A U.S. man used AI to ‘spam’ his way into job interviews and succeeded. Software engineer Julian Joseph used an artificial intelligence tool called ‘Job GPT’ from LazyApply to apply for 5,000 jobs and got around 20 interviews and a contract, Wired reports.
Joseph, who is based in Sunnyvale, California, was facing his second layoff in two years and didn’t want to spend months filling out lengthy applications for a new job. So he paid the firm LazyApply $250 for a lifetime unlimited plan, which did the work for him.
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Thousands of jobs ‘in a single click’
According to its website, LazyApply says that its AI-powered tool Job GPT can automatically apply to thousands of jobs on platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter “in a single click.” It claims to use advanced algorithms that “will never get [users] blocked” for spam.
Once Joseph paid for his preferred plan, he was prompted to install the LazyApply Chrome extension on his laptop and to fill in some “basic information about his skills, experience, and desired position.”
That night, he watched as the AI breezed through nearly 1,000 job applications that matched his expertise on various recruitment platforms, as Wired reported. Eventually, LazyApply “blasted” out 5,000 job applications on behalf of Joseph and managed to get him 20 interviews.
While that may seem like a lot of interviews, Job GPT succeeded at a rate of only 0.5% in its quest to secure a job for the unemployed software engineer. It compares poorly to the 20 interviews that Joseph landed after applying to between 200 and 300 jobs manually.
“The fact that this tool [LazyApply] exists suggests that something is broken in the process,” Joseph told Wired. “I see it as taking back some of the power that’s been ceded to the companies over the years.”
Julian Joseph says he received an offer for contract work he found through LazyApply. But his personal connections, not the AI, managed to get him mouth-watering job interviews at Apple and the White House.
#ArtificialIntelligence-powered #services like #LazyApply zip through the grunt work of job #applications, helping one #programmer apply for 5,000 jobs. But they can make mistakes, and some recruiters scorn the #technology. https://t.co/cgSmMKhXrR pic.twitter.com/pZw64gUL9l
— Communications of the ACM (@CACMmag) November 6, 2023
Spamming the job market AI way
For Joseph, LazyApply helped save him a lot of time that he used to do other useful things, like networking. But it is also a fact that using artificial intelligence to send out thousands of job applications at the click of a button could have other unintended consequences.
Some companies and recruitment agencies have now started to use AI tools to identify job applications made using AI and weed out the applicants. There is concern that AI-generated applications could drown out qualified job seekers who took the time to apply manually.
“Some of these [AI] tools are really sophisticated. They could identify you as a spammer,” said Josh Bersin, CEO of the eponymous Josh Bersin HR advisory firm, Wired reported.
But not everyone is impressed by AI job applications, according to Christine Nichlos, CEO of the talent acquisition company People Science. She and others believe that candidates who use AI to apply for jobs lack seriousness.
“It’s like asking out every woman in the bar, regardless of who they are,” said a recruiting manager at a Fortune 500 company who preferred anonymity.
Julian Joseph, the California software engineer, wouldn’t careless, even though LazyApply screwed up some of the roles he wanted. For example, he was searching for “DevOps” roles involving the development and deployment of software for Salesforce’s cloud platform, but the AI got him an interview for a sales job using Salesforce apps.
“The tool helped me find jobs that I might have skipped over,” Joseph said. “Even if it’s not a perfect fit, I’m getting better at interviewing. And I’m learning more about what I want.”
and then