The Hiring Glitch: When AI Hires AI (Part 2)

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Nichol: Companies are using AI to screen candidates while job seekers are leveraging AI to craft resumes and mass applied roles with bots on both sides of the equation. Who's really making the hiring? The applying decisions and what does this mean for the future of work?

To help us unpack what we're seeing in SHRM's new 2026 trends and predictions report, we're joined by two guests. First, we have Mandy Miele, a job seeker navigating this AI driven hiring landscape firsthand, and joining her is Anjali Ramakrishnan, a researcher whose work explores the impact of AI on the job market. Together we will dive into the challenges, opportunities, and ethical dilemmas of AI in hiring. Mandy and Anjali, welcome to the AI+HI project.

Anjali: Thank you.

Mandy: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Nichol: Awesome. I'm so happy to have you. It's such an important conversation. It's very much what job seekers and hires are thinking about right now. We're gonna set the stage and the state of recruitment today to kick things off. I wanna take a closer look at where we are today.

AI is changing the hiring process for both job seekers and employers, but what does that actually feel like on the ground? Mandy, as a job seeker, what's been your experience navigating an AI driven hiring process, and what are the challenges and surprises you've encountered along the way?

Mandy: I was really surprised by how much resume writing has changed. Early in my career, I worked really hard to master writing a stronger professional resume, but now I feel like every coach is directing you to do something different. I've had the opportunity to work with a few different resume writers in the last year and they each seem to have a different philosophy about how to navigate ATS resumes.

It really feels like we're spending a lot of time playing word games and really just trying to get past the screening more than showcasing our actual experience.

Nichol: And there was a little bit of research that I looked at a few months ago where they were shown writing by humans and AI, and some of the AI screeners preferred the AI writing. So the word salad actually was like some of the highest rated pieces of writing. And so it's really hard to know and you're moving words around. I get that.

Now, Anjali, in your research you've highlighted how AI is both a tool and a barrier in today's job market. Can you elaborate a little bit on that and share some of the benefits and drawbacks with our audience?

Anjali: Yeah, for sure. So I essentially interviewed nine current job seekers to understand how they were using AI in their process. And the thing that I learned was that it wasn't the sort of way that people assume that it's laziness or a way to just avoid doing work, but it was more of a strategy.

It was about knowing that they were gonna have to submit hundreds of applications with how the job market is, knowing that AI might be reading their resumes and catering AI use to meet these sort of digitally dominant spaces of hiring. There's no one size fits all to how they use it. In fact, a lot of times when they're more passionate about a job, they would not use AI. They would use it a lot less.

And they also had a very nuanced understanding of the drawbacks of AI. So it wasn't any kind of one size fits all, or let me just have AI do all the work for me. But it was very much catered to the circumstances of the job market.

Nichol: What were some of their understandings of the drawbacks of it? What did they think the drawbacks were?

Anjali: Yeah. Well, a lot of them would say sounding AI was a concern for them. They would ask ChatGPT or Claude to help them write a cover letter or write a resume, and then they would read the writing and it would be incredibly robotic. And so that's why for a lot of them, instead of having it generate things blindly, they would usually upload a draft or feed it more information before they had any materials.

They also, I did interview students and I think the fact that they were students and had a certain privilege in that way, they knew about the fact that AI is inherently biased. The fact that AI will a lot of times sort of embellish the things you give them and put you on a pedestal. So they were very cognizant of the drawbacks.

Nichol: Yeah, the number of billion dollar ideas that ChatGPT has told me that I've had. That thing. Well, what about like, what are they seeing inherently as the benefits? What did they tell you were where they really felt the benefits of using AI for them?

Anjali: I think the major benefit was just being able to put out more applications. There really is in the job market right now, this sort of urgency. And these were very qualified people who went to an elite university and they were struggling to even get interviews. So when they were using AI, at least they could say, okay, well I'm able to do more applications than I would normally.

In some cases it might be a situation of I can't get an appointment at the career center for this specific job, but in a few minutes AI will do it for me. So it really helps with the sort of efficiency and optimizing their labor, given how much that they need to do.

Nichol: Yeah. One of the things that AI sounding text has done is that it really ruined the em dash. I loved the em dash. I used to use it a lot. It was like one of my favorite things. But you can't use it anymore.

Okay. So for both of you with AI screening resumes and job seekers using AI to optimize applications, are we losing the human element in hiring? And if so, how do we bring it back?

Mandy: I don't think that the human element is gone. I think that it definitely has made it messy and more stressful. I think that some of the things that Anjali mentioned, like people mass applying is definitely bogging down a process that could work better, but networking still produces the best results.

Like I've been on this journey now for nearly seven months and I've tweaked and adjusted how I'm using AI as a tool as I've learned more about the job market. And I feel like the best conversations, the best opportunities that I've had on the table were from networking. They had nothing to do with AI or the ATS. So I don't know that the human element is completely gone from what I've experienced.

Nichol: I wanna double click on something that you just said. Could you describe a little bit about your journey, like how you're using AI now, or how you're using AI towards the end of the seven months versus how you started?

Mandy: So certainly when I found out seven months ago that in seven months my role would be eliminated, I was given advice from every direction. I had some strong leaders and mentors that said, you know, just put your existing resume into ChatGPT and have it updated with an ATS resume. From my experience, that was terrible to the points that you guys made. It elaborated, exaggerated. And even with fine tuning it, it just didn't have a great outcome.

I ended up working with a resume writer through a service that they offered us, and I was a little disappointed with that experience as well, if I'm honest. It was very evident to me that they had done something similar. You could identify in the writing that it was generated by AI, you could tell those trigger words. So I was like, oh, this isn't gonna work either. I did actually try with applications using that.

Ultimately, I landed on a resume I had done over a year ago, professionally, collaboratively with a career coach in anticipation of this change. And then I strategically have used AI to align key words from the job description. It's still been a mixed bag. I've had much better outcomes and gotten more interviews through that process and tweaking that solid resume, just adjusting the keywords than I was previously getting with my ChatGPT resume.

But I still feel like at the end of the day, the opportunities I'm most excited about and have gotten further along in the process have definitely come from that networking part of it. But I don't recommend just copying your old school resume and putting it into ChatGPT. That did not have the outcome that I was looking for.

Nichol: And you know, two things. One, now that we're all seeing more and more AI generated content, in October of this year is when the amount of synthetic content online, synthetic content and synthetic activity, so that means bots and then AI generated content surpassed the amount, the sum amount of human content and human activity online.

And so that means that we're all getting really sensitive to anything that even has a whiff of AI in it. And we have different thresholds of tolerance for when it's okay and when it's not. Because the way I think about when I hire, because people are reading into the process every step of the way. How on fire is this person? There's an AI penalty for anything that even sounds a little bit AI. So there's that.

And then the second thing is that I've heard different ranges, but it's basically 80 to 85% of the job market is hidden. And the only way to get to it is through networking. It's really hard to find. But networking is the thing that opens it up. So yes on everything that you said.

And so now for you, Anjali, what do you think about losing human element? How do we bring it back?

Anjali: Yeah, I think a lot of what Mandy was talking about is a lot of what I heard from the people I interviewed of trying to make a resume for AI. It's almost like an AI arms race as opposed to putting your best foot forward. I don't think the human element is completely gone, but I think it is way harder to get to a human than it was even two years ago because of these ATS systems, how many applications are going through.

I also am job seeking at the moment and the difference between when I was job seeking two years ago before I did my master's degree and now has been just, it's been so much harder to get an interview. And while I don't wanna say it's purely 'cause of AI because there's not evidence to say that that could only be it. I really think it has to do with the sort of oversaturation of the job market, the fact that everything is online and that's how you feel you need to get a job.

There are even AI interviews, and AI video assessments, AI quizzes, so everyone I talked to just felt like the job process was so impersonal and in a way that made them wanna use AI more because it felt like they weren't getting the respect anyway, so it made them wanna go for it.

I agree with what Mandy said about networking. I think that the way that things are now, from my experience, applying online has not been a very fruitful process. And so I think it's about reaching out to people, not necessarily saying, Hey, give me a job, though of course it'd be great if it worked out that way. But more of building a connection so that in the future they can think of you or they know someone or someone knows you. Because I think online applying is really hard right now.

Nichol: Absolutely. Lead the future of talent. Register for SHRM Talent 2026 by December 19th and save $200 on your ticket. Join us in Dallas, April 19th through the 22nd for unparalleled insights and networking. Learn more at SHRM dot org slash talent 26 dash podcast.

And I wanna follow that thread about just what's happening in the wider market, because I think there's AI and what's happening in recruiting and hiring with AI, but then there's what's in the larger market. So now that we've talked about the current landscape, let's move there.

So, AI isn't just changing how we hire, it's also being used to solve some major challenges in the labor market, or at least that's what it's being described as doing, but is it really working? So back to you, Anjali, your research talks about the use of AI to counter labor shortages and mismatched skills. How do you envision AI bridging this gap? And what are the risks of relying on it too much?

Anjali: Yeah, I think in full transparency, I think that my research didn't quite go into how it's affecting current workers as much, but from what I've read and just gleaning from who I've spoken to about the process, I think there's a trend of, especially for entry level workers, I think are most vulnerable of what job can be done by AI or at least dramatically changed or cut by AI.

And I think of course that's not necessarily a good way to go for many reasons, but one of them being that there's not gonna be a future workforce if you try to eliminate entry level workers. And also I think that AI is, I mean, the technology itself is biased, but I think beyond that, the people who are probably gonna be first to lose their jobs, it's probably gonna be really vulnerable professions.

There's some research being done by, I think it's Michelle Miller at Harvard looking at how it's a lot of female dominated care work and also administrative and clerical work. That's sort of the prime target, though AI's not the same as automation. Of course, automation is impacting a lot of human to human jobs. So I think it's concerning and I don't quite have the solution unfortunately.

I think it could potentially, a more positive way is looking at how it can maybe change work or free up certain tasks in your work. Maybe using it as a tool for something will help you do things that you're more interested in. It's like, okay, well maybe I have this system for emails, though even I'm worried of using it to write emails, but still I can see how it can help in the future. I think it's just the prospect of it eliminating or drastically changing it to the point of eliminating the need for workers is where I think it's really concerning.

Nichol: I so wanna follow that thread. But before that, I wanna ask Mandy, I imagine that you probably know many people who are searching while you're searching in conversations with other people who are also looking. Have you, do you feel like applicants are compelled to game the system to get past AI filters? Do you feel like people that you know there or that they feel like they have to, and what are some of the things that you've heard that they've been doing?

Mandy: I think that the people that I'm talking to and the people that were impacted by our change in our organization are not doing that. As I have explored the impact on applicants and researched this on my own and through some of the programs that I've been participating in with Northeastern, I think that there's a lot of hype about people using apps and doing mass applications, but the people in my network and the people I know that are job searching are not doing that. They don't have an appetite to do that.

If anything, they're being more creative about reaching back out to their network now. The people that were impacted in this change had tenure. Most of the people in our group had been with our organization for 10 plus years. They really hadn't networked outside of our industry. They hadn't really kept their network broad, and I think that was a learning, like a mistake that we all reflect on.

And so I think based on that learning moment, they're reacting by networking and trying to have more human conversations. And don't get me wrong, they're all using AI in some capacity, but not necessarily looking to game the system. They're looking to establish relationships and position themselves differently in their career moving forward. And many of them have already found placement. Many of them were cut a month before I was, and so they had a shorter amount of time and they networked and they already have landed other jobs through that networking.

Nichol: And that really sort of also speaks to how people are adapting. So I'd like to move now into skills first hiring and like, where is the future of recruitment? Where is all of this going? So we see a move towards skills first. And with that and the automated processes, let's talk about the way things are changing.

So, Anjali, with the rise of AI generated resumes, how do you see certifications, external credentials evolving and verifying a candidate's skills?

Anjali: I have a feeling that certifications, credentials, a lot of these are traditionally done online, from what I can tell. Not necessarily a degree, but LinkedIn will have skills courses or that's usually where they happen. I think because of AI and because of the suspicion that people are using AI for that, I think potentially their value is either gonna be questioned or there's gonna be a movement to look for people who've done it in more in person situations, which I think is a mixed bag because I understand the reasoning, but I also know that being online does make it accessible for people who maybe someone is already working a full-time job, has family responsibilities, so many different things, and the requirement of having to maybe do it in person or maybe having to do a sort of higher level, maybe more expensive one, I think it's also dangerous. So I think that's the kind of role that it's gonna play.

Nichol: One of the things that I think is going to happen is with the ability of AI to do a lot of sort of administrative work, that's definitely something that is being impacted. One of the mindset shifts that people are going to have is for every person to imagine themselves being on the front line of their organization, meaning solving problems for customers, versus sort of the historically we've had a lot of interim layers and for organizations to get things done, but everyone is kind of in a sales role, or a client delivery role. And so that might be internal clients.

So HR leaders, they have internal clients and so they're, if they're thinking of themselves as on the front lines inside their organization, it's sort of a different mindset then being a part of the processes. I think that's one big change that's gonna happen. Or that's where the high ground is. The high ground is helping your company do better in its business and helping your clients, whoever they are, they could be internal or external, accomplish their goals. And that's the high ground.

The second thing is I'm anticipating more and more proof of build. So I have a nephew, sort of like a, he's not my actual nephew, but a young person who's mother is a very good friend of mine and he just went to college. And so I'm giving him career advice and one of the things I suggested to him was to set up a GitHub. Whatever he's working on, to actually put his builds in there.

Because what I think you're going to start to see is companies wanting to look at workflows that people have established. Not the proprietary part, but have they set up an AI agent to help them with their work? How do they think about how they leverage different tools and being able to document that and show that, or a proof of build of some kind.

And so I think we can see that, and I think that actually might even be stronger than certifications because it's not someone external saying that you did this. It's actually saying, Hey, I'm not in your organization, but I think you might have this problem. And this is how I would've approached it. And I just built a little thing about it. And that's the, that plus the networking, is I think, gonna be that way through at least until we've used these systems enough that we can get to a balance on this sort of power asymmetry that's happening.

So, okay. So Mandy, how do you communicate your adaptability and growth mindset in this process that's dominated by keywords and automation?

Mandy: You know, that has been a learning curve. I think that initially the thought was, to your point about GitHub having a professional portfolio that demonstrates the different types of projects and contributions that I've made historically, and that was the first priority. But as I've gone on this journey, what I've realized is you have to get past the noise till anybody even looks at your portfolio and you make it that far in the process.

And I have been advised so far to really use LinkedIn, and I think that some of what you had advised your nephew to do, and GitHub, I see more job seeking professionals using LinkedIn as an opportunity to showcase some of their work, or showcase little pieces of what they do and try and generate some connection and discussion around that. And that's really where I have focused my energy is trying to take some of the work that I've done through my master's program at Northeastern and showcase some of those projects in anything proprietary I obviously can't use from my past employer.

So I've had to get a little creative and I think I've had some success with demonstrating my specific skills around my previous experience by generating those conversations on LinkedIn. But I do think that in context of showcasing skills. The other mindset change that I've had is I've been a learning professional for years and initially I started this journey thinking, okay, I'm looking for something more specifically with instructional design.

And as I've looked at my skills and started to do this really skills driven resume. I've identified so many other places and other skills that I have that I've broadened what I'm looking at and identified that in the last few years I've actually done some project management and I've done some strategic planning and it's not just focused on instructional design. So I do see that the industry, like the world is moving closer to this skills-based hiring that we've been talking about forever.

Nichol: I want to double click on that and ask you a question. So what I'm hearing is that as you started to refit your resume to have its skills first, it's, you knew about it, but it's sort of really brought to the fore that you're good at many other things and that you've done it and so you've expanded your surface area of the things that you're looking for or the things that you say and you're like, oh, actually I could be great at that. Is how does that feel? Was that exciting to you to expand it? Like, is that leaning into the you that you want to be?

Mandy: I think that's a really good question. And it's been at the forefront of some of the discussions I've been having this week. I think that being capable of doing project management and being good at strategic planning is a different thing because I was presented with some opportunities recently that would've meant abandoning my passion for learning.

And I did take a pass on that because I realized in those conversations that I didn't wanna completely leave the learning part of what I do. And so I think that leaves some question marks for the future because if we're moving towards a skills-based hiring. Where does that fit in, aligned with our passions and the kind of work that we want to do?

Nichol: That, oh, this is so juicy because, you know, a couple of things. Like I was talking to someone who, they have an internal platform that really allows them to break down skills. And this person had someone on her HR team understand that they were, that the way that they approach problems actually made them really great for cybersecurity.

And so one of the people who, so it was someone who was like helping to build this platform, get the organization on board on this platform. And in the process of her own journey, she found a new passion, where she was like, oh, I love, I actually love cybersecurity. And so she's moved over.

And so I think what's interesting is it's sort of like, you know, you're a really fortunate person. You're working in your passion. Like you are already working in your passion. And when given the opportunity to distract yourself from your passion, you, you know, you checked out the buffet and you're like, no, I know my passion. And so now you're doubled down on it because you've explored and now you're back.

I think there's other people who, you know, they may not be exactly in their passion or they might've gone to the side, or maybe they've had every sip of that well that they want, and then presented with the opportunity they see the adjacencies then become really exciting. I think what I'm taking away from what you're saying is that, I think also the part about breaking through the noise, whether it's on LinkedIn or at a networking event or whatever, but it's really about the self-questioning to have the clarity about what is it that I am the most passionate and focused on that also I can do, so I can communicate that when I have this opportunity, when I do indeed breakthrough.

So thank you for that. It was really, I also, the other thing that we're, the place where we're at is that, you know, two years ago AI was like AI, but saying AI is a lot like saying fruit. There's bananas and oranges and apples and a bunch of things. And now that we're getting into job design and skills, it's like, it's about pulling it apart. So for people who are seeking roles right now, there's a wide variety of places that they're coming from. And the blanket impressions of job seekers is unhelpful for anyone, so thank you for that.

Okay, so let's look ahead and we'd love to end our podcast really with actionable advice. Mandy, based on your experience, what's your advice for job seekers who want to start using AI? What's the best practices? What would you advise them to do?

Mandy: I think that my advice to other job seekers would be to use AI as a tool and not use it for mass applying. I still think that networking is the most effective path and reaching out to the people in our network to find out what they know of that's available, and looking for environments that align with our values and work style.

Nichol: Anjali, what is your advice for how job seekers can stay resilient and authentic in a process that can feel impersonal or transactional?

Anjali: I need to take all these to myself with the job seeking process right now. 'Cause it's been difficult. I think Mandy touched on this, but I think trying to focus on making connections beyond just the online application cycle, I think I've been able to do that a little bit and it hasn't resulted in some immediate job. But knowing that there's someone who you're on their radar, who you can do an informational interview with, who might know someone. It makes you feel a lot more proactive than the sort of abyss that is resume upload, cover letter upload.

So I think researching places you wanna work and reaching out to people is a good start to feel a little less helpless. I also think that, I like the idea of making a, like you mentioned, making a GitHub, having a portfolio, using the time when you're unemployed, if you're able to sort of think about what you're best at and how you can showcase it. I think I'm just kind of at that phase where, you know, I'm trying to write more about my research publicly and things like that. And it's kind of scary because it's hard, you know, it feels a little bit vulnerable, but I think that's also a great way to get some agency back.

And I think also just recognizing that it is extremely difficult and that companies will ask you not to use AI. But it's hard because it feels like a mismatch when they're using it so much, when they ask so much. Yet they're not transparent. So I think on the company side, transparency would be great. If you are using AI, maybe let us know and tell us what exactly it's doing. I think that that's a great place for them to start.

Nichol: Anjali, your suggestion for people to create a body of work and to put it online actually really worked. That's how we found you. I saw your research, I saw what you were talking about, and I thought, I wanna talk to her.

And so that's my advice also for everyone. Even while you're in the job that you're in, think about the problem that you are most excited about in the space where you wanna go and start doing meaningful thinking and writing and thought leadership about that online. And especially on LinkedIn. That way when and if you need to make a jump. You're already established as someone who's thinking about that space.

And so there's that plus the portfolio career. So it's having, it's beginning to think about where, what excites you next and writing about it. And you can interview people about it before you actually need to go to that place. Because that is the way people find you. And it has to be very high quality. If it even, well, high quality. I mean, it has to be thoughtful and it cannot be, it cannot sound or sniff like it's AI generated. And if you do that, then people will find you as well.

So, Mandy and Anjali, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights. Good luck on your job searches. This has been such a fascinating conversation. There's so many people who can benefit from your experiences, and everyone. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks for joining the conversation, and we'll catch you next time.