If Artificial Intelligence in recruitment had existed during 80's, 90s and early part of 20th Century!
AI is widely prevalent in recruitment of candidates especially in lateral hires in more ways than one. A lighter assessment of my career graph if it was prevalent during my most active working life!
AI is fast becoming all pervasive and HR and recruitment are no exception. Given that any job advertisement on any forum today receives anywhere between 100 to 1000 applications, ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is the most basic and most widely used tool for shortlisting resumes for interviews. The Resume is scanned by the tool and gives a score match for the job between 0 to 100%. Companies define the cut-off % and any Resume below the threshold is rejected with no human intervention. This necessitates that the Resume is tailored with all key words, formatted in such a way that the likelihood of shortlisting for the next steps is significantly enhanced. This usage of ATS is now hygiene across Industries.
AI usage in recruitment has gone way beyond ATS from shortlisting to scheduling, conducting and recording interviews. It also recommends the suitability of the candidate all without any human intervention. The only human intervention if any, is to feed the job requirements initially and link the Applications received with the AI tool. At the end of the exercise, AI gives the company a comprehensive report of 10 to 20 pages for every candidate covering:
Resume analysis
Interview questions asked by the bot to the candidate and transcript of the candidate response to the individual questions (clear without any translation issues)
Analysis of the quality of responses of the candidate - Was the candidate’s answer correct and/or complete
Follow-up questions(Intelligence) asked by the bot based the responses given by the candidate
The questions in technical interviews could include asking the candidate to write a small code for a problem also!
Screen shots and Analysis of the eye movements, body movements and speech analysis (reflecting confidence etc.) of the candidate to know whether they are trying to game the AI tool in anyway
Whether the candidate is using any other human being or books as support
Or usage of tools like ChatGpt or Internet for responses
And an overall score with justification of whether the candidate is suitable for the position advertised
A typical AI interview can last 30 to 45 minutes depending on the type of job requirements, candidate responses etc. And candidates can take interviews anytime, 24/7/365 days at their convenience, from any device (phone or a laptop) with a dynamic, human-like interface.
In short everything that would have required multiple human efforts over 2 to 3 weeks, completed in 1-2 day! Some tools available in the market today can conduct upto 500 interviews per day! Highly efficient as one would say. I saw this being used extensively by a 1000 person and $100 mn revenues, IT company and they are highly satisfied with the End to End AI tool and the quality of the candidates hired based on the recommendation of AI, thus reflecting the effectiveness and not just the productivity improvement.
And the AI company claims that the AI interview platform ensures unbiased evaluation solely driven by talent and eligibility. Eliminate all forms of bias and create a level playing field for candidates!
Currently the usage of this more for lateral hiring from 1 year onwards, rather than fresh hires in campuses. But you never know. Scary for a candidate, delight for a company!
And this usage of AI has spawned newer businesses to help tailor your resume for fee ranging from Rs 2500 -10000/- depending upon number of years experience! And soon there will be companies training candidates on managing AI Interviews!
This set me thinking of what if AI was used from 1990 to 2020 when I was in active job hunt and would I have been recruited by any of the companies that did!
My Journey (The AI aspects are hypothetical as it did not exist then)
1986 to 1991 - Campus recruitment as MBA Marketing at Voltas for selling refrigerators through dealer network. NO AI in campus!
1991-1997 - I was selected as Branch Manager for Mumbai by an NBFC. This was during the heydays of Harshad Mehta. My work experience till that time was pure sales of consumer durables. No experience or even basic knowledge of finance. I was surprised to be called for the interview and not surprisingly, I failed the interview miserably. Their internal discussions were that they will identify someone suitable over the next 3 to 4 months and ask me to leave due to performance. My boss told me that he is giving me 3 months for bringing my vocabulary at the same level as experienced Managers in the company. I stayed with the company for 6 years and worked in MD’s office for last of the 3 years. The experience helped me develop fascination for the world of finance and today many know me as finance person and not Marketing.
If AI was used, I would not have been called for the interview also! My resume score might have been 10 to 20%, that too because one of the key words in job requirements was sales!. In interview I would have got 0%. But thankfully No AI and It changed my trajectory!
1997-2004 - I was selected at TCS for their Management consulting division. I had no experience of Management or IT consulting. I got the job because, the NBFC I worked for had hired TCS as IT service provider, which led me to connect with my earlier super boss from Voltas who had moved to TCS a year earlier. He had liked my work? (Read as attitude/aptitude) in Voltas and I was hired in TCS. I worked there for 7 years and did reasonably well!. It increased my nascent fascination for the world of Technology. In late 1990s, IT was still a very small Industry. TCS revenues in 1997 were Rs 750 crore and Infosys was Rs 200 crore
If AI was to have been deployed, I would have got a score of 20 to 30% in my resume failing to get an interview. The HR at TCS said to me during my joining formalities that they are surprised with my recruitment and that too at a fairly senior level!
2004 - 2006 and 2009 to 2021- Tata Quality Management Services. In 2002, I had applied in response to advertisement. On persistent follow-up, the then CEO wrote to me politely, saying I am not suitable for their kind of work. In 2003, there was a change of CEO and I again approached. In the Interview, I was rejected by the Dy CEO as having NO relevant experience and the other candidates had significant relevant experience. The then CEO however liked my confidence, and he got approval for hiring me from Dr Irani, who was then the Chairman of the division.
My Resume score in ATS would have been 20-30% and interview score 30-40%. Both unsuitable for being shortlisted or selected. One can call it “human bias” of the CEO which AI would have eliminated! I worked here for 2 years and then again after 4 years, the Dy CEO who had rejected me and was now the CEO, called me back and I worked for additional 12 years.
2006-2009 - Avaya Globalconnect - The only reason I got the job here was, It was an earlier Tata Company and I was associated with them in my previous job. On a regular basis, AI or no AI, the likelihood of even being shortlisted or passing the interview was very low.
I did reasonably well and did not let down any of the people who “supported’ me despite “no relevant” experience
So, what does that highlight?
Thankfully AI was not used in most part of my working life
In most cases, the human bias (Which AI tools claims to eliminate completely) was the driver of my hiring
My resume writing skills are poor despite having Industry experience of 35 years
For last 24 months, I have been trying for job and AI or its equivalent, rejects me without shortlisting!
If AI were to be used earlier, most of you reading this now might never have known me at all
It is important for every aspiring candidate to read the job requirements carefully, tailor the resume for every position being applied uniquely and get professional help if required, because whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay!
I take a moment to thank all the people who took “risk” by hiring me without relevant experience and providing diverse “trajectories” to my career.
On a parting note: Maybe my career graph would have been completely different - Good or Bad - I will never know! But for relatively senior roles, the magic mantra is “networking”. And will continue to be so AI or No AI. In my first job, I was given another mantra - “For your Career, you need a Carrier”. Even in the times of AI, the importance of that also is not likely to diminish!
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