How to make applying for jobs less painful | The Way We Work, a TED series

Finding a job used to start with submitting your résumé to a million listings and never hearing back from most of them. But more and more companies are using tech-forward methods to identify candidates. If AI is the future of hiring, what does that mean for you? Technologist Priyanka Jain gives a look at this new hiring landscape.

The Way We Work is a TED original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid changing workplace conventions.

[marihutten]

I hope this happens, and then shy and introverted people get good jobs in the western world where social butterflies get the best jobs because it's all based on connections.

[cmonster]

She had me until she said that they would adjust the algorithm if they weren't getting enough candidates from a particular population. What if qualified people from that population had not applied for whatever reason? Would changing the algorithm be the best solution? Why not perform better marketing for the hiring by outwardly engaging a broader set of the population?


All in all it sounds good until the people in HR begin "gaming" the system. Computer algorithms are great but let us not forget the possible biases of the people that create them.

[chipetteseatchips]

Not what I expected from the title but...

It was *very* interesting and I’m sure this is the future, they say in 30 yrs most jobs that people will do don’t even exist today!

[carprincess]

It's wild how the job market is these days. Even when you get interviewed in person (and going through multiple rounds of interviews) there's still a chance that the employer may 'ghost' on the interviewee.

[friskfrysefrossetfrugt]

If an algorithm pick employees based on merit e.i qualifications, and the outcome is mostly male (just as an example). If you then alter it to be "fair and not favor any gender" to pick more females (just as an example) then it _does_ in fact favor a gender... _Females_

[sgtshultz]

Great! An affirmative action algorithm. How about figuring out a way to hire the qualified person.

[carlyconnell]

This is a BRILLIANT idea! Win-win for both companies and potential employees.

[marcosdiogenes]

What a nightmare. Companies measuring my value as an employee by how fast I can clap to a fucking circle.

[aarondean]

So, if the best fit for a job is a middle-aged female and the job market for that position is saturated with middle-aged females. You'll actually adjust your algorithm so that middle-aged males start getting more of those positions? What if middle-aged males aren't applying for those positions? What if the middle-aged males aren't as qualified for that position?

[dwinosam]

Double edge sword. I’m creative but cautious, so the red dot test wouldn’t apply to me. Good intentions, interesting technology, but would still discriminate on numbers.

[chocos]

Clickbait garbage. Not a how to, more dreaming about the future.

[theodorosloupis]

Don't try to sell it to us....just prove us that it's working . So simple

[holly]

But will this algorithm favor neurotypical people? As someone with ADHD, the idea of taking a test that measures attentiveness in order to get a job is terrifying. Would the test reveal to employers that I have ADHD? That's not normally something I would disclose in an interview.

[sudhirpatel]

Just be yourself and say you are willing to work as hard as you can to make everyone happy.

[PolinShevchenko]

Nowadays, the power of technologies increases year by year. I think we can hire people using the AI mechanisms.

[xrwpmq]

Basically lets engineer electronic sexism into the selection process. Actual human sexist practices were not enough.

[MarcyB]

Doesn't favour any gender or ethnicity? I hope you achieved that by just not bothering to capture them in the hiring process, as that seems a simple solution. If being fair is the way forward, then get rid of ridiculous CV's, people asking why there's a 3 month gap in your working life, asking for any personal details that aren't going to be used to contact you, and allowing the three best candidates a short trial period performing the job. If the employer doesn't have the time, then they should look for candidates as disinterested as them.

[simplisticscientists]

I am actually here because I need to find a job. But, this video is 3 years old and I still don’t know the name of the website to go to. Any idea where to find this kind of hiring process? All I can find are resume uploads and covering letter boxes! I am not very good at applying using those and I would benefit from just doing some tests to get the job!

[LowLightVideos]

This is why you are not hired.

This person's *great* ideas.

If I can do your job and mine but you can't do either why were you the first one hired, that's what's frustrating for the rest of us.

It's not frustrating that we don't understand it, we do. It's an annoyance that you think we'll put up with it, when we won't.

[Alice-wkgt]

All the wrong examples used to prove the necessity of AI. A person is not employable for their clapping hands' skills, but much more than that. Wrong. Totally wrong.