Over the last few years, from graduation until I started working, I have heard my peers and fellow potential candidates begrudgingly worry and crib about the act of perfecting their resume. The hunt for the right skills, the perfect description and ticking the whole lot of boxes they had in mind for the resume was to be done before it was sent out to recruiters. I remember spending a couple hours with my friends, picking references and keywords to do mine.
Honestly, the trend of using a resume though still present is rapidly diminishing. There are no qualms in stating that within the next couple of years, it will be officially dead. I remember my interviews in the span of last two years, the resume set the precursor for initiating the conversation with the recruiters, but never quite ended up becoming resume specific. Recruiters are interested in looking beyond the self-descriptive notes that we provide to qualify for the job. The quest to find the right fit for the job has caught up. While studies suggest that previous experiences that we display in our resumes cannot help in determining the success rate at a new job, it has always been deemed important, to identify patterns of professional behavior, career paths, etc. At least 80% of the recruiters’ vet the profile of their prospective candidates through LinkedIn during the hiring process, so all that we mention in the resume is already with them.
How will the hiring practices change in the future?
Major brands like LinkedIn, Tesla and Accenture are taking a positive turn towards the future of recruitment by establishing digital platforms to determine the real potential of a prospective candidate.
- Gamification
- Neuroscience
- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
This key concoction in the right measure will take over recruitment in this constantly innovating business world. Gamification, relying on Neuroscience and Machine Learning powered AI technology will define the fit of an individual in the business environment, and how likely they are to succeed in the same.
Imagine, a 30-minute gaming scenario in a stimulated environment with an Artificially intelligent technology that is constantly evaluating you to define your abilities, such as problem-solving skills, multi-tasking ability, creativity, etc., while neuroscience will help identify your reactions to specific conditions and situations within the game. In the end, machine learning will help determine if you are a right fit for the position and the company by finding correlations and patterns that a human will overlook, in turn helping select higher quality candidates.
But developing such a technology will require a detailed list of requirements regarding the company and teams, i.e. what fits for one team, will not fit into another. For example, A social media marketing team needs creativity, problem solving skills, while the customer support team will need diligence, communication and technical expertise as their key skills.
While human intervention is ardently important for hiring, new age recruitment tools are paving the way for reducing time consumption in shortlisting candidates based on keywords mentioned in the candidate’s profile in any given job portal. The unification of all this data will be made to a universal AI repository, where applying the keywords will retrieve candidates relevant to the skill mentioned.
How will it change the game for companies?
Thought leaders, business practitioners, HR and hiring decision makers of all companies are embracing automation and aligning their workflows with bottom line of business mission. Some of the glimpses of how AI recruiting is helping companies,
- Closing the time-to-hire gap – Reducing the time between the first interview and the offer being extended with a firm start date.
- Finding the Ideal Candidate – Where AI, Automation, and Machine Learning together search for a perfectly qualified and thoroughly vetted hire which goes beyond the standard reference and background check. With this ideology in mind, it will be very simple to conduct an assessment of the behavioral skills of the candidates.
- Interviewing with ease - AI and automation have made it possible to interview candidates at their available timeframe, even record these transactions for later analysis to gain profound insights about the potential candidates.
- Tracking down passive candidates – With the advancing technology, it will be easier to identify a passive candidate and whether he will entertain a discussion about a potential career change. “Predictability signs” displayed by the candidates will help gauge better conversations with candidates.
So, what can we do? To stay relevant?
Think.
Breathe.
And Focus.
It’s time to start building us up as a personal brand, a digital presence, and try to keep pace with our changing business. Armor up and get ready to conquer the AI to earn your dream job.
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Shruthi Maniraj
Corporate HR