Sarah Wrightson: CVs by Sarah director on the rise of AI in the job recruitment process

The rise in AI has seen demand for professionally written CVs in a bid to stand out against algorithms.

Experts say while AI can be useful to screen hundreds of applicants faster, it's created a transparency gap between employers and jobseekers.

CVs by Sarah director Sarah Wrightson says the screening software rules out applicants before a human gets a chance to look at their CVs, and it results in qualified applicants getting filtered out.

"I've had clients come to me saying that they've applied for 80 jobs and heard nothing back - and often, they've actually got really solid experience. The software's looking for alignment and clarity, humans read context, the software doesn't." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Business is apparently booming for people who write cvs for
jobs because it basically comes down to AIAI is mucking
with us, it's confusing us. Sarah writes, and is the
director of CV writing company CVS by Sarah and is
with us. Hi, Sarah, Hi, So am I basically writing
thinking that what's happened is previously we were writing cvs
for humans, we kind of knew what they wanted, so

(00:21):
we'd have a reasonable success rate. But now we're writing
cvs that AI going to screen and we have no
bloody idea what they want, so we need you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, Well look what I'm seeing now is people can
get rolled out before human even reads their CV. Now,
so a lot of companies are using screening software that
scans for keywords, job titles, formatting. But the frustrating part
is that genuinely capable people can get filtered out for
technical reasons, not because they can't do the job. I've
had clients come to me saying that they've applied for

(00:52):
eighty jobs and heard nothing back, and often they've actually
got really solid experience. So the software is looking for
alignment and clarity. Humans read context. Software doesn't, and at
the same time, employers are also overwhelmed too because they
are getting flooded with AI generated applications. So if you
ended up in this really weird situation where you know,

(01:13):
job seekers feel invisible and employers feel buried, that's probably
the biggest ship that I've seen with AI software and applications.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So you've obviously cracked the code. So are we going
to get if we if we come, if we come
to you and you write out cvs, we're you going
to have more success and if we diy it.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I think a lot of people come to me because
they are overwhelmed by the process and it's it's very
hard out there at the moment, I'm telling candidates that,
you know, it's it's very competitive, and you really have
to align your CV and your cover letter with the
job ad so using all those keywords and naturally highlighting

(01:53):
your skills and experience. I think the biggest problem with
keiwis is they don't know how to sell themselves, and
you know, we really do want to get those interviews.
So and I also think confidence gets knocked after so
many applications and you're getting ghosted or not getting the
results that you're wanting. It can be really damaging to
your confidence.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, it is a tough ale thing trying to look
for a job. Hey, thank you very much, Sarah. Look
after yourself, Sarah writes and director of CVS by Sarah.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
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Speaker 1 (02:22):
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