If AI can draft the perfect résumé, does the résumé become obsolete as a measure of a candidate? And how can candidates stand out when recruiters are also using AI to decide who’s the best fit?
These questions surfaced repeatedly in my conversations last week at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, where I spoke with C-suite leaders, academics, and startup founders about how AI is transforming hiring.
Case in point: Kathleen Walch, director of AI engagement and community at the nonprofit Project Management Institute, told me she recently received multiple résumés that were “so overfit” for an open role that the candidates couldn’t plausibly possess all the skills they claimed.
“It’s annoying. And guess what? If you do it, you’re probably not getting calls for interviews,” she said in our onstage conversation, adding: “If you do that, you’re losing your authentic human self. Why are we hiring you? Because you’re a human. If we didn’t want to hire a human, we would create an AI agent.”
Still, the résumé has a role in hiring for now. But AI is putting more pressure on the interview to reveal what a candidate can do. Walch focuses on methodology, asking candidates to walk her through the exact steps they took when managing a complex project, including where they went wrong and how they adjusted.
Aisha Lawrey, Johns Hopkins University’s responsible AI portfolio lead, said she tests candidates’ ethical judgment, probing how they think about a fundamental question: “For all of these different AI tools, just because you can, should you?”
None of this means candidates should abandon AI in their job search, though. Used smartly, it can help them discover opportunities they might otherwise miss. One person I spoke with last week had spent months manually applying for jobs matching the title he assumed he was most qualified for, without success. Then Indeed’s AI analyzed his résumé, his behavior on the site, and hiring trends in his industry, and suggested a different kind of role. He applied and finally landed a gig.
Indeed CIO and CSO Anthony Moisant told me that 70% of sponsored applications on the platform now come from recommendations its algorithm surfaces to candidates, rather than from searching and applying themselves. Humans, he argues, simply can’t spot every opportunity.
Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
kristin.stoller@fortune.com
Fortune Office Hours
This week, Niki Armstrong, chief administrative and legal officer at data storage company Everpure, answers your burning workplace questions. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: In my first month at a new job, an employee was let go due to being under investigation by the attorney general for a form of malpractice (health care industry). After the employee was let go, my director addressed the matter in our staff meeting. Unbeknownst to my coworkers and me, a different employee recorded the entire staff meeting and sent it to the fired employee. The employee who recorded the meeting was suspended and let go as well.
This was the first time I was recorded in the workplace without my knowledge. I’m curious what rights a person has in this context. If, for example, the recording was distributed and used to hurt my image, what could I do about that? And how should a workplace handle issues of people secretly recording meetings?
A: Private conversations can—and have—been made public. I do not say that to make people paranoid or fearful of speaking their truth; it’s just a matter of both understanding and prevention.
If you are recorded without your knowledge, your options depend on state law, the circumstances, and an employer’s policies. A truthful, unedited recording may leave limited recourse. But if it is altered, selectively edited, or shared with false context to damage someone’s reputation, legal issues such as defamation or invasion of privacy may arise.
Employers should take undisclosed recordings very seriously, particularly when personnel matters are involved. The response should be thoughtful and proportionate, considering why the recording occurred, whether protected concerns were involved, and what harm resulted.
Prevention is the best protection. As AI note-taking tools become commonplace, companies should educate employees and require transparency. At Everpure, we ask people to disclose when those kinds of tools are capturing notes or recording and to flag in meeting invitations when a session may be recorded. Technology has reshaped almost everything about privacy, but it has not changed what we owe one another as humans: respect, trust, and transparency—the non-negotiable foundations that hold teams together when work gets tense, and allow our best work to shine.
Have a workplace situation that you’re unsure how to navigate or a scenario worth unpacking? Send it our way via this form.
Watercooler
A round-up of the most important HR headlines from Fortune and beyond.
Peanut butter pay. Some 36% of U.S. companies say they gave out across-the-board pay increases this year—and experts warn it’s killing motivation. Fortune
HR extinction. People leaders are increasingly fearful that AI is putting them out of a job, as the number of people working in employment services is down. Bloomberg
Trendy role. The chief of staff position is becoming more popular among C-suite executives as business gets more complex. New York Times
