Young Aussie rejected from $20,000 job sparks warning over growing workplace trend: ‘Shamed’
An Australian woman has revealed she was rejected from a job because she used ChatGPT during the recruitment process. Recruiters say the use of artificial intelligence is a growing trend among applicants, and it could cost them the job.
Alexandra Frisby-Smith works as a freelance creative systems and workflow consultant and recently applied for a contract job with a potential client worth $20,000. The 30-year-old NSW woman told Yahoo Finance she had already been through the application and interview stage, and had been given a trial task to complete.
“It was a paid trial and she only wanted us to spend 30 minutes on it max,” Frisby-Smith explained.
“I was like, how can I be the most efficient possible? And I just brain dumped and brainstormed all the possible ways of doing things and platforms that we could use, and how she can systemise it and use more automations.
“I wrote it all down. It was very messy and just straight thoughts to paper. Then I put it into ChatGPT and asked it to consolidate it and make it neater, more presentable and easier to digest for someone else.”
“She [the recruiter] said that she personally doesn’t like to use it, so she’d rather work with someone who doesn’t use it so that they’re on the same page,” Frisby-Smith said.
“I’m not ashamed to show that I’ve used it and I kind of purposefully left them in. I felt like it would be out of integrity to try and hide the fact that I used it,” she explained.
Frisby-Smith said it was understandable the potential employer didn’t want to use ChatGPT, given it is still such a new tool.
“I think a lot of people believe it takes away the humanness out of communication. I think that’s what people are afraid of,” she said.
“I do think people need to be a bit more open-minded.”
Jobseekers increasingly using AI
Superior People Recruitment founder Graham Wynn told Yahoo Finance he was seeing more jobseekers using AI to do their cover letters and write their resumes, and it could mean they are passed over for jobs.
“If you see resumes using AI, you can normally tell that it’s being used by the kind of grammar, the kind of wording being used. You can see they haven’t written this themselves and we generally don’t consider them,” he said.
Wynn said the trouble was some jobseekers forgot to check or edit what they submitted, so resumes have come in with gaps saying ‘insert your experience here’ or cover letters end up having the wrong name attached.
While Wynn said he understood AI could be beneficial as a starting point for people, he said he would ultimately advise against using AI for job interviews and applications.
“As a recruiter, I’m not a fan of AI at all. I don’t like people using it. If you do use AI and get past AI, when you’re in the job, you may not be able to. You’re actually cheating yourself a little bit by trying the shortcut method.”
Worker says AI can have benefits
Frisby-Smith posted a video about her experience online and the responses were mixed.
Some people thought jobseekers shouldn’t be using ChatGPT in their applications because employers wanted to know their communication skills and find out more about them as a candidate.
Others said they saw no problem with using ChatGPT provided you rewrite what you are given yourself and put things in your own words.
She said AI tools shouldn’t replace workers’ value, but could help them organise, express and deepen their thoughts.
“You can use it intelligently or you can be lazy and not think at all and copy paste,” she said.
Ultimately, she said she doesn’t think there should be “shame” around using ChatGPT in the workplace.
“I don’t know why you would be ashamed to use it because to me, I see it as such a huge strength,” she said.
“Obviously, there are ways you can use it that are terrible. But if you use it well, it can make your work more efficient and things that might take you a day or a week could be done in seconds or a few hours.