It’s a ”tough market out there”, says Greg Taylor, head of public affairs at the LSE. But, even so, he was taken aback by the sheer volume of people that recently applied to become a public affairs assistant in his team.
The unexpected level of interest – a mammoth 995 applications – and the amount of time it took to go through the applications, prompted Taylor to post some “observations and tips for future PA applicants” on LinkedIn earlier this month.
The post clearly struck a nerve with the profession. Within a week, Taylor told In.Comms, it had “nearly 200,000 impressions, 112 comments and 577 other interactions (likes etc).”
“It has reached far further beyond my network than I expected and was, I thought, pretty basic advice,” he said. “I suspect the points made resonate with many recruiters, and hopefully applicants, especially as both sides grapple with the realities of AI and a tough jobs market.”
In his post, Taylor warned job seekers: “AI is not your friend. While it can craft a basic covering letter, it doesn't take into account specific instructions, like how to structure your response or the need to use headings.
“Without a lot of personal effort and expansion, an AI response can just be... well... bland. And AI responses all start and end in the same way, so can be far too easy to spot.”
Candidates for public affairs roles should also demonstrate they are actually interested in politics, show enthusiasm, pay attention to detail and, crucially, read documents carefully.
“We operate a blind recruitment system, so if an applicant ticks a box confirming they have not included any clear identifiers, but also includes their full name at the bottom of the covering letter, then we have to reject them. 100s failed at this hurdle,” he said.
Spending time personalising an application - researching, fine-tuning, proofing - will make it stand out from the crowd, Taylor added: “I know it's a lot of work, but from the point of view of the recruiter, it's so worth it.”
Stagnant jobs market
Recruitment consultants have echoed his concerns over the misuse of AI. Jules Shelley, chief executive, Ellwood Atfield, told In.Comms: “AI is unhelpful if used as a generic template for job applications, which we see a lot. There have been instances where we have received identical cover letters from several applicants. Using AI will backfire if applicants don’t make the effort to check and tailor their application to the role they are applying for.”
There is a lot of competition for public affairs roles in what is a “stagnant job market,” according to Shelley. “The increased burden of higher National Insurance contributions from April this year has added pressure on employers – some of whom are not replacing gaps when people leave as it has become so expensive to hire and retain staff,” she said.
And Janie Emmerson, UK & Europe managing partner and global head of public affairs at headhunters Hanson Search commented: “A huge response to a great in-house public affairs role is no surprise as these are very attractive roles. However the quality isn't always there and as a result great candidates can get overlooked due to the large volume of applications.”
She urged applicants to “take the time to target the roles that genuinely interest you and align with your skills and be really specific in your application and why you are interested”.
Adam Pritchard, director, Door 10 Recruitment, told In.Comms: “We regularly see numbers of between 100 - 300 applicants per role, so even by our standards these numbers for LSE are extraordinarily high.”
He added: “In this market, with hundreds of applicants for each position, I would encourage applicants not to become too downhearted if they are unsuccessful. With applications at this volume, decisions such as who to shortlist are made on the slimmest of slim margins.”
And Dean Connelly, founder and recruitment director, Latte, said: “The fundamentals still apply – doing your research, showing genuine interest, paying attention to detail, and resisting over-reliance on AI will strengthen your application."