Job candidates are getting artistic in attempting to avoid tAI techniques that help the primary screening course of for a lot of corporations, however “hacking” your resume could have the other impact.
Lately, corporations have made job seekers do extra to show they’re a match for the group, together with infinite rounds of interviews, in-depth work checks, and more and more, AI screenings. An October survey from Resume Builder discovered half of the businesses surveyed had been already utilizing AI within the hiring course of, and 70% deliberate to include it by the top of 2025.
In an effort to struggle again, some candidates are resurrecting a loophole meant to trick AI screening techniques and improve the percentages of your résumé making it into the fingers of a human. The supposed “white font” hack includes stuffing your resume with associated key phrases from a job posting in a tiny font and white letters in order that the screening software program finds you to be an interesting candidate, even when human hiring managers can’t see the textual content themselves.
Whereas the trick has been round for years, it has resurfaced as candidates search for any means to assist beat the AI-driven techniques which have emerged to weed out purposes.
The white-font hack may go for some applicant monitoring techniques in search of key phrases, but, it isn’t as foolproof as job seekers may assume, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, the chief innovation officer at staffing agency ManpowerGroup, advised the Washington Publish.
“Does it work? Yeah,” Chamorro-Premuzic advised the outlet. “But it might contribute 10% or 15% of the variability between a résumé that is ultimately accepted versus one that is rejected.”
HR professionals on TikTok have additionally identified that corporations have gotten savvy to the trick, and using it (pun meant) might land you on an organization blacklist.
@farahsharghi #greenscreen @Dan.from.HR The white font hack doesnt work #resume #jobtips #careeradvice #jobsearch #remotejobs #jobseeker #ats ♬ Wealthy Minion – Yeat
@maddie_macho Replying to @Najja #greenscreen what a very good resume seems to be like within the ATS and why the white font hack is loopy, in a nasty means lol #resumeoptimization #recruitertips #atsfriendlyresume #keywordoptimization #web optimization #resumehack ♬ authentic sound – Maddie Macho
Nonetheless, with the U.S. unemployment price at 4.1%, up from 3.8% in October final 12 months, many individuals are determined to snag a place by any means essential. You’ll discover this sentiment throughout social media, notably on boards just like the subreddit “jobsearchhacks,” the place customers often vent about making use of to dozens of corporations over months with little success.
One person by the title of Hopeful_alchemist on Reddit wrote in a put up that they’d utilized to 52 jobs and gotten to the interview stage 10 instances, however nonetheless didn’t have a job after six months.
A survey from consulting agency PwC additionally claims entry-level jobs are particularly tougher to return by. The survey mentioned in 2023, solely 61% of HR leaders had been in search of entry-level candidates, in comparison with 79% a 12 months prior.
