Zhaopin, one of China’s largest online career websites, is working on using artificial intelligence and big data to increase the efficiency of talent assessment and to better match job seekers and employers

智联招聘作为中国最大的线上求职网站之一,正在使用人工智能和大数据技术提高挖掘人才的效率,以更好地匹配求职者和雇主

 

Here are two tips to improve your chances of landing a coveted position in China’s brutal jobs market. One, use an iPhone instead of an Android phone to send out your application. Two, don’t send too many of them.

为了让你在中国竞争激烈的求职市场上寻得梦寐以求的工作,这里有两点建议。一,用苹果手机而不是安卓手机提交申请;二,不要申请太多岗位。

 

Welcome to recruitment in the age of artificial intelligence.

在这个人工智能的时代,欢迎来到求职市场。

 

Zhaopin, one of China’s largest online recruitment sites, collects more than 100 data points from users, from the usual academic track record and work experience, to how many times a job applicant has been approached by recruiters and whether their former colleagues have gone on to better jobs.

智联招聘作为中国最大的线上求职网站之一,从用户中获取了100多个数据点,涵盖从普通的学历和工作记录,到申请者通过雇主筛选的次数以及他们的前同事是否找到了更好的工作。

 

The Beijing-based company is among the growing number of recruitment companies that are employing AI to analyse data to better assess the competency of job seekers and match them with suitable employers. With 140 million job seekers on its platform applying for different openings, the company had to employ machine science to come to some kind of ranking of candidates as the sheer volume of applications made human vetting unrealistic.

这个位于北京的公司是一批正在逐渐涌现的求职公司的一例,他们使用人工智能技术分析数据以更好地评估求职者的能力,并将他们和合适的雇主相匹配。伴随着1.4亿求职者在该平台寻找不同的工作,该公司需要使用科学技术得到职位候选人的科学排序,因为如此之多的求职者让人工审查变得不可能。

 

“Just like Chinese e-commerce site Taobao, which uses AI and big data to better connect consumers with goods, we want to use new technologies to connect people with job opportunities,” Wen Zhen, chief scientist of big data and AI at Zhaopin, said in an interview in Beijing. Taobao is operated by Alibaba Group, the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

“就像中国电商网站淘宝运用人工智能和大数据更好地连接消费者和商品一样,我们想使用新技术更好地连接求职者和工作机会。”智联招聘人工智能和大数据首席科学家Wen Zhen在北京的一次采访中说道。淘宝是阿里巴巴旗下的电商网站,而阿里巴巴正是《南华早报》的母公司。

 

China, which wants to be a world leader in AI by 2030, has been pushing for the adoption of the technology in industries from education, health care to automobiles. Human resources may be the next important frontier for AI as the country has seen its working-age population shrink due to an ageing society and declining birth rate, making every worker count.

中国有志于在2030年成为人工智能领域的领导者,因此国家正在推动从教育医疗到汽车产业的技术普及。人力资源可能是人工智能的下一个重要的新领域,其原因是人口老龄化和低出生率导致的劳动人口下降,这让每一个劳动力都变得十分重要。

 

Matching people with a certain position will probably always involve both art and science, though with AI, the science part is getting some major upgrading. By gathering and analysing a huge amount of data, AI can now rank the suitability of a job candidate by studying one’s online behaviour, professional network and keywords used in their curriculum vitae.

虽然在人工智能的发展下,科学的地位得以提升,但成功匹配人和特定职位同时涉及到人文和科学。通过收集和分析大数据,人工智能可以将申请者与岗位的匹配度进行排序,方法是研究申请者的在线行为,交际圈和简历中的关键词。

 

AI can now even be applied to make an initial evaluation based on a candidate’s appearance, conversational skills and logic.

人工智能甚至还可根据申请者的容貌,语言能力和逻辑能力,应用于初级筛选。

 

“I don’t think AI can completely replace HR or headhunters in the coming three to five years. But it can be used as a good tool to improve the efficiency of recruitment,” said Wen, who joined Zhaopin about one year ago when the company started to ramp up its effort in using new technologies to drive the future growth of business.

“我认为人工智能在未来3到5年内不会完全替代人力资源或猎头。但它可以成为提高招聘效率的好工具。”Wen说。他大约一年前加入智联招聘,当时公司正在努力运用新技术促进商业的未来增长。

 

Xu Ning, human resources director at Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile, considers himself lucky if he can find one promising candidate out of every 10 applicants. Any help he can get, from AI to do a first rough cut of applications, is welcome, he said.

中国汽车制造商奇瑞汽车的人力资源主管Xu Ning说,他如果能在每10个申请者中选出一个很有希望的,那他就觉得很满意了。因此,如果人工智能完成第一遍简历的粗略筛选,那这种技术将很受欢迎。

 

“Screening CVs is a very time-consuming process,” Xu said. “Many people send out their CVs online recklessly. But it is becoming increasing difficult for us to find the suitable candidate among the pile of CVs we have received.”

“筛选简历是一个十分耗时的过程。”Xu说道,“很多人轻率地在网上投递简历,但这就让我们在收到的一堆简历中找出合适的申请者变得愈加困难。”

 

As for the two tips to improve one’s chances of landing a job, here’s what Wen, the Zhaopin chief scientist, had to say.

为了提高求职成功的机会,智联招聘的首席科学家Wen给出了两个建议。

 

“Our big data analysis shows that those who use iPhones are more picky when it comes to jobs and tend to consider more before applying for a certain position online,” Wen said. That is a good trait, because sending out a large number of CVs often indicate a lack of competency, he said.

“我们的大数据分析发现,使用苹果手机的用户更容易被选中,这些用户在网上申请特定职位时,也会考虑得更慎重。”Wen说道。他指出,这是一个值得肯定的特质,因为投递太多职位一般是缺少竞争力的表现。