“What do you want to do for work?”
It’s a question that’s liable to send shivers down the spines of most experienced adults, let alone students who have yet to enter the workforce.
Unfortunately, when a recession hits, like the one in 2008 and the one caused by COVID-19 in 2020, the question shifts from “what do you want to do?” to “what can you do?” This change makes a difficult question even harder to answer.
The good news is that job-search related technologies have improved substantially over the last few years. You no longer need to rely so heavily on your experience and network to find a job. For several years, eightfold.ai has been dedicated to enabling the right career for everyone in the world and uses artificial intelligence to power its Talent Intelligence Platform. In April 2020, Eightfold.ai launched the Talent Exchange because it was clear that only AI could match job seekers to currently open roles at scale.
Today, the Talent Exchange has more than 750,000 open roles across North America, and is publicly available to anyone who is looking for employment. But since many people are unfamiliar with the way AI works, there are likely questions about how it improves the job search process. Here are three ways AI can benefit job seekers like you.
3 ways artificial intelligence can improve your job search process
The traditional approach to finding work is broken because it depends on candidates searching through job sites or their network connections using set criteria. But how do you know the most optimal criteria to use? It’s a game of trial and error that no one likes playing.
The issue with search is summed up very well in the book AIQ: “search is narrow and circumscribed; you have to know what to search for, and you’re limited by your own knowledge and experience.” The alternative to a search engine is a suggestion engine that is powered by Artificial Intelligence because it can analyze massive data sets and identify relationships. The authors of AIQ explain that “suggestions are rich and open ended; they draw on the accumulated knowledge and experience of billions of other people.”
The shift from narrow search to open-ended suggestions means that you may receive recommendations for jobs that you never would have considered or thought possible. The reason AI solutions, like eightfold.ai’s Talent Exchange, are able to make such connections is because the AI has learned from the profiles of billions of other people and calculated the “conditional probability” that different skills or titles relate to each other.
Takeaway: Don’t be surprised if the Talent Exchange makes recommendations for jobs that you would never have considered. That’s the power of AI!
Gain transparency into why you are a good fit, and apply with purpose
Job descriptions are long and confusing. We have all spent way too much time searching for open roles by title or location or seniority and trying to decide which jobs are relevant enough to apply to. Some jobs have 10+ requirements. You might think to yourself, “well, I meet only eight of these requirements … Am I still a good fit? And did prior people in this role actually have all of these skills?”
AI can answer both questions in a transparent way.
The Talent Exchange provides you with visibility into why you are a strong or good match so that you can understand the alignment without having to go through extensive guesswork. That way you can apply for open roles with improved confidence and understanding.
When reviewing the popular skills of previous hires, you might realize that you forgot to add to your profile some of your skills which are relevant to the position. Since the platform allows you to make changes to your profile on an ongoing basis, you could easily make the update.
Takeaway: If you create a profile that is representative of your skills and experiences, the AI will be able to understand your potential and provide transparent representation of why you are a match for different roles.
Improve response times from hiring companies
Traditional job boards can feel like a black hole. It’s common to hear people say that they applied to dozens of jobs, even ones that seemed like a stretch, because they didn’t know which companies they would hear from. Unfortunately, the act of applying to more positions perpetuates the cycle because it means recruiters will have to review more applications and have a tougher time getting to relevant candidates.
Fortunately, hiring companies are increasingly turning to AI for their talent-acquisition needs. In the same way that AI provides transparency to the candidate, it can provide recruiters with valuable insight in at least two ways. First, recruiters can identify the candidates with aligned skills and experiences without having to wade through dense resumes. Second, companies may elect to anonymize the names of candidates so as to minimize the potential of name-related bias.
Takeaway: Hiring companies that leverage AI have been shown to have faster response times, and they are able to consistently evaluate candidates based on their skills, potential, and relevancy for the role.
To register for the Talent Exchange or update your profile, please click here.