Whew. We just opened up a job posting for a (Technical) Project Manager at Tighten. We left the posting up for a week, received 703 applications, and I read every single application.
And wow, was there a lot more AI than I expected. I shared some silly notes on Twitter, and a more serious one on LinkedIn, about what the applications were like and how they impacted my hiring process. And it turned into a quick interview and post on BusinessInsider 😳
I'm a CEO who's rejected tons of AI applications. AI writing isn't an automatic disqualifier, but there's a line.
It has led to a lot of conversations about hiring. About how the businesses started the AI usage and the applicants are just responding. About how people have applied to 100 jobs a day and still not gotten a job!
Obviously, I have not applied for a job in the current climate. But I have coached dozens of people through their job applications over the last few years, and talked to many more, so I have a bit of an idea of what it's like.
Here's the main thing I can say:
The more you want a job, the more you're willing to spend time applying for it. Right? If your dream job came open, you probably wouldn't throw an AI auto-applier at it.
So if you're job-hunting, or you're advising someone who is, step away from the spray-and-pray – at least just once a day! – and pick one dream job, and spend 5, 10, 30 minutes, maybe even a few hours, building a rich and robust application that you're proud of.
Our strongest applicants are those who have clearly read our entire posting, and gone even further and checked out the web site and our blog posts. That's not required, but if it makes someone a stronger applicant, then I should be sharing that it helps!
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