[GoLUG] The Strange Behavior of LLMs in Hiring Decisions: Systemic Gender and Positional Biases in Candidate Selection

[Steve Litt]

On Sat, 24 May 2025 08:58:21 -0700
Kyle Terrien <kyle at terren.us> wrote:

> On Sat, May 24, 2025 at 01:41:29AM -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
> > 
> > Overly harsh in my opinion, and to explain why I think that let's
> > discuss self-driving cars. It's going to be a long, long time before
> > self driving cars are safer than smart, skilled and attentive human
> > drivers. One software bug and the self-driving car plunges into the
> > lake.
> > 
> > But right now they can probably be made safer than 95% of human
> > drivers, meaning driverless cars will decrease accidents and other
> > mishaps.
> > 
> > All an AI candidate selector needs to do is be better than 95, or
> > heck, even 60 percent of current ways it's done. Except...
> > 
> > Except that the way candidates have been chosen, at least from the
> > 1980's, is horribly flawed. HR pens a job ad that screens out 90% of
> > the people who could actually do the job, so liars flood HR with
> > resumes, and all too often a fast-talking liar gets the job and then
> > fails miserably. From the 1980's on, the trick was to do an end run
> > around HR. Use various human networking techniques to find your new
> > boss, talk with him or her, get all that stuff out of the way, then
> > have him or her shepherd your resume and job application through HR.
> > Same with AI.
> > 
> > In the spring of 1980 I went on a 7 day whirlwind tour of Los
> > Angeles and San Francisco looking for a job (I was living in
> > Chicago at the time). In each place, I asked to talk to somebody in
> > charge. Some places just through a job application in my face: I
> > thanked them and walked out. Nothing like having only 7 days to
> > teach you how to prioritize job hunting time.
> > 
> > In the 1990's I was all at every computer fair, every software expo,
> > everything. I talked with everyone I met, and everyone knew what I
> > did and how good I was at it. I had my elevator speech down pat,
> > and I had rehearsed enough material that if asked questions, I
> > could go into details. Most of the work I ever got was because of
> > who I knew, not what I knew.
> > 
> > My opinion: If you're sending in resumes and applications, you're
> > dead meat. You spend hours looking on job sites. You spend what, a
> > half hour tailoring your resume and cover letter for each job.
> > Twenty, thirty a day. The day goes by and you've spoken to nobody.
> > And of course you get ghosted by all the companies you applied
> > with: 5000 other people sent in resumes and cover letters. You need
> > to make an identity for yourself, then start going to meetings and
> > expos to talk with others, and make sure you know how to put
> > yourself in the best light, because you're darn good. Then put your
> > money where your mouth is, and start giving presentations so you're
> > THE GOTO guy for skill X. Bonus points if you start a business in
> > skill X to make yourself more credible, bypass HR and AI, and maybe
> > get some money coming in the door. Start the business cheaply so
> > you can get out of it if the right job comes along.
> > 
> > 1980. 2025. HR. AI. You must get face time with the guy with hiring
> > authority, or at least hiring recommendation.
> > 
> > SteveT
> > 
> > Steve Litt=20
> > Spring 2023 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the
> > Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques  
> 
> Thinking about it, all the jobs I earned were through knowing the
> right people.  Usually it takes several years for a professional
> connection to bear fruit of that degree, but it happens because people
> tend to remember their colleagues and look out for each other.  For
> instance, I found out about my current job because of a college buddy.

You bring up a very important point. You plant social networking seeds
on a regular basis, and months or years later they bear fruit. That's
why you need to start right now and don't stop.

In the 1980's and 90's, one of my buddies became Mr. Foxbase (and later
Mr. Foxpro) throughout Los Angeles by regularly giving presentations at
Fox and Xbase user group meetings. Here in Orlando, Greg Pollack became
Mr. Rails by starting a Ruby and Rails user group, and cherry picking
the group members to become his coding contractors, building a business
he sold for $35 million.

I went to a web developer user group meeting in Orlando. As I remember,
none of the three presenters had college degrees, and all of them
started by talking about coding they'd done on their own. All three
were very successful.

If you have time to apply to some rando Internet job ad, use the time
to improve your elevator pitch, and craft a presentation to give at
various places. And for gosh sakes, join Toastmasters, which is the
greatest educational and professional bang for the buck you'll ever
find.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2023 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques