By: Eleanor Margolis / The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com
While applying for another job, I look at the company’s website for content. I’ve read their “what we do” section four or five times, and I have a problem – I can’t figure out what they do. Here are two possibilities. First: they themselves don’t know what they do. Second: what they do is so worthless and shameful that they dare not say it clearly in ordinary language. “We build advanced online wellness marketing systems” could be translated as: “We use ChatGPT"to sell questionable supplements."
But it’s a smaller problem to know what many businesses actually do. I’m currently among the five per cent of Britons who are unemployed. After six months of job hunting, my total lack of success has made me question my very existence. When you keep applying for jobs in the same field, like repeating a word over and over until it loses its meaning, the semantics of the whole situation start to fall apart like a wet tissue. About one in five of my applications bring a rejection email, usually complaining about the “overwhelming number of qualified applicants” for the position. But in most cases – nothing. It’s almost as if the job never existed, and it’s likely it never did.
In 2024, 40 percent of companies posted “ghost job” ads, positions that don’t exist, advertised to create the illusion that the company is doing so well – so well that it needs more workers. And that seems like a pretty easy way to lie about your success. The regulation of job ads is largely the responsibility of the Advertising Standards Authority, which – for all its power – can only do… remove a false ad. So, with no serious consequences for employers, why not run a fake recruitment campaign? Ethics in the job market seem to have gone out the window, and the idea of wasting the time of thousands of innocent job seekers is no longer relevant.
Even if the job you’re applying for does exist, the next hurdle is the artificial intelligence [AI] human resources [HR] bot. While it’s hard to find accurate data on the number of employers using AI to filter applications (sometimes favoring men over women, for example, an algorithm once used by Amazon-i which has now been removed), there are articles and topics everywhere in Reddit how to manipulate worlds and insert “keywords.” According to a magazine article The Atlantic, earlier this year: “Young people are using ChatGPTto write applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired.” And, let’s say your CV and cover letter make it past the bot gatekeepers, chances are the interview will be conducted by another bot. While I haven’t had the “pleasure” of having an interview, whether by AI or otherwise – since I started this latest job search – the prospect of not having any human contact throughout the entire process, of becoming a social media marketing manager for questionable supplements, seems huge and terrifying to me.
While this job glut is usually presented as a problem for recent graduates, I can attest—as someone who graduated 15 years ago, right into the recession—that not only is this the worst job market I’ve ever seen, but it’s also affecting people like me with years of experience. During my last job search, about three years ago, I was at least getting interviews. And, what’s more, with real people. Looking at all the professionals I know who are struggling to secure interviews for even entry-level positions, I’m sure I’m no exception. I’m also convinced that we’re facing a crisis in which middle-class jobs have degenerated into rare and troubling beasts.
When – according to a job posting – an independent pet food company with a name like Floppy disks, looking for a “rock star” and a “unicorn” to revolutionize social media presence, understands that the job market is drunk on its own farts. The obscure Frankenjobs, which require everything from SEO [Search Engine Optimization] to video editing skills (for a salary of £27 and free protein bars that taste like straw), demand cult-like dedication. First, you have to convince the good people of Floppy disks-it that it has been your dream, since birth, to sell pet food. You would cut off your hands for the privilege and learn to write for them by slamming your face into the keyboard. You will express this in a 400-word cover letter, written in your own blood. And, this letter will be redirected to nothing by an AI filter, because you did not use the phrase “algorithmic relevance optimization” in it. You will never hear from them again. Floppy disks-i. You will start this process over and repeat it until you are deemed worthy of an interview in which you have a few minutes to convince a bot that you are capable of the job and as a human being.
The hiring process has become so mechanized, both figuratively and literally, that it's hard to believe that the people who get hired aren't simply those who are best at manipulating the system. And, frankly, they should have all the luck in the world! It's no loss to me if jobs with questionable supplements or animal feed go to someone who is a master at creating the illusion that they live and breathe for them. But in this process of flux, what happens to those of us who don't know or don't want to play the game? Of all the applications I've sent out lately, I wonder how many have been seen by human eyes. There's a limit to how much you can shout into the void about your skills with a CMS [Content Management System] before you start looking in Google for phrases like: "Can I sell a kidney for Vinted [website for sale]”? /Telegrafi/
Source of information @Telegrafi: Read more at:the world today www.botasot.al
