Category: Guest Writer

Misconceptions about AI🤖 in hiring & recruitment (+example power prompts)

“AI is not powerful enough.”

This is a common idea related to AI.

There are a few problems with this idea, and I will try to explain why.

Terminology — What is AI?

First, we have to put into context what AI actually is.

AI is like an umbrella term for all things related to algorithms that have some capacity to detect patterns in large amounts of structured or unstructured data. There are many different types of AI algorithms:

  • Your mobile phone has AI to detect human faces.
  • Facebook has AI to predict what kind of advertisement are you most likely to engage with.
  • Tesla cars have AI to make them steer past obstacles.
  • Some CV analysis tools have AI to detect clusters of keywords that relate to some specific job description.

These are all different algorithms, for different purposes with vastly varying levels of capacity and efficiency.

They are not directly comparable, but we can still categorize all of them as AI.

The current AI trend that exploded into the world in the form of ChatGPT is called Large Language Models (or LLM-s).

Large Language Models (LLM-s like ChatGPT)

These sophisticated AI algorithms are trained on massive amounts of text-based data (the entire public internet) and have emergent properties like human-level capabilities for reasoning, contextual understanding, and logic.

LLM-s are the first AI-s that can be categorized as “general” AI — meaning, they can be applied to pretty much any cognitive task based on text or written data.

Now, lots of people have already tried ChatGPT for hiring & recruitment purposes and concluded that it’s not very good or it’s just too basic for your needs.

The problem with ChatGPT

ChatGPT has a bunch of filters, restrictions, and “fine-tuning” applied in order to make it “safe” and “politically correct” for the public.

You can think of ChatGPT as a neutered or lobotomized version of a much more powerful underlying AI model.

ChatGPT is known to give generic or “boilerplate” answers to most questions. This is by design to prevent bad actors from doing harmful things.

ChatGPT is based on GPT3.5(free) and GPT4(paid), the latter being the most powerful one.

The free version of ChatGPT has GPT3.5 working behind the scenes and it’s lacking in many areas, which makes it unsuitable for most types of work — like screening candidates, generating interview questions, or crafting good emails. Basically, anything that requires consistently good logic and reasoning, is a no-go.

What most people don’t realize is that GPT4 has much better reasoning and contextual understanding than GPT3 versions, which unlocks a world of possibilities for business and work use cases.

GPT4 is currently available only for paid ChatGPT customers.

Although, GPT4 in ChatGPT is also lobotomized version of the underlying more powerful model.

This leads us to the developer version of it…

Developer version of GPT4

Developers have access to GPT4 API, to build their products on.

This is a code that developers use to give inputs to the OpenAI-s GPT4 language models and get responses back.

The fun thing about the developer API — it’s much less restricted and more powerful than the public versions used in ChatGPT.

In addition to that, OpenAI has given developers early access to their latest, cutting-edge versions of GPT4, which are not available in ChatGPT.

These latest versions exhibit exceptional analytical, logical, and mathematical reasoning, better contextual understanding, and are less prone to errors in general.

I have run thousands of tests with GPT3, GPT3.5, and GPT4 for coding, hiring, recruitment, and more.

What AI can do

Here are a few observations of what GPT4 can do for hiring and recruitment proposes:

  • Reason like a smart human — useful in any case to do with large amounts of data.
  • Understand the context in large amounts of text (like resumes or Interviews).
  • Detect nuances in CVs and interview answers — for example, it can detect personality, work style, motivation level, and more from interviews.
  • Rate and rank candidates based on CV, assessment tests, and Interview answers.
  • Understand hard and soft skills, including rating them based on relevance and accuracy to the job description.

Prompt Engineering is Key to Success

Prompt engineering is an emerging “skill” related to AI.

You can think of prompt engineering as the art of “guiding” the large language models to give you consistently relevant and expected outputs.

This is where most people fall short with their outputs from AI and quickly conclude that “AI is not powerful enough”.

Like any skill, it requires consistent, focused practice in order to “learn to talk to large language models”. Since all of this is so new, we don’t (yet) have specific guidelines on how to do this.

You really need to run hundreds of different prompts and see how it affects the output. I can give you some pointers and tips, but you would still need to experiment for yourself to get a feel for the AI models.

Prompt Example

For example for hiring use cases use a system message at the beginning of your prompts(The system message helps guide the LLM to give you more relevant outputs):

“You are Jason — an HR professional with 20 years of experience in hiring and recruitment. Tone: professional, friendly, polite, and empathetic. Communication style: clear and concise.You are conducting a job interview with a candidate for the Software Developer role. You goal is to write 5 extremely relevant interview questions for the candidate. Categorize each question. Rate the relevance to the role. Output as a table with 3 columns: Category, Question, Relevance rating.”

Here is a quick breakdown of this prompt and how you can adjust it for your use case:

“You are Jason — an HR professional with 20 years of experience in hiring and recruitment.” — here, we define the context, which sets the tone for the rest of the input text.

“Tone: professional, friendly, polite, and empathetic. Communication style: clear and concise” — defining the tone and communication style is important to guide the language model for consistent outputs. You can also use public figures as an example of style and tone. eg “Write in the style of Shakespeare”.

“You are conducting a job interview with a candidate for the Software Developer role” — again, give specific context for what you are trying to do. In this case, we say it is an interview with the candidate for a specific role. Most people just say “Generate me 5 questions for X”, which would give you very generic outputs.

“Your goal is to write 5 extremely relevant interview questions for the candidate.” — it’s always important to give a clear and concise GOAL to the AI. “Extremely” or “Detailed” can sometimes help with higher quality and longer outputs.

“Categorize each question. Rate the relevance to the role. Output as a table with 3 columns: Category, Question, Relevance rating.” — in order to have a better overview, you can always let AI rate your outputs based on specific criteria. This way you can evaluate if the output is good or ask the AI how to improve the rating.

Here is the output in ChatGPT:

In Conclusion

In conclusion, it is essential to recognize that the perception of AI’s limitations can often stem from misunderstandings about the different types and capabilities of AI algorithms. Large Language Models (LLM-s) like ChatGPT represent a significant advancement in AI, providing impressive reasoning, contextual understanding, and logic. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that ChatGPT, in its free version, is intentionally restricted to ensure safety and prevent misuse.

The true potential of AI, specifically GPT4, lies in its developer version, where fewer constraints allow for more powerful applications. GPT4 enables a wide range of possibilities, from smart reasoning to understanding the context in vast amounts of text, making it highly valuable for hiring and recruitment purposes.

To fully harness the potential of AI, prompt engineering becomes a key skill. By carefully guiding the language models with well-structured prompts, we can consistently obtain relevant and expected outputs. Practice and experimentation are crucial in developing this skill, as we continue to explore the untapped capabilities of GPT4 and beyond.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Rando Tkatsenko is the founder of https://talentscreener.ai/ — an AI co-pilot for hiring and recruitment. We use similar prompt-engineering techniques outlined above to automate candidate screening based on CVs and Interviews.

Say What You Mean and Be Glad You Said It: A Recruiter’s Guide To How To Assertively Speak Up for Yourself

  • An applicant insists on being considered for a position but doesn’t meet the qualifications for it.
  • An applicant wants you to negotiate a higher salary than a company is offering.
  • A hiring manager has unrealistic time demands for filling a job opening.

As a recruiter, you may be upset yourself and don’t know how to say what you feel without exploding, but you can learn how to appropriately express yourself through assertiveness.  Start by asking yourself two questions:

  1. Do I have the right to be assertive?
  2. How do I appropriately express myself assertively?

In terms of rights, you can only speak for yourself.  You don’t have the right to tell others what to think or do.  You do, however, have the right to say how you feel – especially as a result of someone else’s actions.  Here is how to appropriately express yourself assertively:

  • State your understanding of the other person’s position,
  • State the actions from the other person that upset you and the feelings the actions evoked in you,
  • State your resolution for the situation.

The goal is to reach an acceptable compromise.

Here’s an example of what you could say to an applicant who insists on being considered for a position but doesn’t meet the qualification for it:

“I know you really want to find a position right away, but when you insist on my referring your resume to a specific hiring company and your qualifications don’t match those of the hiring company, I feel compromised.  Therefore, I would appreciate your understanding that I cannot refer you to this position. If I do find another position for which you are qualified, I will refer you to it.”

How about the applicant who wants you to negotiate a higher salary than a company is offering?  You could say:

“I understand you want a higher salary, but when you ask me to negotiate it for you and the hiring company has already specified the maximum they will offer, I feel pressured.  Therefore, I am asking you to accept that I am not in a position to negotiate more than the maximum amount I’ve been provided.”

Then you have the situation of a hiring manager who has unrealistic demands for filling a job opening.  Here’s a suggestion of what to say:

“I know you want to hire a candidate as soon as possible, but when you gave me your request this morning and ask for results this afternoon and I have other requests to fill as well, I feel stressed and overwhelmed.  Therefore, I would appreciate your allowing me more time to find you qualified candidates.”

What if the other person doesn’t accept the resolution you offer?  Just keep repeating your stance like a broken record as well as your resolution.  Show the other person that you are not changing your mind.   Here’s an example to try with the impatient hiring manager:

“I know you’ve said many times that you need someone today, but when you gave me the request this morning and I repeatedly explain that I need time to recruit, and you ask for someone within several hours, and I ask for more time and you are unwilling to give it, I feel pressured.   I am asking for adequate time to provide you with qualified candidates which I consider at least 24 hours.”

You may notice you don’t always get your way when you’re assertive.  The significance of assertiveness is that it enhances the probability of your getting your way since it’s much more effective than the alternatives of yelling, screaming, crying, giving the cold shoulder, or saying nothing. Assertiveness offers an opportunity for compromise.

When you apply assertiveness, remember some important points:

  • In your first sentence, show that you understand the other person’s point of view to prevent them from saying, “You don’t understand my point of view.”  One way is to give the other person empathy.  Instead of saying, “I’m sick of your pushiness,” say, “I know that you are in a hurry to get results.”  If you can’t think of anything empathetic to say, you can always say, “I know you have reasons for your actions that I don’t understand.”  If you can’t say something empathetic in your first sentence, you are probably too angry to be assertive and you need to give yourself time to calm down before being assertive with the person.
  • In your second statement, state all the causes that are upsetting to you.  If you leave out any, the person might not understand.  For example, “When I agreed to call you as soon as I hear from the hiring manager, and you’ve called me four times in the last two hours, and I’ve asked you to be patient, and you continued to call, I feel irritated.”  When you state causes, state these causes as facts that are tangible, observable, and measurable.  Avoid stating any assumptions.  If you say, “I know that you don’t think my time is very important,” expect to hear a dispute.  Unless you actually heard a candidate say that your time is not important, you’re making an assumption and the other person will start debating the assumption.  If you state only facts, you avoid emotional sidetracks and you can move more quickly into a resolution – in this case, having sufficient time to do your own work.
  • When you state how you feel, use the words “I feel,” then express your own emotions.  You deviate from assertiveness if you say, “I feel that you are…”   What is likely to follow is a string of unappreciated expletives which have nothing to do with being assertive and you have deviated from an otherwise effective method!  Thus, instead of saying “I feel that you are a sorry, no-good, low-down, worthless….,”  say, “I know you have a lot on your mind, but when I ask you to wait for my call back and you continue to call me, I feel annoyed and irritated.”  You can express one, two, or even three emotions.  Expressing more than three emotions is overkill.
  • When you state your resolution, avoid saying, “should” or “must,” words which sound like commands. The words, “should” and “must” express power. Words like “request” and “prefer” express preferences.  Instead of saying, “You should be looking for other jobs yourself,” say, “I would prefer you to be patient,” or “I  am requesting your patience.”   People respond much better to your preferences and requests than to power.
  • For your resolution, ask for what you want.  You also have the option of saying, “I simply want you to know how I feel.”  Often, you may not want the person to start doing or stop doing anything.  You may just want a tactful way to tell them you’re upset.  For example:  “I know that you want me to find an applicant within two hours, but when I repeatedly ask for more time and don’t receive it, I feel pressured and I simply want you to know how I feel.”
  • Also, for your resolution, feel free to ask for an explanation of an action you don’t understand.  For example:  “I know you’re eager for me to refer qualified candidates for your job opening, but when you notified me of the opening and ask for results within an hour, I feel compromised and wonder if you could explain your rationale for expecting such quick results.”

Choosing to be assertive, means you are making a choice that resolving a conflict is more important that blaming, judging, or name-calling.  For the most part, when you express yourself assertively, people will respond back to you assertively.  But, be prepared — some people don’t care what they say to you, and sometimes, those people are family members.

So, here is a word of caution when using assertiveness with your family.  Instead of responding politely to your assertive requests, family members may try to manipulate you by saying things to press your hot buttons – mainly because they know how and feel you “have” to love them afterwards!   Don’t let them drag you into an emotional sidetrack.  Keep repeating your stance and your feelings.  You don’t even have to change your words, just say the same words and feelings over and over.  After hearing you repeat your same stance two or three times, family members will have to respond since you leave no room for debate.

If assertiveness is new for you, start practicing with a situation that has little importance to you like asking your spouse to squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom rather than the top.  Practice your skills and read books about assertiveness.  Build your confidence before tackling the more difficult situations.

Ready?  If you have any problems, probably you either deviated from using assertiveness, or you exceeded your rights.

Set?  Take a deep breath.

Go!  SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND BE GLAD YOU SAID IT — as long as you do so appropriately and assertively.

 

Written by Terry L. Wynne, Ed.S., LPC, BCC, NCC, NCCC, CCC
The Professional Edge
www.TheProfessionalEdgeAtlanta.com

Terry L. Wynne, owner of The Professional Edge,  is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in career counseling and a Board Certified Coach specializing in career coaching. The Professional Edge offers career counseling, career coaching, resume and cover letter writing, training, speaking, writing, and voiceovers.

 

The Recruiters Guide to Stress Relief

A heavy workload, deadlines, competition, changing requirements, meeting expectations, and balancing work and home responsibilities are only a few of the stressors facing recruiters. In spite of the stress, you still have to meet demands of your job as well as your home life. What can you do to cope with stress?

When you’re feeling the effects of stress, try deep breathing. Breathe all the way into your diaphragm, hold your breath a few seconds, and slowly exhale. You’ll calm your heart rate and your nerves through your breathing.

In terms of nerves, stress affects your entire central nervous system. So does caffeine. Do you want a double dose of nerves? If not, eliminate caffeine which is in many soft drinks (light and dark), coffee, caffeinated tea, chocolate, and some brands of aspirin. The last situation you need is to take two aspirin for a headache, stay awake all night, then feel even worse the next morning because you’re sleep deprived; so, read your aspirin labels carefully.

While decaffeinated products are better than those with caffeine, you still get some caffeine. Many people think the effects of the decaffeination process can be just as harmful for your body as the caffeine. As a substitute for caffeine, try herbal tea. Chamomile tea in particular is known for having a calming effect. Optionally, try plain hot or cool water with lemon or lime squeezed in it. Many models swear that a slice of lemon on lime makes water taste better so they can drink a lot of it, which in turn, helps them control their weight.

If you too want to control your weight as well as your stress, aerobic exercise is one of the best ways to eliminate stress, improve your circulation, exercise your heart (which is a muscle), and release beta-endorphins. Beta-endorphins, which are similar in composition to opium, are your body’s natural pain killer, which is why exercisers “feel good” after their workout. Laughter also releases beta-endorphins and researchers now think that having sex may release beta-endorphins as well.

Talking to yourself helps too. Ask yourself, “What is the worst that could happen?” If you can handle the worst (which may never occur anyway), you can handle anything less that the worst. Tell yourself, “I am calm,” or “I’ve been through worse.”

If talking doesn’t help, just go ahead and cry. Research shows that the tears because of an irritant in your eye are different from tears you cry when you are emotional because emotional tears excrete toxins from your body.

The next time you feel the effects of stress, take a deep breath, and immediately start thinking of the most dramatic and funny way you’ll tell your family and friends about your stressful story. Imagining their laughter may help you begin laughing at your own situation. The sooner you can start producing your beta-endorphins, the better you’ll feel. You could hold all your stress inside, but deep breathing, avoiding caffeine, exercise, laughter, self-talk, crying, and adding lemon to your water is much closer to making lemonade out of a sour situation.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Terry L. Wynne, Ed.S., LPC, BCC, NCC, NCCC, CCC
The Professional Edge
www.TheProfessionalEdgeAtlanta.com

Terry L. Wynne, owner of The Professional Edge, is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in career counseling and a Board Certified Coach specializing in career coaching. The Professional Edge offers career counseling, career coaching, resume and cover letter writing, training, speaking, writing, and voiceovers.

Employee Abuse in the Workplace

Blaming, name-calling, belitting, depriving of rights, lying, embarassing, ignoring, and judging are only a few examples of behaviors no one wants to experience in the workpace. Unfortunately, the people applying these behaviors may be your customer, coworker, or even your boss. If you are the recipient of any of these behaviors at your job, you may be experiencing verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse in the workplace.

How you handle your abuse depends on whether or not the abuser has direct authority over you. If the abuse is from your supervisor, you are in a precarious situation because the supervisor does have direct authority over you. You can try to talk to your supervisor to resolve the abuse. If your attempts fail, you can talk to your supervisor’s manager; however, doing so can be extremely risky. Often, managers have the mindset of unconditionally supporting the supervisors they manage and the manager may ask your supervisor to “handle” the situation. Your supervisor may perceive you as a troublemaker trying to undermine the supervisor and in turn, your supervisor may intensify the abuse toward you. Furthermore, if the organization for which you work is a hire at will state, laws allow your supervisor to fire you “at will” without cause. Thus, you may find yourself without a job simply because you tried to stop the abuse.

Besides talking to you supervisor or your supervisor’s manager, you can consider mediation if your supervisor agrees to participate. You can also consider talking with human resources, employee relations, your employee assistance program, labor relations, your union, your legal department, the chief executive officer, your organization’s president, equal employment opportunity, your attorney, your minister, your priest, your rabbi, or your counselor. Be aware that human resources in particular as well as the other areas you contact within your company may not offer you confidentiality and they may call your manager who in turn, may want to retaliate against you or try to fire you rather than cooperate.

If you receive abuse from a coworker or other employee, these people do not have authority over you so you have safer options for handling their abuse. You can talk to the abuser, talk to your own supervisor, talk to the abuser’s supervisor, or consider the same options that exist if you are the recipient of abuse from your supervisor. Likewise, if the abuse is from a customer and you need help in handling the situation, you can ask a coworker or your boss for help or ask to be removed from the situation. If at any time, you feel you are in physical danger, definitely seek help and remove yourself from the situation.

If you receive abuse only once from a person, consider whether or not they are under stress and whether their abuse is a one-time occurence. If, however, you are the recipient of continual abuse, you have to decide if you want to stay in your position, transfer, or resign. If you have tried to resolve the abuse without success, why would you want to stay in an abusive work situation? Some people answer this question by saying they were abused as children and abuse is a familiar experience to them. They believe abuse is everywhere so they choose to stay in their current position.

If you you decide to leave or transfer to another position, first believe that work opportunities without abuse do exist for you. You do not have to suffer the effects of poor health, lack of motivation, wounded ego, and low self-esteem as a result of abuse. Second, you will need a competitive resume, effective interviewing skills, and job search strategies. Third, when you do receive an offer for another job, before accepting it, ask to speak with some of the employees who report to the same supervisor to which you will report. Ask their experiences with the person who would be your supervisor. By so doing, you can avoid accepting another position in which you may experience abuse.

Why do people act abusively? The reasons vary and range from people wanting power, lacking empathy, modeling others, lacking social skills, or having a mental health disorder. The list goes on and on. Regardless of the reason, what you do about your abuse depends on you. Everyone, including you, deserves respect. Your goal is to find it!

ABOUT THE WRITER

Terry L. Wynne, Ed.S., LPC, BCC, NCC, NCCC, CCC
The Professional Edge
www.TheProfessionalEdgeAtlanta.com

Terry L. Wynne, owner of The Professional Edge, is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in career counseling and a Board Certified Coach specializing in career coaching. The Professional Edge offers career counseling, career coaching, resume and cover letter writing, training, speaking, writing, and voiceovers.

3 Lessons I Learned as a Bad Recruiter

Lesson 1: Relationships Matter Above All 🤝

In the early stages of my recruiting career, I failed to grasp the true significance of building relationships. I treated candidates and clients as transactions rather than individuals. However, I learned that success in recruitment hinges on valuing and nurturing meaningful connections. By investing time and effort into building authentic relationships, I have witnessed the transformative power of connecting with people on a deeper level.

Today, I prioritize building lasting partnerships, leading to more successful placements and satisfied stakeholders.

Lesson 2: Listening Is the Path to Understanding 🔍

As a bad recruiter, I often overlooked the importance of active listening. I would rush through conversations, missing out on crucial details. However, I have since realized that listening is the key to truly understanding candidates’ aspirations and clients’ hiring needs. By giving my full attention, I can gather valuable insights and make more informed decisions.

Now, I engage in thoughtful and attentive listening, ensuring that I match candidates with opportunities that align not only with their qualifications but also with their passions and goals.

Lesson 3: Growth Comes from Learning and Adapting 🌱

Reflecting on my shortcomings, I have embraced a growth mindset and a commitment to continuous learning. I acknowledge that being a bad recruiter was just the starting point of my journey. Through ongoing education, staying informed about industry trends, and seeking feedback, I have transformed into a more effective recruiter. Each experience, good or bad, has served as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. I am excited to continue learning, adapting, and refining my skills to provide exceptional value to candidates and clients alike.

My journey as a bad recruiter is now over, with over 10 years of recruitment knowledge and experience.. I thrive to throw out all bad habits and recognize the importance of relationships, active listening, and continuous learning.

I am grateful for the growth opportunities I have had, as they have enabled me to become a better recruiter who values and prioritizes the needs of candidates and clients.

If you’re seeking coaching, recruitment, or assistance with your recruitment process, feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn. For more information about how HireHearts can support your needs, visit www.HireHearts.com.

Let’s work together to create meaningful connections and achieve success.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Jordan Morten is an experienced Recruiter with a demonstrated history of working in the staffing and recruiting industry. Skilled in Management, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, and Training. Strong human resources professional with a Bachelor of Science – BS focused in Organizational Behavior Studies from University of the Pacific.