In one of the early scenes from the great 80s movie ‘Dead Poets Society’ Mr. Keating, the teacher played by the late Robin Williams, takes his students through the introduction of their assigned textbook ‘Understanding Poetry’ by Dr. Jay Evans Pritchard. The author details a formula that breaks down poetry into a mathematical diagram to help identify the quality of the work.
Mr. Keating has a student read the formula aloud to the class while he scribbles on the chalkboard to add the diagram visual to the text being read by the student. Once the student finishes reading how this formula will help one understand whether a poem is truly great, Keating completes the diagram on the board, puts his chalk down, and turns to the class to offer one word – ‘Excrement’.
He then advises the students to ‘Rip out that page’ from the textbook to the astonishment of the class. Around the room, the expressions range from confusion to outright fear. Ultimately it takes that first student, the rebel in the crowd, to be the first to take Mr. Keating up on his offer and proudly rip out the page as instructed. Upon seeing this, the next student follows suit, and another, until all of the students have removed the entire intro section from the book. Once done, the exhilaration around the room was palpable. Mr. Keating explains that this poetry is an art and cannot be broken down to a quantitative value through even advanced mathematics by even the smartest people. It is always personal to the writer and the reader and therein lies its intrinsic value.
The Career and Recruiting Industry has been headed down this same path for a long time. Long gone are the days of companies putting classified ads in newspapers, where applicants would make phone calls to talk to prospective employers about their interests. As a natural course of technology, companies are able to reach a much wider audience with a strong online presence, including marketing, ads, and partnering with online job sites. Thanks to a global economy and advanced technology, people are able to work from nearly anywhere in the world for companies, or specific jobs, not bound by geography or brick-and-mortar locations. Thus, it is critical for companies to have a strong, far-reaching online presence to attract the best talent, and equally as important for people to be able to research and identify the right companies and teams for them.
Today, this is most often done with a few clicks and keystrokes, provided you have the time to sort through it all, and where the next generation of ‘Understanding Poetry’ intends to lead the talent and job search industry. While it is critical to managing what can be a seemingly never-ending stream of opportunities for the job seeker and applicants for the hiring manager, once again the adopted solution has been to eliminate the art in favor of a good, time-saving formula, or algorithm.
The Pros & Cons of Using AI in Recruiting from Recruiter.com:
While we can’t go back to the days of classified ads, it is far more effective having people from both ends of the hiring process connect at the beginning of the hiring process rather than the middle or end. From the initial call, both parties get a sense of the person on the other end, are able to ask questions of the other to determine whether either or both have the interest to proceed further. That rarely happens in today’s environment. In most cases, it is technology answering that call from an interested applicant in the form of an AI system that places a value on a candidate and determines whether to pass the applicant along to an actual hiring person or dismiss them altogether. But people can’t connect with an algorithm and do not work for companies, buildings, or flashy logos, just as companies don’t employ a combination of bullet points on a resume. People connect with people, people hire people, and people work with people. We don’t work with algorithms or beautifully constructed resumes. Only through strong connections and good relationships does successful hiring happen and build the foundation for the great relationships every business needs to thrive.
The company prioritizing the relationship, placing personal connection at the front of the hiring and job-seeking process where it belongs, instead of the fourth or fifth step, is the company more likely not to miss many great people or strong candidates that even the best Artificial-Intelligence can never truly capture.
People focused on their careers, looking to take that next positive step toward reward and fulfillment, need a hire boost product that connects them with other people. Stronger, personal connection between those looking at new opportunities and those filling them is what will help people and companies identify the right fit for each more quickly, efficiently, and accurately. Doing so will also allow the job-seeker to avoid feeling the need to apply to anything and everything thinking it is the most effective way to get a better response. It will also offer companies better use of their time and resources, from the software and systems they employ to the talent and recruiting teams dedicating most of their time and energy to sifting through only those resumes the artificial gate-keepers have elected to pass along.
The Value of Networking and Connection in the Career-Building and Hiring from Zippia.com
https://www.zippia.com/advice/networking-statistics/
The average hire costs more than $4,000 and still takes months instead of days or weeks to complete due to the accepted industry standard of an impersonal, formula-based system that exists today. Shifting the hiring paradigm to allow for greater personal connection over the computation of ones and zeroes is how to rebuild what is an Art not a Science. Tear that page of the ‘Hiring Science’ book too many are reading today and take back the Art of Career-Building and Hiring.
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