Candidate searches networks how to hack recruitment site – 05/09/2023 – Tech

Psychologist Francine Trindade, 28, says she has already sent 434 resumes on the Catho platform alone — not to mention the other recruitment sites on which she is written. Since January, she has been looking for a vacancy in the human resources area, after specializing in people management last year. During this period, she received three invitations for an interview.

“Of the interviews I did, I only received feedback from one, which I did in person in May”, he says.

The situation experienced by Trindade illustrates well the current moment of job seekers. On the one hand, people apply with unprecedented ease thanks to virtual platforms — some don’t even require a resume. On the other hand, companies have information like never before to filter when selecting, but the selection processes end up taking too long and are closed with no return for all candidates.

In response to the uncertainty, influencers have been using social media to give tips on how to re-market themselves. Some are useful, some are not.

On TikTok, for example, people discuss the effectiveness of filling the resume with keywords in a small size and written in the same color as the background of the CV. The idea is to be imperceptible to the human eye, but readable by recruitment algorithms.

The goal of this tactic is to appear at the top of recruiters’ lists. That’s because current platforms use programs – sometimes artificial intelligence – to sort candidates by compatibility with the vacancy. These are the ATS (candidate screening systems, in free translation).

The logic is similar to the ranking of links delivered by Google, which two decades ago operated through keywords.

However, according to Bianca Ximenes, a researcher on machine learning ethics, the white font trick does not work on AI-based algorithms.

Not even the creators of the ATS know exactly how the programs made based on machine learning work – called by researchers in the field of black box.

Gupy, for example, uses AI to rank candidates and claims that people don’t need to resort to keywords. “Our algorithm reads the context, the semantics, in addition to the word itself. If the vacancy asks for a leadership position, the candidate may be suitable if he says he has managed a project”, says the co-founder of Gupy, Guilherme Henrique Dias.

Catho also uses artificial intelligence to find similarities between the attributes listed on the candidate’s resume and what the vacancy asks for. The company considers professional experience, technical skills, training and other criteria, according to company director Fabio Maeda. InfoJobs uses a similar technique.

On both recruitment platforms, candidates can subscribe to paid plans to find out their level of compatibility with the post. Data analysis services, on all sites, are available to contracting companies.

In Ximenes’ evaluation, the lack of information about objective criteria confuses people. With no answers, candidates look for plausible-sounding explanations — like the keywords in white font.

The tactic works in programs that make simple term filters. However, it is ineffective, because the best resumes still undergo human review.

For Ximenes, adding keywords does not constitute an ethical violation if the professional has skills related to the term.

Recruiting companies can place eliminatory filters on vacancies, such as length of experience. “It is in good form for companies to inform what disqualifies them automatically”, says Ximenes.

Gupy says it follows the practice. The company says it plans campaigns to make people aware of how the platform works. “It is a challenge to reach the 40 million people registered on our website”, says Guilherme Henrique Dias.

Renata Lino, creator of the job platform for mothers Mommy Tech, says that she recommends that mothers add the keywords in the job description to their CV. “It is fundamental to have the CV adapted to the opportunity.”

In addition, she suggests that female candidates use artificial intelligence help in formulating specific CVs. “Ask ChatGPT to adapt the text to the keywords taken from the job description,” she says.

Another common question refers to information on gender, color and ethnic origin. The AIs of Catho, Gupy and InfoJobs do not evaluate this personal data.

According to Dominik Hangartner, professor of public policy at the London School of Economics Dominik Hangartner, even embedded systems with AI can reproduce prejudices, if gender, color or ethnicity correlate in some way with language.

Hangatner showed in a 2021 article that people from the Middle East and North Africa were called 19% less often for interviews on an ATS-equipped Swiss job site, compared to local white candidates.

Gupy and Catho claim to follow ethical AI application principles to avoid bias. Both companies say they regularly monitor minority hiring data to reduce biases with model adjustments.