Want to use ChatGPT to spruce up your CV? Don’t forget to read it through one last time before sending it off to employers – otherwise you might end up like Benjamin, the poor job seeker who just had his resume publicly roasted by high-flying fashion CEO and star of Shark Tank Australia Jane Lu.
“I think I just received possibly the worst job application ever,” Lu, the multi-millionaire who found success after founding popular fashion giant Showpo, declared on her TikTok channel.
She simply called and shamed the job seeker — who recently applied for a job at her online business course, The Lazy CEO — “Benjamin,” because he was ironically lazy and didn’t proofread his application before hitting send.
“Hiring manager, I hope you like this. I am confident that my experience in [relevant experience/skill] positions me as a strong candidate,” Lu read the application out loud, before adding, “Oh, my God…ChatGPT copy and paste.”
“The only thing they changed was their name,” Lu said, denouncing the hopeful employee’s lack of effort and showing his unimpressive application to her nearly 109,000 followers.
To make matters worse, the candidate even forgot to remove the prompt: “Here’s a more polished and articulated version of your cover letter.”
The embarrassing sign that he had used ChatGPT to pull up his application was at the very top of his email to Lu.
https://www.tiktok.com/@thelazyceo/video/7428847423075765550?q=Jane%20Luu0026t=1729845536429
“I’m sorry Benjamin, I love ChatGPT, but you need to use some of this,” she concluded, pointing to her brain.
The video, which has received more than 30,000 likes in just two days, received mixed reactions. Some saw the funny side and left laughing emojis in the comments section, while others shared their similar experiences as hiring managers.
But as one commenter pointed out, a real person’s application for a job has turned into a joke.
“I’m not sure I would fool anyone like this,” the user wrote. “You don’t know their background or literacy level. I would definitely consider removing this.”
There’s a global unemployment crisis happening right now, thanks to AI and the pandemic’s toll on businesses. About 40 million people are currently using LinkedIn’s #OpenToWork badge, with recruiters highlighting that professionals are literally desperate for work.
At the same time, prices remain stubbornly high, as does the bar for getting your foot in the door of employment. A Gen Z graduate with two degrees was left crying on the streets of New York earlier this year when she couldn’t even get a minimum wage job — and the only coffee shop job she says she was offered had to they work 18 hours. of unpaid training.
It’s no wonder that job seekers are now trying to outsmart the tough job market by letting AI do some of the donkey work.
The lack of effort on Benjamin’s job application could be a sign that he has applied for countless other jobs in vain—and has now even given up.
Fortune has contacted Lu for comment.
Whether or not CEOs should mock hapless applicants, Lu isn’t the first to express her frustrations on social media about candidates turning to AI in their job search.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s co-founder of xAI called out a cheating interviewee on X.
Greg Yang, one of the 12 co-founders of Musk’s latest AI venture, said a “candidate tried to use Claude during the interview, but it was way too obvious.”
The post inspired other employers to speak out about how smart job seekers are abusing AI tools, including turning large language models into teleprompters during the job interview and appearing “smart” in outbursts.
Riece Keck, a tech headhunter and founder of MindHire, lamented that it’s “becoming a real problem.”
“As a recruiting agency owner, I have seen this many times,” he wrote, adding that he resorts to “watching what they are looking at during an interview and seeing if there is a pause in their response.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
