An IIT graduate job seeker found himself in an embarrassing situation when he submitted a cover letter written using artificial intelligence, only to realize later that he had forgotten to remove some technical words. The incident came to light when a Twitter user shared a screenshot of the cover letter, written by a man named Akhil, in which the words “[company name,fallback=]” were inadvertently included.
The cover letter, intended to highlight the applicant’s technical skills, mentioned that Akhil had developed core microservices capable of handling over 25,000 requests per minute. This unusual blunder sparked a variety of responses on Twitter, with some finding humor in the situation while others approached it from a different perspective.
One user speculated that Akhil might have wanted to showcase his technical abilities by including the technical placeholder in the cover letter, treating it as a demo of his proficiency. Another user, seemingly unfamiliar with the technical jargon, amusingly remarked that they believed the phrase “active campaign” was associated with marketing experts, making Akhil’s inclusion of it in his cover letter next level.
The responses on Twitter varied, and one user pointed out that the acceptability of such attempts depends on the job market and industry. In highly competitive industries where securing an interview requires applying to numerous positions, some people may resort to using AI or other automated methods to simplify the application process. However, in industries with more opportunities and a less intense job market, such tactics may be viewed less favorably.
The incident also raised questions about the ethics of using AI to write cover letters or automate the application process. One user shared their recent encounter with an app that claimed to generate cover letters on their behalf, allowing them to apply to hundreds of employers within a day. They expressed concerns about the ethical implications of this approach.
