Memo | Employers | Verify Job Applicants Are NOT Using AI To Create Their Resumés Or Cover Letters

Over the past 37 years, I reviewed tens of thousands of resumés and cover letters.

I’ve been noticing some anomalies on cover letters and within resumés the past couple of months. It seems that people are getting a little too much assistance with them.

Of course I’m talking about Artificial Intelligence and employment consultants.

Employment consultants, depending on the extent of their engagement, are also a form of Artificial Intelligence as it is not the job applicant’s intelligence being used to create the cover letters and resumés.

Before I discuss that, it is important to draw clear distinctions between using Artificial Intelligence and traditional physical and electronic technology.

Simply put, Artificial Intelligence provides a work product without any creative or intellectual input from a human being. This, to me, is a form of plagiarism.

This is the main difference between using Artificial Intelligence and doing your own research to enhance your own skills to be used in a work product you create.

With AI there is no learning at all. A request is made with specific parameters and the AI produces a completed item. Resumé writing consultants are also Artificial Intelligence for purposes of this memo.

Research involves learning, and enhancing your knowledge and ability to create YOUR OWN output.

It’s very important to understand that distinction. It is not plagiarism to look up resumé and cover letter examples to get ideas to enhance your own.

That human learning component is lost when you use Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence degrades intellectual and creative human performance and stifles or  completely eliminates learning.

Humans using all the tools at our disposal is wise, including both electronic and physical sources. It is not “cheating” or plagiarism if you take that learning to create something such as a resumé or a cover letter or an essay or a story.

It’s when you eliminate the research and learning process that you have entered the realm of Artificial Intelligence or another intelligence besides your own doing the creating.

With Artificial Intelligence we are just consumers of products.

This gives everyone a clear dividing line where healthy research and learning end, and plagiarism and laziness begin.

We need to hire people with the ability to think on their own without needing the crutch of another person’s or Artificial Intelligence.

Most of you have heard about ChatGPT. If not, I would take a moment and look it up and see how powerful this AI engine is.

People are using ChatGPT to create websites, stories, poetry and songs. And of course people are using this Artificial Intelligence engine to assist them with cover letters and resumés.

To me, this is outright deception on the part of a job applicant.

We must be vigilant to be on the lookout for this and to make sure applicants verify whether they’ve used AI to enhance or create the cover letters and resumés that they provided us.

Job applicants should be able to create their own cover letters and resumés.

Communication skills are incredibly important. If somebody is relying on Artificial Intelligence or consulting firms to communicate, then this is most likely somebody we do not want to hire.

From the start, we need to get a true measure of someone’s writing and communication skills.

Especially if this person is going to be dealing directly with our clients.

They will not have Artificial Intelligence or a resumé consultant to lean on when they are representing your company.

I’m suggesting that all employers and human resource professionals verify this from the first contact with an applicant.

If you are an employer and have an employment application, I would add this specific question, near the top.

Business owners, do you have a clear policy disallowing the use of Artificial Intelligence programs by your staff, especially as it relates to work to be provided to clients?

Questions? Concerns? Call me on (732) 673-0510.

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