‘Shark Tank’ star and Aussie CEO slams ‘worst job application ever’ on TikTok before telling unlucky candidate to use his brain
Using ChatGPT to jazz up your resume? Don’t forget to give it a final read-over before sending it to employers—or you could end up like Benjamin, the poor job seeker who has just had his résumé publicly roasted by the high-flying fashion CEO and Shark Tank Australia star Jane Lu.
“I think I’ve just received potentially the worst job application ever,” Lu, the multimillionaire who found success after founding the popular fashion giant Showpo, declared on her TikTok channel.
She named and shamed the job seeker—who recently applied for a job working on her online business course, The Lazy CEO—as just “Benjamin,” for ironically being lazy and not proofreading his application before hitting send.
“Hiring manager, I hope this finds you well. I am confident that my experience in [relevant experience/skill] positions me as a strong candidate,” Lu read the application out loud, before adding, “Oh, my God… ChatGPT copy and paste.”
“All they changed was their name,” Lu said, while blasting the hopeful hire’s lack of effort and showing off his unimpressive application to her nearly 109,000 followers.
To make matters worse, the candidate even forgot to delete the prompt: “Here’s a more polished and articulate version of your cover letter.”
The embarrassing telltale sign he had used ChatGPT to conjur up his application was left at the very top of his email to Lu.
“I’m sorry Benjamin, I love ChatGPT, but you’ve got to use a little bit of this,” she concluded while pointing to her brain.
Is it okay for CEOs to roast desperate job seekers online?
The video, which has racked up over 30,000 likes in just two days, has received a mixed response. Some saw its funny side and left laughing emojis in the comments section, while others shared their similar experiences as hiring managers.
But as one commenter highlighted, a real person’s application for work has been turned into a joke.
“Not sure I would be making fun of someone in this way,” the user wrote. “You don’t know their background or literacy level. Would definitely think about removing this.”
There’s a global unemployment crisis going on right now, thanks to AI and the pandemic’s toll on businesses. Around 40 million people are currently using LinkedIn’s #OpenToWork badge, with recruiters highlighting that professionals are literally desperate for work.
At the same time, prices remain stubbornly high—as does the bar for getting a foot in the door of employment. One Gen Z grad with two degrees was left crying in the streets of New York earlier this year when she couldn’t even land a minimum-wage job—and the one coffee-shop job she said she was offered required her to do 18 hours of unpaid training.
It’s no wonder job seekers are now trying to outwit the tough job market by getting AI to do some of the donkey work.
The lack of effort in Benjamin’s job application may be a sign that he’s applied for countless other jobs to no avail—and has now given up on even trying.
Fortune has reached out to Lu for comment.
CEOs are getting frustrated with candidates abusing AI
Whether or not CEOs should be making fun of unlucky applicants, Lu isn’t the first to air her frustrations on social media with candidates turning to AI in their job hunts.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s xAI cofounder called out a cheating interviewee on X.
Greg Yang, one of 12 cofounders at Musk’s latest AI venture, said a “candidate tried to use Claude during the interview, but it was way too obvious.”
The post inspired other employers to speak out about the way savvy job seekers are abusing AI tools, including turning large language models into teleprompters during the interview and appearing “smart in bursts.”
Riece Keck, a tech headhunter and the founder of MindHire, complained that it’s “turning into a real problem.”
“I’ve been seeing this a lot as a recruiting firm owner,” he wrote, adding that he’s resorted to “looking at where they’re looking during an interview and seeing if there’s any pause on their reply.”
