WTF is white-fonting?
New AI tools intended to streamline hiring processes, and others to help candidates enhance their application materials, are actually making the process a whole lot messier today, according to workplace experts.
The ease with which job seekers can apply and generate materials has employers now swamped with applications and unsure of who actually wants the job they’re hiring for. That’s especially true as more candidates try to game the system – many by using a tactic called “white-fonting.”
Here’s a primer:
So what exactly is white fonting?
White-fonting is when job seekers slip hidden, invisible words in their resumes aligned with job descriptions, hoping to manipulate applicant tracking systems (ATS) to pick up their resumes and bump them to the top of the pile. While employers are catching on, it’s just one issue making job hunting today feel more like a black hole for both employers and candidates, workplace experts say.
“It’s just a numbers game, you can apply to 100 jobs, and an individual candidate is doing what’s in their best interest. But candidates acting in their own best interest, kind of hurts the downstream user which is like the recruiter,” said Jon Stross, co-founder of the hiring platform Greenhouse.
Give an example of how a candidate would do this.
Say a candidate is applying for a marketing position. If the job ad itself includes required skills like “digital marketing,” or “SEO and analytics,” or “content creation,” the candidate will then paste those same skills somewhere on their resume. They might even paste a whole phrase that matches a requirement stated by the employer in the job ad. Then they’ll put these phrases and keywords in white font, so that they’re invisible to the human eye, but are picked up on by ATS software. It’s similar to how in the early days of SEO, websites would attempt to bump up higher in the search indexes by packing keywords into copy on websites. This wasn’t visible to people reading them but was picked up by search engine crawlers. This quickly became deemed bad practice and was snuffed out when Google deemed it deceptive and began to penalize sites that did this in its search rankings.
What’s driving this uptake in usage?
It comes as HR professionals are getting more comfortable with candidates using AI to generate application materials, or perhaps just more accepting of widespread use, according to a survey from Myperfectresume including responses from about 500 HR leaders. Nearly 60% of HR professionals say they are comfortable with candidates using AI, while about 40% view it as unethical and say they still have reservations.
At the same time, 15% of HR professionals believe AI has harmed candidate quality and 25% of HR managers are neutral and believe AI does not impact the recruitment process, that survey found.
But when workers use “white-fonting” to try to game the system, they’re essentially misusing AI tools in the hiring process. And ultimately, if they’re the right person for the role, the keywords in white font should be displayed visibly on their resumes.
“Folks get really focused on, like, how do I beat the machine, how to meet the algorithm. It’s like no, at some point, ideally you will be seen by a person,” Stross said. A more intentional and well-meaning way to use AI is to better tailor cover letters and other application materials to job descriptions that are truly aligned with candidate strengths, he said.
So this will ultimately be deemed unethical and stamped out?
That’s likely. For now, it’s been used as a useful shortcut to bypass automated systems but is widely considered unethical and recruiters are becoming aware of the tactics. If detected, it could damage a candidate’s chance of being hired for the position.
How can this be offset?
Greenhouse is developing some other tools to better gauge who is a top candidate and who really wants to work somewhere. First with a feature eliminating duplicate resumes and only allowing submissions once. Many candidates will often apply to several roles, and sometimes multiple times, Stross said.
Another tool to find truly eager applicants is one that tracks candidates subscribed to tailored job alerts, or openings at roles at specific organizations. “If you got 800 applicants, but these 10 people have been subscribed to you for months, they’re really into your company. That signal of intent is a new type of signal,” Stross said.
Ultimately though, “each company’s way of using their AI and setting up their AI to screen candidates can be a little bit different,” said Jasmine Escalera, career expert at Myperfectresume.
It’s essential that hiring managers are still “looking at these resumes still with a diligent eye and selecting the best candidates to proceed for interviews, knowing that AI can’t take over the full recruitment process, but it can 100% help and guide recruiting teams to the best potential candidates, if it’s being set up in the right way,” Escalera said.