ChatGPT, Terminator and Graduate Recruitment
Skynet was originally created to automate Government hardware and make life easier. It quickly developed self-awareness and saw humanity as a threat. Terminator went from ‘just a tool’ to humanity’s greatest threat.
Two months ago, most of us probably hadn’t even heard of ChatGPT. Today it’s one of the most talked about topics not only in workplaces, but also in schools and universities around the world. A quick Google search will produce over 850 million hits about it in 0.3 seconds.
And while doing my own research for this article, I tried to log into its site multiple times only to receive an error message telling me that it was overloaded and to ‘please come back later’. In a matter of weeks, it has become one of the most visited websites ever and clearly wasn’t coping with the volume of interest. Those digitally curious ‘early adopters’ (and I like to include myself in this category) have already had a few weeks to play around with it, and without wanting to sound overly clichéd, it’s pretty mind-blowing.
ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI that launched in November last year, and that is quite frankly already putting Siri and Alexa to shame! At first, it was hard to believe this new piece of generative AI has actually been able to pass Ivy League law exams. But closer to home and looking at what it can do in our professional day-to-day lives, it has many thinking about the impact it could have on talent acquisition, and the graduate recruitment process specifically.
Recruitment, talent acquisition, and HR professionals everywhere have been taking advantage of AI technologies for several years now.
At first, some of us may have been sceptical or worried that artificial intelligence and machine learning would make our roles redundant. But we quickly acknowledged the fact that it could actually make our jobs easier – from crafting job ads and answering candidate FAQs, to scheduling interviews, or even automating the initial screening process.
Today we take it for granted that AI can make our working lives so much easier. However, with the arrival of ChatGPT, and Google’s Bard, the HR and recruitment landscape has now changed forever ... for candidates, too. And there’s no turning back.
After all, if we have already been taking advantage of AI and machine learning as recruitment specialists, then it would be foolish not to expect candidates (particularly graduates who have grown up embracing technological change) to jump on the bandwagon to make their ‘jobs’ a lot easier, too. And it’s already happening.
We’ve had tools at our disposal for many years now that can generate competency or behavioural-based interview questions based on the results of a candidate’s psychometric profile or personality assessment.
But today, from the other side of the table, ChatGPT can generate the answers to these questions based on a candidate’s experience and background.
For as long as the recruitment process has been in existence, there have always been overly prepared candidates; those who carefully script their responses and rehearse for their interview as if it’s a stage performance. However, if you (live in the past) place a heavy emphasis on a candidate’s written application (for example a cover letter that addresses specific key selection criteria), by feeding the right brief into ChatGPT, candidates are now able to generate fairly impressive responses.
This isn’t so much a plagiarism issue, but more an integrity issue.
After all, even ChatGPT knows that it can’t actually help applicants cheat in interviews.
If you rely heavily on cover letters, detailed written applications, or written responses to case studies or workplace simulations, or if you share interview questions or topics with candidates in advance that might come up during an assessment centre or group interview, then you are inviting the likes of ChatGPT to help the candidates prepare with open arms.
Given the fact that we can’t stop this, perhaps it’s time to revisit the way we assess graduates, and the way graduate recruitment processes are run.
If universities are starting to panic about how students are already using generative AI to write their assignments, then those of us responsible for running graduate recruitment campaigns should at least be somewhat concerned that these very same students (who will graduate with the help of AI), will also be utilising the technology to ‘hack’ (for want of a better term) the recruitment process.
Universities are now starting to place more of an emphasis on critical thinking, personal evaluation, and reflection when it comes to written assignments, and they are also putting a much heavier weighting on in-class presentations and group projects.
ChatGPT hasn’t (yet) been trained to form an opinion on something or to separate fact from fiction.
So, when assessing graduates, it might be worth approaching the process just as the universities have done – getting the candidates to think more on their feet, to interact more with others (through group activities) and where appropriate putting more of a weighting on power skills (formerly known as soft skills); communication skills, the ability to interact in a team setting, or observing how they handle a difficult situation.
Placing less of an emphasis on pre-work or preparation prior to an assessment centre, and giving the candidates more time during the assessment process to prepare for activities, simulations, or role-plays, but without having any access to technology during the actual assessment centre. That way you are simply preventing even the most tech savvy candidates from ‘phoning a friend’ (in this case ChatGPT)!
As recruitment professionals, many of us have become accustomed to be always scanning the horizon for what’s around the corner … the ‘next big thing’ to make our work lives easier. We have learned to become less fearful of change and to appreciate how AI can make a positive impact on what we do in business.
It’s impossible to stop candidates doing exactly the same thing. Graduates are always on the hunt for the latest ‘hack’; they are the poster children for the on-demand generation and ChatGPT is the perfect platform to feed them with all the right facts (as opposed to personal opinion) in a matter of seconds.
We need to be more aware. We need to start thinking more creatively. If technology is making our jobs easier, then we must accept it’s making our candidates’ jobs easier, too. We can’t afford to dumb down our recruitment processes. In fact, we need to up the ante and prevent our candidates from depending on technology to impress us and getting back to basics and assessing for core competencies and behaviours in person or at least via our trusty asynchronous video interview technology!
More human interaction. More personal engagement. Less reliance on written submissions.
This is our “I’ll be back” Arnie moment!
If you’re feeling somewhat unsettled or a little uncomfortable with how your candidates might be using ChatGPT and other technology to hack your graduate assessment process, or if you’re simply keen to understand how your graduate talent program stacks up to the market, lets connect.
I can promise you a real-life, in-person conversation.
But I bet you’re now wondering whether I wrote this piece myself, or whether I entrusted the services of my new BFF!
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