Hilton wants job applicants to send a TikTok video, not their CV

Rise of ChatGPT also a factor

She told The Australian Financial Review that the rise of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT had also factored into Hilton’s decision-making.

A survey of 1000 US employees in February commissioned by Resume Builder found that 46 per cent of jobseekers had used ChatGPT to write their resumes or cover letters. And seven out of 10 reported a higher response rate from companies when they used the tool.

“There’s so much out there that people can just take or copy,” Ms Hogg said. “Whereas, with TikTok … it lends itself to people being a bit more authentic, because they’re having to front up and make eye contact with the camera.”

The campaign was open to all roles but was mainly targeted at entry-level positions, Ms Hogg said. She conceded that giving candidates just 60 seconds to apply for a role meant they would inevitably omit important details about their education and experience. But she said hiring managers could interrogate those blind spots in a follow-up interview.

The campaign comes as hiring managers across the economy debate whether to abandon cover letters and CVs now that candidates can use ChatGPT to help write them.

Written applications reign supreme for now

Robert Half director Nicole Gorton said video applications could supersede resumes in frontline customer-service and hospitality roles. But she said the CV and cover letter still reigned supreme in the corporate world.

“Often there’s a layer of fact that doesn’t get overlooked – and that is your education, your skills, your time in certain roles and at certain companies, and your achievements,” Ms Gorton said.

However, Culture Amp chief people officer Justin Angsuwat told the Financial Review in August that the advent of generative AI had further undermined the value of what he already considered an unhelpful mainstay of traditional applications.

He said cover letters had long been a poor indicator of a candidate’s suitability for a given role, as most professionals were rarely required to write in the style of a cover letter in their day jobs.

“What it mostly demonstrates is that if a company required a cover letter, you listened to the instructions, and you completed them,” Mr Angsuwat said. “But I don’t think it really reveals or shows much else about the candidate because it’s not generally a great form of communication.”

Andrew Hanson, NSW managing director of recruitment firm Robert Walters, went further, telling the Financial Review in August that the rise of AI could be the final nail in the coffin for cover letters.

“It’s too easy for [a cover letter] not to be an actual representation of the individual,” Mr Hanson said. “Whereas I think, for now, that video certainly is a representation of an individual and how they present.”