This summer, graduate students can now benefit from an innovative personal interview coach to assist them in their job search. By sending a specific job description, students can receive customized interview questions, answers, and valuable feedback at no cost. Adzuna, the job search engine, offers this coach, which is not a human but rather an artificial intelligence bot named Prepper. Prepper has the capability to generate interview questions for over a million live roles in various industries, ranging from technology and finance to manufacturing and retail.
For instance, if a student is applying for a graduate job in PwC’s actuarial practice, Prepper provides tailored questions such as “What skills do you think an actuarial consultant should have?” and “How would you explain actuarial concepts to a client who is not from a finance background?”. After answering these questions, Prepper gives a score out of 100 and provides feedback on what worked well and what aspects were lacking.
Prepper is a part of the new generation of chatbots powered by generative AI, including ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude. These chatbots are trained on vast amounts of text extracted from the internet, such as books, newspapers, blogs, videos, and image captions. The result is remarkably sophisticated text that closely resembles human writing.
“In the recent 12-18 months, it’s gone bananas,” says Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “It’s, of course, very hyped at the moment, but there are numerous intelligent recruitment tools available that help job seekers find jobs more easily.”
AI has already been utilized in hiring and job-seeking processes for the past decade, primarily to streamline and reduce costs for employers. However, generative AI tools are now shifting the power dynamic in favor of applicants. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an organizational psychologist and hiring technology expert, affirms that “a lot of the recent improvements we have seen in AI are on the candidate’s side.” Previously, employers would pretend to use AI to appear cutting-edge, but now, many claim not to use AI.
Chamorro-Premuzic recently experienced the impact of generative AI from a candidate’s perspective when he asked an applicant if they had utilized AI in their application process. The candidate admitted that without ChatGPT, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to interview. Their CV, cover letter, and application had all been written with the assistance of AI. Recognizing the applicant’s technological savvy, Chamorro-Premuzic hired them. Others, however, express concerns that AI may mark the end of the traditional job application process.
“Generative AI can create very impressive profiles, with perhaps a few mistakes that only the individual would recognize, not the employer,” explains Matt Jones from Cielo, a recruitment technology company. “This raises questions about the relevance of reviewing CVs, cover letters, and applications, particularly for early career stages. I wonder if this is the end of the CV.”
For graduates navigating a competitive job market, chatbots like Prepper offer a way to handle the potentially overwhelming application process. Students, like Ayushman Nath from the University of Cambridge, have explored ChatGPT, a public chatbot developed by Microsoft’s OpenAI, to compose cover letters tailored to specific companies. Nath knows individuals who have advanced through initial rounds or secured internships using ChatGPT-generated applications.
“From what I’ve experienced, it’s good at jumping through the initial barriers,” says Nath, referring to today’s automated and impersonal recruitment processes. Students like Nath have also encountered automated video interviews conducted by recruitment technology providers like HireVue. These interviews require applicants to answer predetermined questions within a time limit. The recordings are then reviewed by hiring managers or assessed by the platform’s AI algorithms searching for relevant keywords from the job description.
Although companies have yet to launch generative AI products, Lindsey Zuloaga, chief data scientist at HireVue, reveals that her team is testing interview prep chatbots and exploring new ways to gather information from video interviews. However, Zuloaga acknowledges that these systems can be powerful but also incorrect, raising ethical concerns about their implementation.
Grace Lordan, an economist at the London School of Economics and director of The Inclusion Initiative, recognizes that companies, especially technology firms, are experimenting with generative AI for initial interviews. Lordan believes that AI-conducted interviews could help combat bias, particularly in the selection process where affinity bias and representative bias often influence hiring decisions. She suggests that “generative AI is quite convincing as an avatar. Using AI as another serious data point will allow pushback from the machines against human bias.”
To improve diversity and address the global shortage of skilled labor, more employers are adopting alternative assessment methods to expand their candidate pool. Automated systems designed to promote diversity can identify candidates who might usually be overlooked due to health concerns, employment gaps, lack of a degree, or unconventional backgrounds.
Although ChatGPT is a useful tool for drafting cover letters and learning about potential employers, recruiters emphasize that it should not replace the act of personally completing an application. Nath echoes this sentiment, stating that “companies are looking for a relationship with people there, like reaching out to somebody at the firm or a nugget of information that isn’t on the website. And these things can only be cultivated by personal interactions, not AI models.”
Andrew Hunter of Adzuna concurs: “The caution I would give to job seekers is that AI can act as a good co-pilot, but don’t let the tech try and do it all for you… It’s very nascent tech, and it will spit out cookie-cutter answers. If you let the initial interactions with the employer be fully run by AI, then you aren’t going to be able to do the job.”
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