Resume Hacking? Yes, Applicants Do It.

Tim Elliott (0:00)

It's the Morning Drive, HR recruitment, jobs, talent, acquisition. Any other phrases I should use, Mr Mackenzie?

David Mackenzie (0:07)

Excitement about the market.

Tim Elliott (0:09)

Oh, I like that. Nice to see you. David Mackenzie is the managing director of the regional HR consultancy, Mackenzie Jones, and joins us in the studio. I think you came in saying I'm still full of coal, but you look fine to me. I think we'll get through.

David Mackenzie (0:24)

I've really, I've taken a load of legal stuff.

Tim Elliott (0:29)

I love the way that the first thing is legal stuff. That's good to know.

David Mackenzie (0:32)

Honestly, I've dosed myself up. So I think it's because when you come off a plane, I came off, obviously, I arrived back in the UA a week and a bit ago, and I think you saw me that day, and I just, I don't know, you come off a plane, you always seem to get a cold. I don't know what they do to the AC systems.

Tim Elliott (0:47)

All that recirculated air and all that stuff, and all those people and those bodies and those bugs flying around.

David Mackenzie (0:54)

You're making it sound so appealing.

Tim Elliott (0:58)

No, it's not the airlines' problem. It's just, you know, we're so interconnected, and we just catch stuff, don't we? Yeah, that, exactly. Plus, kids go back to school, so there's lots of stuff, you know, moving around a bit more freely because there's more activity. The good thing is, though, at the moment, there is more activity. There's that real feeling. And the traffic is well and truly back.

David Mackenzie (1:15)

Isn't it interesting? Our bellwether of good is how bad is the traffic?

Tim Elliott (1:18)

That's, every economist that comes in, I'm like, so, according to my traffic table, Dubai is back. But actually, it's not a bad benchmark.

David Mackenzie (1:28)

It's that. It's the number of jobs on LinkedIn. It's also the queue to your local coffee shop. If that's sort of 10 deep, you're pretty much, people are buying there.

Tim Elliott (1:37)

That's a good point.

David Mackenzie (1:38)

30 dirham cappuccinos.

Tim Elliott (1:39)

Yeah. Well, they're all indicators, aren't they? I mean, there is a Big Mac index for a reason. Yeah. So, I suppose we should follow that. Let's say, out of the store, because last week, what we...

This was your idea. We were talking about how to choose the right recruiter. And that was kind of the main part of the conversation. And as part of that, AI kind of came in, the way AI works in your business. But it's a much bigger discussion, I think.

So, I wanted to look today at where AI is taking talent acquisition. So, is that a big enough topic for you, first of all?

David Mackenzie (2:12)

Mahusif.

Tim Elliott (2:13)

It is big, isn't it?

David Mackenzie (2:14)

I think it's a really interesting topic as well, because I think the whole world of recruitment is changing. And we need to accept that it is changing as recruiters, but also candidates need to be aware of what they can do to help themselves.

Tim Elliott (2:28)

Yeah, that makes sense. Let me fling a few things out. I just want to see what sticks. Okay.

David Mackenzie (2:34)

It's a bit like my recruitment career.

Tim Elliott (2:37)

It's very like that in lots of ways. Oh, Farage is moving you over.

David Mackenzie (2:43)

I knew I wasn't.

Tim Elliott (2:44)

He does that on purpose. He likes to control a little bit. I know he is. He's in charge. So look, data from his report, the state of AI recruitment in 2026, available online, 86.3% of organizations use AI in at least one part of their recruitment kind of workflow. That I'm sure you would back up.

David Mackenzie (3:04)

Absolutely.

Tim Elliott (3:05)

Right. That's one that sticks.

David Mackenzie (3:05)

And becoming more and more pervasive across the recruitment industry.

Tim Elliott (3:09)

Okay.

Companies mainly use AI for repetitive tasks like job. This is in your industry. Job description, creation, analytics, candidate sourcing, resume, CV screening.

David Mackenzie (3:23)

Yep.

Tim Elliott (3:23)

Those are the main areas that kind of fits. AI can reduce hiring time by up to 50%.

Would you say?

David Mackenzie (3:32)

I'm not sure if it reduces hiring time because unfortunately, actually in the UA, the hiring time has extended recently because of clients' apathy to hire or decision making.

Tim Elliott (3:43)

But I guess that's a specific market state.

David Mackenzie (3:47)

The process, yes, it does. Because if you think of a very basic element, when you put an advert out, we get certainly in the Middle East about 800 replies. If a researcher had to go through those, it takes seven hours, seven and a half hours to go through those CVs.