Companies: Do use ai for everything always or you will be fired
Someone: makes job application using ai
company: not like that
I found the headline a little confusing. Apparently as producer or director she interviewed actors for a role, and received AI-written thank-you notes thanking her for the interviews.
Anne Hathaway is an idiot trying to stay relevant to other idiots.
I’ve interviewed people and gotten thank you emails from them, and they’ve never factored into a hiring decision.
I’ve never gotten a job for which I sent a thank you letter. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I think it may come across as desperate.
Am I wrong or does the article feel like it was written by AI?
AI criticizing AI, poetic, if you ask me.
It is pure slop.
Random assortment of keyword-related sentences, tied together with superficially correct language.
No human would write that thank you notes are “contentious” and “require the applicant to do free work”, while linking to an X post of some dude saying “pro tip: write thank you notes”
I deal with job applications. It’s incredibly obvious when a CV and cover letter is just AI. There’s no need to even confirm it with software. Everyone bins them straight away.
It’s not so much a surge in using AI on genuine job applications—and honestly, that wouldn’t even be an issue—its the sheer amount of slop spam coming in. They’ll apply for half a dozen jobs with different resumes catered for them, from anything from entry level data analyst to director of marketing, not realising it’s the same company.
Cover letter generators are really good now. You’re noticing the low-effort ones, but the adept users are tweaking and editing before send. If it hasn’t happened already, pretty soon you will not be able to tell the difference.
Thats the same as getting a template and refining it years ago though.
I saw a job app the other day. Caught my eye because it’s offering 1.5-2x what I’m making today. They have a big disclaimer that they use AI to help vet resumes. I’m not applying because I’m happy where I am (and because an undisclosed portion of that pay is performance based), but if I did, I guarantee I’m sending AI slop that knows how to sound like what AI wants to hear.
I have been on both sides of hiring. It’s awful for everyone. It’s like speed dating because you need a partner in two weeks. AI is bullshit. HR is bullshit. Leetcode is bullshit. To a point, even a degree is bullshit — almost all of my coworkers have at least a bachelor’s degree but I’ll bet none of them know I do not — one of the guys who works for me just got his Master’s. The only good test is to sit down with someone and see if they have what you’re looking for.
Every time I’ve gotten to do that, I’ve been hired. But I’ve gone months unemployed because getting that shot can be so difficult — the one place my lack of degree holds me back.
Anyway it’s like Star Wars said — when bullshit rises, more bullshit rises to meet it.
What if the preliminary reviewer is an AI and it really likes AI written text?
Then you don’t want to work there and they deserve what they get.
I refuse to write any sort of cover letter for any job application. It’s a job. I want it for the money. I’m not going to wrote some bullshit about how I’ve always dreamed of working for said company and it’s the perfect role for me. In an ideal world I wouldn’t be working at all.
I hire for our company and a cover letter is definitely helpful in choosing who to interview since a resume doesn’t always give a lot of useful information that helps us.
I don’t care about your intentions for working, of course it’s money or experience or whatever.
But things like hobbies, travel experiences, location and relocation opportunities, etc all have a factor on if I choose to interview them and often a lot of that doesn’t get included in resumes.
Have I gone my whole life doing cover letters “wrong”? I use them as an opportunity to talk about things I’ve worked on as it relates to the responsibilities of the job that a resume wouldn’t necessarily explain in depth. I’ve never treated it like I’m meant to ingratiate myself to anpotential employer for the chance. Usually the resume is “Here’s where I’ve worked and my roles there” and the cover letter is “Here’s what I’ve worked on and how that experience is relevant”
That you are clearly not doing it for the money. If money was your incentive, you could invest half an hour in a cover letter, that doubles as basic research for a possible interview.
Sure, selling stuff at the super market does not need an cl, but many other position expect you to do ‘basic’ research.
Why would I want to research every random company I’m applying to work for? There is absolutely no job on the planet that I’d actually enjoy doing so why would I pretend for the sake of an interview? I have skills that employers need and employers have salaries that I need. It’s as simply as that.
But is it worth it when you have to shotgun applications in order to get maybe two interviews?
If I have to spend a half an hour writing a unique cover letter for each and every job I can apply for maybe 16 jobs a day. That’s peanuts in today’s job market.
I’m the same. I still read the opening sentences of them, but if it’s the usual “cover letter template” shit, it’s pointless and I go straight to the CV.
We’ve hired plenty of people with lacking CVs that had genuine cover letters, though. It’s clear when someone is trying to say they’re really into their shit, but all they got on the CV is McDonald’s.
But as you become more advanced in your field, they’re useless. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be stuck working for someone that ignores all the skill and experience, declining an interview because no cover letter.
The whole concept of a cover letter seems ridiculous. Never wrote one either.
Just use a generator, they’re cheap and easy and tailored to your resume. DM me for recs, happy to send some ideas or freebie codes
That’s a wild thing to say in a thread about how AI slot isn’t appreciated.
Fair, but the people getting the jobs are going to be the ones who use the advantages. The way of the world now
Will literally talking about how recruiters don’t like AI written cover letters.
Same here. They can find out what I’m like in a conversation, not an essay.
Its essentially expanding on the bulletpoints in your CV. Annoying but not the end of the world. I hate sites that want it reinput in specific formats for no good reason
Something is wrong here, LLMs won’t spit out the same word-for-word response for the same prompt that’s not how they work.
Warning signs for sure. I’m with Meryl Streep here, so many Anne Hathaway’s offering you a job and you can’t personalize a thank you for the opportunity? I’d probably drop what I do and be her personal assistant. Because that would probably be pretty awesome.
I definitely agree about putting in some effort if it’s for something important to you, but that’s probably not how people doing stuff like that think.
They’re all about optimizing their output, with a spammer’s mindset. Who cares about effort, you can have a robot apply for a million things at once and just wait for whatever sticks. They believe they’ve cracked the system. And who knows, maybe most recruiters can’t tell (yet).
Yet another case of slop pollution making every aspect of life worse.
That strategy works if you are applying for a cog in a machine kind of job, it won’t work for a personal assistant to the boss kind of job.
