How do recruiters spot AI generated cover letters?

Interview with recruitment consultant Reena Jha

Content:

About Reena

Reena has been living in Finland for close to seven years now. She works as a recruitment consultant at R&R Talent Advisors, which is a staffing and consulting firm. Her role is focused on sourcing, screening, and conducting initial interviews, as well as engaging with candidates and clients.

What is the percentage of Finns and foreigners that you hire?

I think it is somewhere around 60/40, leaning a little more towards the native side. Around 40% of our hires are still foreigners.

While you are reviewing the CVs, what are you paying attention to?

That's a very tricky but important question. On the technical roles it's more straightforward, we match the profile to the requirements or the role. In this case we look for:

Matching and relevant experience
Educational background
Skills
What they have worked on
Where the person is currently located

We also do background research on companies that the candidate has worked for. LinkedIn profile is very important, updated LinkedIn profiles get more attention versus the profiles that are not well updated. Also relevant links, applicants in technical roles have their projects updated in places like GitHub. Sometimes we check the recommendations they have on LinkedIn, from whom, and if they have worked with them to see how real the company is.

With non-technical profiles we spend a little more time and review areas like relevant experience and responsibilities, skills and competencies, key achievements, also interesting companies that the candidate has worked for, education and continue by checking their LinkedIn profile. We can say recommendations can be important for every role, as it highlights professional credibility, work quality and achievements.

In general, certain things that we see overall in a CV is how well it is formatted, how clearly it is written and if there are any typos or grammatical errors, how visually appealing it is, and how well the history of their work summary is detailed.

“Recommendations on LinkedIn are even more important for the non-technical roles.”

— Reena

Is it a red flag if there are mistakes or typos in a CV?

If it is just one or two maybe that wouldn't catch our attention, because we spend very little time on every CV and we have to go through so many details. If the CV is really great in all other areas, if it has excellent company background, excellent education, excellent and perfectly matching skills, and competences then it wouldn't matter, but if it is not well formatted and if there are too many typos and too many mistakes then that's a red flag.

How long do you usually spend on this initial screening before diving deep into one CV?

Somewhere around a maximum of 40 seconds I would say.

Do you always check LinkedIn profiles?

Yes, LinkedIn plays a very important role for us, we search for all the profiles mainly through Linkedin. But if somebody is an in-house recruiter it is different because they get a lot of applications for the job posted. I had in-house roles previously in my career, so if the CV is good, if the cover letter is impressive, then the third step is to go to their LinkedIn profile. In any case, a LinkedIn profile is important.

What are the places that an applicant must pay attention to when updating their Linkedin profile?

Current role, mentioning their responsibilities in every company that they have worked in, relevant skills that they have for each role and whatever certifications they have done. A written summary in the beginning I would say is good.

You said recommendations are important for you as well, right?

Yes, In our virtual world, LinkedIn is important in checking that a person really worked for a particular company . Recommendations are useful in this case. At my current company, we very often consider recommendations. It becomes especially important when we search for candidates outside of Finland. For lesser-known or small companies, checking if they really exist can be challenging. When a candidate has recommendations, we check the person who provided them. We examine their connection and determine if the profile is genuine.

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I often hear from applicants that they apply to 100 jobs in Finland and they didn't have a single interview invitation so the question would be how to make a company curious to invite you to an interview

Especially if I have to speak from an International expert point of view, being a foreigner here myself I understand the pain point. People get so many rejections, and there are too many underlying reasons for that.

I'm working as a recruiter so I see the pain points of the company who's hiring as well. My understanding is first and foremost there are a lot of cultural differences which create a certain gap. This gap in how applicants present themselves in the CV or the cover letter. So addressing that area is the most important thing.

From there on, after a certain period of time people get desperate or there are such limited opportunities here that they try to apply to almost everything, even if there is a small match people think “okay, I might have a chance here”, I would say that that is not a great thing to do. So applying for the most relevant and matching roles is one of the important things that we should keep in mind.

I understand the urge to apply to all the roles thinking that “okay, I am a Learning and Development person but somewhere I have done certain coordination and stakeholders management, I could also be doing a recruiter role so why shouldn't I apply”. We all have this kind of urge. Of course everybody has certain transferable skills but it's also important that you apply to the most relevant and matching roles, that increases your chances of getting interviewed.

“So applying for the most relevant and matching roles is one of the important things that we should keep in mind.”

— Reena

What is an estimated number of spam applications?

I would say it's around 50%. We also get a lot of applications outside of Finland. Candidates need to understand that no matter how much you match to the role, if the role is for an on-site job in Finland or Helsinki, somebody applying from say Oulu would be automatically not short listed because of the location.

Similarly, if the role is in Finland but people apply across Europe, it's not a possibility that that person would be relocated to Finland, so definitely we would not spend any time going through that profile, so we cut down another 20% to 30% of profiles.

If I live in Oulu but I'm applying for a job in Uusimaa. Do you think I should include Helsinki or Espoo or Vantaa in my CV instead, even though I don´t live there?

No, I think you should mention where you live but also see what kind of role you're applying for and if you are flexible to travel to Helsinki or Uusimaa.

Of course not all companies are working fully onsite, if it is a fully remote role it doesn't matter where you're applying from. If it is a hybrid role you need to determine if you are open to travel to Uusimaa when it is needed and mention it somewhere so it catches the attention of the recruiters or the hiring managers. It should be in a CV or cover letter or even in LinkedIn, nowadays many people mention in the summary that they're open to traveling if needed.

What would you say to people who feel frustrated because they aren't considered even if they fit the role because they are from abroad?

Hiring somebody from abroad involves a lot of further procedures, like having that person work on their residence permit, on their visa, the travel relocation and so many added things. So there are a lot of things to take care of after giving the person an offer. And most companies are not ready to bear that extra cost.

So it's really crucial that companies stick to people within Finland or within Europe. Because from Europe people can still easily relocate without much additional cost compared to somebody living in Asia. That involves a lot more steps in terms of relocating them. Being a candidate we don't think about these areas, so I understand the frustration, but also there is this point of view from the company's side that needs to be kept in mind

Do you read cover letters?

In my current role, cover letters do not play a lot of importance because I work in a staffing and consulting firm, so we do sourcing and we reach out to the candidates from our side. We depend on LinkedIn profiles, we ask them for their updated CV, and then we continue from there. On the other hand, in-house recruiters get tons of applications and it becomes important to actually see the cover letter to understand the motivation level of the candidate, how interested they are in the company and things like that.

Can you distinguish a cover letter or a CV that's written by AI?

It's a tricky question but an interesting one. AI is definitely a game changer and it is here as an enablement tool for everybody as it can help you work more efficiently. Using AI is good, but how much we use it is crucial. If the CV or the cover letter is generated with a bad prompt it can result in a really generic cover letter which is very easily spotted.

How do we differentiate cover letters that are generated from AI?

By seeking certain patterns in vocabulary. Sometimes, AI uses fancy words, but humans usually stick to simpler ones. AI is also impersonal, because it struggles to give you a message that has real examples. There's a lot of words that are repetitive in AI and as humans we try to use diverse vocabulary. Then, paragraphs are mostly started with: “moreover”, “in addition”, “furthermore”. These are certain cues that can really tell you that a text is mostly AI generated. My recommendation is to create a personalized cover letter and CV. AI can be useful to check if they are grammatically correct but a cover letter and CV need that personal touch and genuine motivation that one feels for the company or the role.

Imagine you have a perfect profile on CV and you invite this person to an interview. What are some red flags at this stage?

Certain instant red flags would be things like no show, multiple reschedules without any notice, delay in showing up to the interview. There are instances when the candidate is late for the interview but has no realization that he or she has to explain a bit as to why they were late. We typically wait for around 10 minutes in every call for the person to show up, if they don't show up within 10 minutes we sign out and then we try to follow up with them. If the person never responds then we don't reach out to the candidate again at all.

Other red flags are inappropriate appearance during the discussion, we don't expect them to come in well-dressed suits but basic professional appearance is very necessary.

Things that are happening in the background, if it's too noisy, cluttered, if the person is moving around, driving somewhere, or in the middle of something else.
Another major red flag is not turning on the video. Seeing the person and talking to them is very important because that ensures a certain kind of engagement with the candidates. And of course if there is lack of interest in the discussion, if the candidate has no questions at all in between, that makes you feel that the candidate is not very keen on the role.

What was the craziest clothing that you have seen during an interview?

I remember interviewing somebody for a senior role in three different discussions. Apparently we closed that candidate even though personally for me it was not a great appearance, the person was really suitable and everything was wonderful. From the beginning a red flag was that it felt as if he came out of the bed, he was wearing a really pink T-shirt with messy hair. It is very unnatural for me to see a person come to an interview like that. But that did not stop us from offering the position because we saw some potential in the candidate. We expect the candidate to come in with basic presentable skills.

What do you do if your best candidate refuses the offer?

There are many cases when the candidate goes all the way to the final process but they do not accept. We try to dive into the reason, because they seemed to be interested all the way till the end.

It could be that there is a difference in the salary, or a difference in the role that the candidate expected. Maybe throughout the interview the candidate did not feel engaged, maybe after speaking to different managers he or she felt that the role may not be right for them. We try to understand the scenario that triggered them to make the decision and we try our best to get a resolution. Say if it is the salary we negotiate again and add a little bit to what they're expecting. Or maybe bring in some additional benefits and perks that could be interesting to them, for example joining bonus or some equity percentage.

Many times this detailed discussion with the candidate actually helps in understanding their decision and help the company to look into the matter and come up with some resolution. Sometimes it's just that the candidate got a better offer and they decide to go ahead with that offer so certain situations are out of our hands and we just let it go.

What are the jobs that you need to fill now that are very high in demand?

Generally software development roles are hot here and within Europe. JavaScript based full stack engineers and professionals from the gaming industry are always in high demand. We are always in the lookout for good talents and matching candidates for these roles.

Reena Jha interview for Get Hired in Finland — **Reena Jha**

Reena is a recruitment consultant in Finland with more than seven years of experience in various human resources functions. She finds, evaluates, and interviews potential candidates. So she knows what works and what doesn´t when creating a professional profile.
Connect with Reena on Linkedin