AI job application bot creator in question. I’m not going to link to the AI Hawk GitHub, because LinkedIn might ban you for using it and I don’t want to encourage the behavior. But here’s a pretty good rundown of the AI Hawk shenanigans in real time, including a secondhand case of someone using it to apply for 2,843 positions. Short version: You download Python, download the GitHub code, tweak it, connect an OpenAI account, and you’re off. It’ll make your résumé and cover letter ATS-friendly, and then fill in all the LinkedIn prompts for your application. It’s buggy and it barfs the same way all GPTs barf, but it “works.” Why Applying to 2,843 Jobs Is Not the Answer Ultimately, AI is not going to magically fix the damage in hiring that AI itself has wrought. This is just my opinion as a tech and AI OG, and maybe it’s reckless speculation, but it’s just going to make things worse. The people I talk to who know these things tell me that they can spot this too, and all it does is create an avalanche of mismatched candidates: Which puts more stress on HR’s workload Which means it’s all the more they have to automate out of the system Which means tightening the settings on the automated candidate screening Which means even fewer talented people ultimately get a look from a human Yeah, that’s what I thought. And I’ll jump in and say that — AI or no — the easier it is to apply for a job, the harder it is to get. I don’t love that, but that’s how it works, and it’s why I always tell people to spend more time networking than applying. Oh, Sam Won’t Get Any of Those Jobs Again, no offense. He wasn’t qualified for any of them. He wasn’t lying, he used his real name and his real résumé, but he … let’s say, he got real aspirational, and applied for jobs that were way above his pay grade, so to speak. He turned all three interviews down. This is the biggest problem when fighting AI with AI. AI doesn’t know if you’re qualified for a position or not, but it won’t let that stand in its way of producing the best first impression of the best “you” that it can. And while neither Sam nor I know if it was AI on the other side that got him in the door, I can assume that the two machines shook hands and let him in. Sam put garbage in, maybe not even on purpose (and relax, I bought Sam lunch and he knows I love him). AI took that and turned it into exactly what the AI on the other side wanted. That. That is what depresses me, not just about AI Hawk and automated candidate screening, but AI in general. We’re so far “over our skis” with this that if it were driverless vehicles we’d just be letting them mow down crowds and shrugging our shoulders while OpenAI raises billions. As a lifelong technologist, I know that calling for a return to the good old days is as useless as it is unwise. Instead, I’ll just tell you that if you’re looking for a job, take your time, apply to the ones that seem like the best fit, make attempts at networking outside of the digital arena, or at least use the digital arena to make connections to the inside. It’s daunting and hard work and takes forever, and it may not even be the right answer. But I feel like it’s better than doing the same thing 2,843 times and expecting a different result. That said, if you need a job and you get a job using one of these bots, more power to you. EXPERT OPINION BY JOE PROCOPIO, FOUNDER, TEACHINGSTARTUP.COM @JPROCO