Cover letters were a treasure for recruiters, until AI turned them into wet paper

AI promised to speed up the processes of staff recruitmentbut after a period of intensive use of AI by both companies and candidates, it has been shown that It’s more broken than ever. Further proof of this degradation are cover letters which, although before the arrival of AI models were a clear differentiating factor, are currently worthless, as a study by Princeton University and Dartmouth College has shown. Cover letters made a difference. The study ‘Making Talk Cheap: generative AI and Labor Market Signaling‘ carried out by Princeton researchers analyzed more than 2.7 million proposals on the Freelancer.com platform before and after the implementation of the LLM text generation models to create these cover letters. Their conclusion is that, before using AI, attach a well-written and to show interest and knowledge of the position and the company to which one was applying, considerably increased the hiring options because the recruiters perceived that this was a very capable candidate. Now they are wet paper. However, as the use of AI tools to generate these cover letters has spread, the appreciation of quality has improved so that candidates in the top 20% of writing skills were 19% less likely to be hired, while those in the lowest 20% increased their chances by 14%. In other words, employers stopped associating a well-written letter with a competent candidate. This has meant that the differentiating factor that a well-written cover letter previously provided has disappeared, reducing the curve of possibilities between the best-trained candidates and those who are not so well-trained. Letters submitted before the LLM models had a better chance of being hired than those post-LLM AI makes hiring more difficult. The effect observed in cover letters has been extended to other areas of personnel selection, since AI distorts real capabilities of the candidates. It is true that its use increases the perception of quality of the candidates, but as the average quality of the group increased, companies began to trust less in the information provided by the applications. He study ‘Does AI devalue communication? Theory and evidence of entrepreneurship and contracting at a global level’ carried out by researchers at Columbia University and Yeshiva, found a similar pattern in selection and entrepreneurship processes: access to AI reduced the accuracy with which recruiters identified the best profiles to fill a given vacancy by between 4% and 9%. If everything is good, nothing is good. For decades, a letter well tailored to the offer served as proof of interest and commitment on the part of candidates. In labor economics, this is known as “signalling”: the candidate conveys their effort through the quality of the text. Generative models have thrown that signal to the ground. The meta-analysis ‘The role of artificial intelligence in personnel selection’ concluded that the automation of selection processes with AI is eroding the traditional signals of merit that were transmitted through cover letters, emails or applications received by the hiring and human resources departments. In that sense, while it is true that AI has democratized competition in the job search, it has also made genuine talent less visible. Who is behind the algorithm? The current degradation of those “clues” that allowed recruiters to locate the best talent, forces us to look for new ways to evaluate candidates. As and as they pointed From the technological employment platform Manfred, the use of AI has multiplied the number of applications, but the perceived quality has not improved at the same pace. For this reason, many companies are choosing to implement more practical tests and face-to-face interviews in their selection processes. That is, eliminate from the equation the presence of AI for the last stage of the selection process. The unknown of this practice is knowing how much talent has succumbed to AI resume filtering prior to that first face-to-face interview. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos assures that there is a type of employee who can never be replaced by an AI: inventors Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

Cover letters were a treasure for recruiters, until AI turned them into wet paper

AI promised to speed up the processes of staff recruitmentbut after a period of intensive use of AI by both companies and candidates, it has been shown that It’s more broken than ever. Further proof of this degradation are cover letters which, although before the arrival of AI models were a clear differentiating factor, are currently worthless, as a study by Princeton University and Dartmouth College has shown. Cover letters made a difference. The study ‘Making Talk Cheap: generative AI and Labor Market Signaling‘ carried out by Princeton researchers analyzed more than 2.7 million proposals on the Freelancer.com platform before and after the implementation of the LLM text generation models to create these cover letters. Their conclusion is that, before using AI, attach a well-written and to show interest and knowledge of the position and the company to which one was applying, considerably increased the hiring options because the recruiters perceived that this was a very capable candidate. Now they are wet paper. However, as the use of AI tools to generate these cover letters has spread, the appreciation of quality has improved so that candidates in the top 20% of writing skills were 19% less likely to be hired, while those in the lowest 20% increased their chances by 14%. In other words, employers stopped associating a well-written letter with a competent candidate. This has meant that the differentiating factor that a well-written cover letter previously provided has disappeared, reducing the curve of possibilities between the best-trained candidates and those who are not so well-trained. Letters submitted before the LLM models had a better chance of being hired than those post-LLM AI makes hiring more difficult. The effect observed in cover letters has been extended to other areas of personnel selection, since AI distorts real capabilities of the candidates. It is true that its use increases the perception of quality of the candidates, but as the average quality of the group increased, companies began to trust less in the information provided by the applications. He study ‘Does AI devalue communication? Theory and evidence of entrepreneurship and contracting at a global level’ carried out by researchers at Columbia University and Yeshiva, found a similar pattern in selection and entrepreneurship processes: access to AI reduced the accuracy with which recruiters identified the best profiles to fill a given vacancy by between 4% and 9%. If everything is good, nothing is good. For decades, a letter well tailored to the offer served as proof of interest and commitment on the part of candidates. In labor economics, this is known as “signalling”: the candidate conveys their effort through the quality of the text. Generative models have thrown that signal to the ground. The meta-analysis ‘The role of artificial intelligence in personnel selection’ concluded that the automation of selection processes with AI is eroding the traditional signals of merit that were transmitted through cover letters, emails or applications received by the hiring and human resources departments. In that sense, while it is true that AI has democratized competition in the job search, it has also made genuine talent less visible. Who is behind the algorithm? The current degradation of those “clues” that allowed recruiters to locate the best talent, forces us to look for new ways to evaluate candidates. As and as they pointed From the technological employment platform Manfred, the use of AI has multiplied the number of applications, but the perceived quality has not improved at the same pace. For this reason, many companies are choosing to implement more practical tests and face-to-face interviews in their selection processes. That is, eliminate from the equation the presence of AI for the last stage of the selection process. The unknown of this practice is knowing how much talent has succumbed to AI resume filtering prior to that first face-to-face interview. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos assures that there is a type of employee who can never be replaced by an AI: inventors Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

The answer that recruiters no longer want to hear in work interviews

In each selection process, there is a moment That everyone fear And few know how to drive with ease because it implies facing personal weaknesses themselves: “What is your greatest weakness?”. The pressure to interpret the perfect candidate paper For the position, suddenly, he begins to make a dent and give a wrong answer can Make you lose points. The result is that, as the expert sociologist and Tiktoker Andrea Ramos (@Reclutidovoy,) counted In one of his videos: recruiters are already tired of always hearing the same. Although it seems impossible, there is an adequate answer for this question, and some recruitment experts have revealed the secret. Wonders for a good reason At some point in the selection process The inevitable question arises And candidates know that their words should measure a lot. They cannot answer simply with a: “I am Unable to wake up In time in the morning “or with a” I have a tendency to get out of problems“Because that, logically, would cause its immediate rejection. That weakness, clashes frontally with the responsibilities of the position and is not making amendment purpose. According to Sonia RodríguezSenior consultant in technical engineering in Randstad with more than a decade of experience in personnel selection, “the objective of this question is to know the level of self -knowledge that candidates have about their professional skills. What we are interested in knowing is what he would like to improve as a professional, not in the personal sphere.” For Lidia Sanz CostaTechnique of Selection, Development and Training in Companies IMAN, “The purpose of this question is not only to know what skills the candidate lacks, but to understand how he perceives himself, how he manages his weak points and if they can affect or not affect the role he will play.” “I am very perfectionist”: the answer that no longer works As Andrea Ramos pointed out in her video, the most common answer to this question is “I am very perfectionist”, and this is confirmed by the staff selection experts we have consulted. “‘I am very perfectionist’ or ‘I am very responsible’, I would say that 90% of the candidates comment one or both arguments,” says Rodríguez. According to the Tiktoker expert in human resources, This phrase has become a cliché So repeated that recruiters detect it instantly and discard it automatically. Simply, it doesn’t sneak. The problem of this answer is that it already sounds like a template taken from the Internet or LinkedIn, and does not provide real information about the candidate. “We expect sincerity. If a person comments that he is good to work as a team, but in the day to day he avoids participating in meetings, that is where we see that there is an incoherence with what he explained in the interview. That is why we value that the candidates can share a realistic weakness, but also to explain how it is minimizing it,” says Sanz. Common errors and the correct way to respond Among the most common errors When answering this question, it stands out to limit Respond with monosyllablesremain silent, or ensure that there is no weakness. “It’s about responding with sincerity and naturalness, in the end nobody is perfect and as I say in interviews to lead this issue: ‘We all have something to continue working to be better than yesterday,” says Randstad’s expert. For Lidia Sanz, the ideal is to show a real weaknessbut that does not directly affect the performance of the position. And the most important thing is to explain What is being done to improve it. Know recognize a weak point and be doing something to improve it It says a lot about a person at a professional level. “If someone says that it is difficult for him to speak in public, he can add that he is being formed or has begun to participate in meetings to gain confidence. It is also important arguments and positive speech,” the recruiter advised. In Xataka | If your chair holds in a job interview, it is no accident: they are evaluating more than your curriculum In Xataka | Bill Gates gave the right answer to the most critical question in a job interview: “Why should we hire you?” Image | Unspash (Christina @ wocintechchat.com, Jason Goodman)

If the question is what recruiters are set when hiring, a study has given the answer: experience and attitude

Labor trends are changing depending on the needs of companies and, with them, the skills and characteristics that The recruiters look In the new candidates. In the same way that there are warning signs during the selection process that automatically make recruiters Discard candidatesthere are also other characteristics that make them win many points. Take care of your curriculum because they will read it The Sumume Genius Employment Platform has prepared A survey in which he has asked 625 managers and managers of the Human Resources Department in the US. The survey data reveal that, when a candidate’s curriculum reaches his hands (probably after a First filtering by AI) dedicate time to Review knowledge and skills of the candidate. 78% of recruiters and managers claimed to dedicate more than a minute to review each curriculum before moving to another candidate. This time is much higher than the one that was used to employing in large companies, where the candidate’s curriculum was valued In just six seconds. 57% of those responsible for hiring in companies dedicate from one to three minutes for each curriculum. At the ends we find 22% of the recruiters who dedicate less than a minute to discard or accept each curriculum, while 21% takes it easy and dedicated more than three minutes to know the Skills and knowledge of candidates. By age range, they are the most veteran recruiters of the Babyboom generation who spends the most time to Examine each curriculum. 37% of those responsible for hiring this generation claims to dedicate more than three minutes, compared to 24% of generation X recruiters, 19% of the generation or only 16% of generation Z. If the position you postulate is in a technology company, the attention to the curriculum It intensifies. The recruiters of this sector claim to use more time by reviewing the training of candidates and their skills. 51% of these recruiters use between one and three minutes in each curriculum, and the percentage that dedicates more than three minutes amounts to 28% in this sector. More skills and less “titulitis” One of the most important changes in the hiring trend that has occurred in recent years, has been the change in priorities when considering the candidate For a vacancy. While a decade ago The degree was much more taken into account Academic, over time it has been losing ground to leave space to other values ​​such as experience, attitude or soft skills (soft skills). In fact, 48% of respondents claimed not to have hired suitable candidates, but who lacked these skills. Surprisingly, although the sections of “work experience” and “education” still have an important weight in the assessment of candidates, 57% of recruiters affirm that the “hobbies and interest” section is between one of the three sections With more weight of the curriculum. Those responsible for recruiting in this section additional information About personality and values of the candidate, something that is not always conditioned by the academic level. So much so, that 43% of recruiters said not to demand a title of a prestigious institution to consider a candidate, but 54% would not take it into account if they did not have soft skills or a positive attitude during their interview. The commitment to Gene generation values makes 36% of recruiters belonging to this generation give great importance to this section, so it is expected that in future weight in decision making on hiring. 43% of recruiters ensure that for them it is a very good signal appreciate enthusiasm or positive attitude to the position or to the company. On the other hand, 63% believe that detecting that the candidate is lying in his answers, if he uses inappropriate language, or criticizes his previous partners or employers, is sufficient reason for discard it immediately. In Xataka | If your chair holds in a job interview, it is no accident: they are evaluating more than your curriculum Image | Pexels (Sora Shimazaki)

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