Amy Lindgren
Quick question: Are you OK with an online job-search program asking about your race, gender, disabilities, work visa needs and sexual orientation?
Me neither; we’ll come back to that in moment. First, let me explain why I’m asking. I’ve just spent an afternoon in the surreal world of AI-agentic job search and I’m … dismayed. Shocked even, and definitely distressed. And no, I’m not clutching my pearls. When it comes to finding work, I’m open to new approaches. What I’m not open to are ploys that distract, demoralize or defraud job seekers.
When I wrote 12 columns last year on artificial intelligence and job search, agentic AI was barely a thing, at least on the broadly-accessible consumer level. Now it’s powering multiple platforms and applications, including dozens targeted at job seekers.
This is a good time to define the difference between AI-assisted job search and AI-agentic job search, with the disclaimer that the categories can blur a bit. Ready? An AI assistant is a tool that fulfills a simple task and returns the results to you. For example, you can ask an AI assistant for a list of hospitals with clinical labs. Or, you could ask AI to write a cover letter to manage a hospital clinical lab. In each case, you would receive the results, review them for accuracy or usefulness, and move on to your next step.
By contrast, an AI agent essentially executes multi-step tasks on its own. In the example above, AI would not only find the jobs requested but it would then apply for those jobs in your name, with no input from you after the initial command. You might tell agentic AI, “Apply for all hospital clinical manager jobs with a salary exceeding $100,000” and it will, providing you’ve given it the basic information it needs to fulfill the request, such as your work history and résumé.
In principle, I’m nearly neutral on this concept. If using an agentic process is working for you — which I define as getting you interviews — then why not? That said, to reach the point where interviews are rolling in is more complicated than the example I gave. You need continuous tweaking to create a productive query, which requires skills and patience not everyone has.
And this is where the potential for job-seeker abuse grows exponentially. A number of companies have sprung up or pivoted in just the last year or two, ready to craft and launch the perfect job search on your behalf. For a fee of course, but you wouldn’t expect it to be free.
All you have to do is provide them with the basic information, such as your job history. Your contact information. Your career goals. Your salary desires. Your passwords and login credentials for the major job boards. Oh, and the answers to questions such as these:
“How would you describe your ethnic or racial background?”
“What’s your gender?”
“Do you have a disability or chronic condition that limits your major life activities?”
“Do you require U.S. work sponsorship now or in the future?”
And my favorites, “How would you describe your sexual orientation?” and “Do you identify as transgender?”
Holy cow. Here’s how one platform, ApplyMe, explains themselves. In a screen shot captured by my colleague Paul Sears (whose experimentation on the sites gave me the impetus for this column), ApplyMe says, “Including this information may help you match with employers who value diversity and inclusivity.” This under the headline, “Your trust means a lot to us.”
I bet it does, along with your data, and the monthly subscription fee that users of multiple sites have complained they can’t easily cancel.
Naturally the sites claim they don’t sell your data, and maybe they don’t. But that’s not the same as not using the data, or not morphing into a different company that uses the data. Nor does a disclaimer protect you from having the data hacked or potentially taken by a government agency, as we’re beginning to hear more about.
While we’re on the subject of privacy, here’s something to ponder: When one of these sites claims “204 jobs landed in the past 24 hours,” how do they know? It could be they’re simply tracking you on their own site and notice when you’ve changed your status. Or, as it seems some are doing, it could be their lengthy agreement gives them permission to track your email, parsing for messages from employers. Uh oh.
This column is meant to be a warning. I’m not saying bad things have happened or that they will, I’m saying, How could they not? If you’re considering using one of these programs, ask yourself first if you could achieve your goals with AI assistance that you control, rather than agentic AI platforms operated by nameless groups of corporate investors.
It’s a choice; just be sure you understand what it is you’re choosing.
Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.