#jobs

The bias against human-written resumes is particularly substantial, with self-preference bias ranging from 67% to 82% across major commercial and open-source models. To assess labor market impact, we simulate realistic hiring pipelines across 24 occupations. These simulations show that candidates using the same LLM as the evaluator are 23% to 60% more likely to be shortlisted than equally qualified applicants submitting human-written resumes, with the largest disadvantages observed in business-related fields such as sales and accounting. We further demonstrate that this bias can be reduced by more than 50% through simple interventions targeting LLMs' self-recognition capabilities. These findings highlight an emerging but previously overlooked risk in AI-assisted decision making and call for expanded frameworks of AI fairness that address not only demographic-based disparities, but also biases in AI-AI interactions.

Once you accept that the front door is pointless, you get so much time back. Yeah, you still need a gig, we get it. But what if, instead of applying all your creativity and energy to the attempt to pass some invisible set of hurdles, or to writing exactly the right tone of follow up email when an interviewer ghosts you, what if instead of all that you just abandon the front door entirely and find another way? That other way, by the way, is human connection. OMG stop. Don't roll your eyes. You hate networking. It's so transactional and fake. It's all small talk and you hate small talk. Yes yes yes. We hate it, too. That's not what we mean. We mean that if the Applicant Tracking System Jello isn't where the hiring managers are any more, then you should start spending time elsewhere.

Take a step back and tease apart your current feelings. What are your likes and dislikes in this role? You know you want something new, but how new? What amount of change is going to feel like a reset? Even if you make a change, are your dislikes going to follow you?

Most job appli­ca­tions today are screened by AI-​driven appli­cant track­ing sys­tems (ATS) before a human ever sees them. That means for­mat­ting con­sis­ten­cy, key­word align­ment, and clar­i­ty aren’t just nice to have — they’re sur­vival traits. Manually tai­lor­ing each ver­sion is slow and error-prone.

Since everyone started using AI, more candidates started clearing the first round with flying colors. The platforms had to recalibrate to let in their target percentage. But they're not measuring the code written by the candidate anymore—they're measuring how well the candidate uses an LLM. Most developers who can actually write this code try to do it themselves. They get marked lower than peers who used AI and completed it faster. The result? Hiring teams keep raising the bar arbitrarily, trying to find the candidates who are best at prompt engineering their way through a coding test.

Hiring processes should focus on problem-solving, collaboration, and growth in relevant areas. Unrealistic expectations don’t attract the best talent – they just exhaust and discourage it. If companies want adaptable developers, they should focus on the long-term ability to learn, not how fast someone can tackle an arbitrary test. Dropping these absurd assignments and focusing on what really counts could foster a better, more inclusive tech culture.

I lost my job in March and I’ve been slowly starting to look for my next thing. I’ve been talking to other folks who’ve been laid off to get a sense of the job market — and the stories they’re sharing give me flashbacks to twenty years ago.

In other words, the 1099 economy is almost perfectly calibrated to serve the needs of fast-moving start-ups — lower costs, less liability, the ability to grow and shrink the labor pool quickly — but is it good for the people doing the work?

Barring a civilization-ending event, technology is not going to move backward. More and more of our world will be controlled by software. It’s already become so ubiquitous that, argues one of my colleagues, it’s now ridiculous to call some firms as “tech” companies when all companies depend on it so much.

Barring a civilization-ending event, technology is not going to move backward. More and more of our world will be controlled by software. It’s already become so ubiquitous that, argues one of my colleagues, it’s now ridiculous to call some firms as “tech” companies when all companies depend on it so much.

It really is that simple. The nation's roads, bridges, electrical grid, water systems, national parks—the whole infrastructure—is crumbling. At the same time unemployment remains persistently high. Put people to work fixing the stuff that's broken. It's not rocket science. It would be that simple, except for a Republican Party that won't do what's best for the country, won't attempt to fix these things because fixing these things might help reelect President Obama and Democrats in Congress. Furthermore, making the country work proves that government works, and Republicans want none of that.

Quicken Loans has started the website www.valleytodetroit.com to promote the Motor City to Yahoo workers axed last week. Quicken’s businesses include mortgages, venture capital and sports graphics.

Quicken Loans has started the website www.valleytodetroit.com to promote the Motor City to Yahoo workers axed last week. Quicken’s businesses include mortgages, venture capital and sports graphics.

For too long, we over-invested in the wrong places. Those retail centers and subdivisions will never be worth what they cost to build. We have to stop throwing good money after bad. It is time to instead build what the market wants: mixed-income, walkable cities and suburbs that will support the knowledge economy, promote environmental sustainability and create jobs.

The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar men. It could cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come.

Item number 3,785 in the Republicans-really-don't-care-about-the-deficit file is this from Speaker John Boehner rejecting yet another offer of concessions from Democrats in the Super Congress negotiations.

As more retailers try to turn Thanksgiving Thursday into Black Friday — some employees are fighting back.

You know what, Mitch? If you don't want to look "intransigent" ... then don't be intransigent! If you don't want to look like you're sabotaging the economy ... then don't sabotage the economy! And if you think rejecting the jobs bill makes you look bad ... then don't reject it!

What we're seeing here is another piece of evidence that Republicans are more committed—much more committed—to opposing Barack Obama than to doing even the most basic, routine things to keep the economy going and keep bridges from collapsing under us. Filibusters like this are exactly why 50 percent of people believe Republicans are intentionally sabotaging the economy. (And, of course, Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are joining them.)

Warehouse employees complained about 'freezing' for hours after alarms sounded.

They’re fighting you, winning big-time, and you’re the loser. It’s just one generation since conservatives put Reagan in office: In those three short decades the income and wealth of the top 1% has tripled while the income of the bottom 99% of all Americans has stagnated or dropped. ... Yes, folks, America really is under attack daily. We are fighting on the defense in an historic class warfare. Yes, the Rich Class really did start this war. And yes, they really are winning, big-time. And yes, they are addicted to winning at all costs, to get richer and richer just for the sake of getting richer and richer.

As a developer, you are sitting on a goldmine. Do you even realize it? No, seriously, a @#$% goldmine! Never in modern history has it been so easy to create something from scratch, with little or no capital and a marketing model that is limited only by your imagination.

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:Senate blocks $60 billion infrastructure plan, another part of Obama jobs bill  —  The Senate shot down another piece of President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill Thursday, as a stalemated Congress goes through the motions of attempting legislation to spur...

"Everybody believes we have infrastructure deficiencies and more needs to be spent to repair, replace and in some cases build new infrastructure," Boehner said in a speech. "The problem is nobody wants to pay for it."

Today, the Senate is talking about whether they should vote to debate a jobs bill. Another Republican filibuster looms, in which the Republican Senate won't even vote to allow the Senate to debate and vote on doing a little something to try to save this economy. In this madness, Democratic leadership hopes to at the very least shame Republicans and possibly get a few of them to peel off from the Republican agenda of wrecking everything in sight and stealing all the rest.

In a letter to Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and 182 other House Democrats signaled that including controversial policy provisions known as riders could again risk a government shutdown, and the lawmakers demanded that those measures be removed.

"Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. ... Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill."

""I'll just get straight to the point. You've been affected by the layoffs." ... I watched as my access to various parts of the guts of Flickr fell away. I noticed how naturally I searched for any and all bits I could think of, just in the hope that it still existed. But no. I was shut out entirely within about 14 hours of the phone call. ... I was beginning to feel humiliated, particularly given what I was up to. You know, being in Taiwan at an international conference to talk about my work."

"The restrictiveness of big company jobs is particularly hard on programmers, because the essence of programming is to build new things."

"The Internet is not a truck. It’s a complex network of arcane software, expensive hardware, and maximum-security server closets disguised as ordinary cloakrooms."

"ProQuest, a digital repository and provider of scholarly documents from all over the world, now employs 478 people in Michigan. It expects to create 303 jobs during the next five years"

Kind of a fluff piece, doesn't tell me much about what's going on at Google A2. It's all "Wow, kooky Californian office space with weird carpet and massage chairs and sunlight! How can you get any work done?"

"After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department."

"The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you've got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less."

"Requirements: Laser vision Ability to fly Ability to breath underwater Invisible plane would be a plus Web throwing experince is a big plus"

"Your job interview isn't over until you've changed to become part of a new team."

"This is one worker's explaination of working at the online promotion agency. The good, the bad and the ugly."

"...working knowledge of blogs, wikis, online gaming environments, podcasting, RSS and other Web-related technologies..."

"Wow. Not one bubble, but two at once! So THAT'S what Web 2.0 means! What's not to love?"

"Michigan is far more at risk than many other states because its manufacturing-dominated culture is addicted to an entitlement mentality that has long since disappeared in other regions and industrial sectors"

I've got all the qualifications... if only they'd let me sneak into Canada. Oh, Toronto, why do you taunt me?

This job probably pays crap, but man I wish it was posted a year or two ago, when I was applying for literally three dozen jobs at U of M.

"Congratulations on finally reaching that corner office! Enjoy it while you can. Next year, you may be operating a business out of your garage."

"Develop a course on the practical aspects of software development and software engineering." I don't have the degree, but I do have experience. This almost seems appealing to me. (Although there's a candidate in mind.)

Been there, and in almost precisely the same situation. Good luck, Russ!

This almost sounds like it'd be fun, though maybe I'm a bit old for it :)

"The real long-term solution to the American jobs crisis is to find a way to make it less risky for people to join a start-up."

"Computers threatened our jobs, but ultimately made us stronger. So will outsourcing."