There are ways LLMs can quickly and easily be used to improve your hiring process for nearly any job.
In my book The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, I have an entire chapter on how hiring managers can be more effective at interviewing. While I encourage you to read it, I’m going to give you a shortcut now using large language models (generative AI). Simply follow the process below.
1. Expand the job description
Drop your job description in your preferred large language model and ask it: What additional skills or experience should be included in this job description? It will generate a list. Certainly, don’t simply copy and paste, and most may not apply, but it will get you to think.
2. Generate general interview questions
Some people have great interview questions that drill into the requirements of the role. If you don’t, or even if you just want to check what you may have missed, ask your favorite AI tool: What interview questions should I ask when hiring for this role? You may want to break it down, especially for larger job descriptions. For example, take a requirement or two at a time and ask for questions specific to that role given that requirement. Again, don’t take them as gospel, just use it as a brainstorming partner.
3. Resume overview
You can pass the resume to an LLM and ask it: What are the strengths and weaknesses of this candidate based on the resume? As with the prior questions, take it with a grain of salt. The resume itself is biased and the LLM is simply summarizing what it sees, it’s just some initial guidance, not the absolute truth. Likewise, the LLM may add or miss something. This is the step I’d be least likely to use or trust in this process. It’s also one that’s mostly likely to pull in racial, gender, or other biases so be cognizant of that risk.
4. Generate specific interview questions
Take the job interview and/or the general questions and ask the AI tool: Given this job description [or list of general interview questions] what are specific questions I should ask this candidate based on her resume? (Note: you may need to adjust the question based on how you pass the job description and resume files or text.) This will help you create meaningful questions to focus on parts of the candidate’s resume most relevant to the job. As with prior steps, it’s just a starting point you should adjust. And again, with a resume from a candidate there’s a higher risk of bias creeping in.
You still need to understand the role well enough on your own and have a clear definition and description for it. The steps above are simply the application of a common use case of LLMs (working as a brainstorming partner) to a task. It should not be used as a replacement for doing your job or the responsibility you have. But like all tools, it can hopefully help you be more efficient, and make sure you don’t skip anything important. Good luck.
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