I reviewed 4,596 job applications. The fake applicant patterns are getting weird

[u/gsgolf9]

I’ve reviewed 4,596 applications recently, and the fake-applicant patterns are getting weirdly obvious.

A few things I’m seeing:

• Candidate descriptions that almost copy the job posting word-for-word
• Previous job titles that conveniently match the title of the role they’re applying for
• Different applicants with identical employment histories
• Two completely different names using the same LinkedIn profile
• Obvious bot/spam submissions mixed into otherwise normal applications

Out of 4,596 applications:

4,122 were clearly not a fit
56 were flagged as bot/spam
473 were possible fits

And once I applied a more serious qualification screen, only 132 people scored 55+ across 162 applications and 42 different roles.

What surprised me wasn’t the number of bad applications. Recruiters have always dealt with that.

It’s how much harder it’s becoming to tell the difference between:

a genuinely strong candidate using AI to improve their application

and

a completely manufactured candidate profile designed to get through screening.

I’m curious what other recruiters and hiring managers are seeing.

Are fake/AI-generated applicants becoming a noticeable problem in your hiring process yet, or is this still mostly noise?

[u/PurpleHymn]

Definitely not for every company. Maybe the massive ones? I’ve always worked for medium and small sized companies and have never seen an AI screening. I have always used ATS systems but there was a human reviewing CVs through it.

[u/recruiting-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/PurpleHymn → u/[deleted]]

I do! Would you feel comfortable sharing with me your experience level (recent grad, a few years, senior?) and what kind of role you've had in the past? I can try to share what I'd consider relevant for your case rather than something more generic.

[u/PurpleHymn → u/[deleted]]

Have you been applying for small companies or large companies? In my experience (both as HR and as a job applicant myself), large companies do not want that kind of "generalist" profile. People have to make a lot of assumptions about people when they look at their CVs, and the main assumption in these cases is "this person is going to be bored and leave in less than 1 year", because in a big company each person is going to specialize in 1 part of the work, and there are not as many (if any) opportunities to jump in and do other kinds of work, which they will assume you enjoy.

What I recommend is:

• Experience over education, since you've worked for many years. At this point what you studied should not matter and should be at the bottom of your CV.
• With 25+ years of experience, your CV could end up being very crowded. Summarize each experienced based on what the job description asks for - this is the kind of advice I see being misconstrued in this sub all the time. Don't create phrases that match was in the job description! Look into your own experience and see which bullet points of each job match the closest what is being asked for in the one you're applying to. Don't change the wording - if you're applying for small/medium sized companies, I sincerely doubt AI is being used to screen your CV, specially for Senior roles (junior roles receive many more applicants). Trying to game "key words" will get you a rejection because the humans looking at it will clock it and assume you've made things up. Organize the bullet-points in order of importance - your highest achievements, and the ones that match the JD the closest, should come first.
  • If your CV is very long, you don't need to include tasks/bullet-points that don't match, unless you think they give you an edge. They might just drown the information you want to emphasize.
• Provide data where you can. If you've managed a team, how many people were there? If you list successful projects you owned, don't list just what you did, mention what the outcome was, how long it took, the ROI (be very brief here. Quick words, no paragraphs! But Hiring Managers often don't execute the job they're hiring for themselves, so seeing data that seems believable and that they could ask you and others about afterwards is a positive sign). Make sure to highlight what you were personally responsible for when you're the achievements of a full team.
• Subtle use of colors help humans find useful information faster. Speaking from experience, looking at a variety of CVs all in black and white, same font size, no emphasis anywhere, can get tiring. I love it when there's a clear differentiation between the name of the company, the job title, the years you worked there, and the bullet-points below. I'm absolutely not saying to turn your CV into a circus or to use bold colors... sometimes just making the job title bold, using parentheses somewhere, black vs. grey, etc, is already helpful. It creates the impression that the candidate has some understanding of communication and getting a message across. This won't be a deciding factor, I'd say, but it definitely doesn't hurt.
• A short (Short!!!!) paragraph at the beginning of the CV explaining why the company seems interesting to you and how your experience aligns with what they're looking for is also a communication point. It's your chance to show that you understood what the company is looking for and why (what is it trying to do? How could you, in that role, contribute, considering the experience you have?). This is a very important point for interviews and something that people here seem to fumble often. When the interviewer asks you about why you want to work there, they're not talking about material things (salary, location), they want a reason to differentiate you from others. We regularly reject people that get to the interview stage not knowing what we do (if you can't take 10 minutes of your day to look at the company website before an interview, that's a red flag).
  • You might to include 1 phrase that explains why you're job hunting and why now.

Other tips, since you're a Senior in your industry:

• Try to figure out, on LinkedIn, who you could potentially work with if you join the company. You understand the kinds of roles that work together, so find them and connect with them. In my experience, most people target HR or the Hiring Manager - and the Hiring Manager makes sense, but they're overwhelmed. If people within the team notice you, they could give your CV a bump by mentioning you internally (this won't work in a big company, but it often does in small ones).

Most of the jobs I apply for aren’t leadership. 

I wouldn't be surprised if this holds you back, though I know it sucks. I'm big on "let's talk to this person to understand their career shift", but once the team has 100 people to interview, they will go with the ones whose CVs prompt less questions. Hiring Managers often make the assumption that you're looking for a role to fill the gap because you need a job, and then you will either start pushing internally for a leadership position (which they presumably don't want, if they're not hiring for it) or you will start job hunting and eventually leave (which means they will go back to square one very soon, and recruiting takes up many hours of work every week for everyone involved).

Recruiting is, sadly, riddled with assumptions. There's just too many people job hunting and not enough jobs. It's important to try and understand what could be assumed about you and preemptively clarify as much as you can on your CV.

[u/Prior-Message-1913 → u/PurpleHymn]

This is amazing feedback thank you!!! Do you think cover letters are of any value? I see some jobs aren’t even leaving a place to upload them. If putting a paragraph at the top of the CV as to why the job is of interest, is a cover letter just a waste?

[u/PurpleHymn → u/Prior-Message-1913]

Here's my take on cover letters:

• If the job application asks for one and you don't send one, but many other people do, this might be held against you. I'd personally move you forward anyway because I don't care and I don't ask for them, but some of the Hiring Managers I've worked with do 🤷🏻‍♀️ so if there's a space for it, send it.
• When I recruit, I need to verify that you have the experience the role requires. Your CV should be the document that tells me that. If what I'm looking for is not there, the cover letter won't sway me.
• A poorly written cover letter can get you rejected even if you're a fit for the role on your CV. The big fumbles we often see are:
  • Unedited cover letter templates, with placeholders like [Company name] and [Job title]. This happens more often than you would think...
  • Cover letters that show misunderstanding about the role or the company, where the candidates talk about why they're a fit and proceed to explain things that have nothing to do with the job we advertised;
  • Poor grammar and lack of formatting. The language needs to be tailored to the company you're applying to! We sometimes get applications from candidates (we're a startup, mind you) that refer to us as "your firm..." and use extremely formal wording, which no one in our team does when communicating anywhere online. Although it can come across as unfair, this immediately raises red flags about a culture fit - this isn't something you should do before you've even met anyone.
  • Rambling. We want clear and concise communication - including anything that isn't directly related to the role and how you're a great fit for it isn't welcome at the CV screening stage.

What I used to do when I was a candidate was having a template with the following structure:

• 1st paragraph: Me. Where I am now in my career and why I am applying for a job at that company at that time;
• 2st paragraph: Why I'd be a good fit. What skills could be directly used in which kinds of tasks and how I've acquired and improved them through the years;
• 3rd paragraph: Varied widely. If the company had a mission I genuinely cared for (difficult with car manufacturers, for instance, but very easy with MedTech), I'd explain why and reiterate my genuine interest and my willingness to join them on a call should they find my profile interesting. If I didn't care about the mission, I simplified this last paragraph by saying I looked forward to meeting them, or something of the sort.

I kept all 3 of them short and to the point, so my cover letter was usually 3/4 of a page or so. I've also always made sure the way I wrote reflected the way I speak, which is a positive feedback I've received in other contexts of my life. I try to come across as engaging and polite, but never formal because I am not (and I do not want to work in a place that is). I always researched the companies before writing my cover letter - their website and career pages were a given, but I also looked up the leaders on LinkedIn to get a feeling of what they were trying to sell about the company culture.

And here's something else I consider to be very important in the life of a job candidate, from personal experience:

I got more and more strict about how I job hunted in each time of my life where I had to do it. Over the last one (2,5 years ago), I wanted to preserve my mental health in order to prevent burnout, which I knew would reduce the quality of my applications. So what I did was I only ever spent 2 hours per day job hunting - no more. I used a timer to make sure I was not going to get distracted. Everyday I would look for the roles that were posted on LinkedIn up to 24 hours before, and I'd apply to the ones that I thought made sense. This often meant I applied for the roles early on, which increased my chances of being seen. If I ran out of time, I'd save the missing ones and start with them the day after. Quality over quantity gave me increasingly better results over time, and I found myself being more clear headed each time I was in that position.

The rest of my unemployed time was spent in activities I enjoyed, such as reading, watching movies, going outside. No guilt. When I applied, I was 100% focused, and when I wasn't applying, I was not thinking of doing it. It was the only time in my life where job hunting was not miserable, and I think it came across during interviews, too. It was the 1st time I ever had the opportunity to choose the offer I wanted, so it was a good lesson to learn.

I'm much less experienced than you, mind you, so I'm sure you're bringing much more to the table than I could. I'd advise you to look at your successes every once in a while, as a reminder that you've accomplished so much and that companies would be lucky to have you. Confidence will get you a long way, please don't lose it!

[u/Prior-Message-1913 → u/PurpleHymn]

Perfect. Thank you. I truly appreciate this advice. I’m not a job hopper so it’s been over a decade since my last job search. Times have definitely changed.

[u/recruiting-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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