Three Key Ways AI Can Help Optimize Your Job Search
Originally posted on LinkedIn. View LinkedIn post here.
Artificial Intelligence has ushered in “the new age of hiring” and is changing the job search game. As AI continues to advance and becomes more commonplace, consider giving yourself an advantage by incorporating its most useful tools into a well-rounded job search strategy.
Before going all in, it’s important to remember, though, that networking is three times more likely to deliver a job than online applications. Prioritizing human connections - people who understand your strengths and goals, share their wisdom, and will refer or advocate for you – continues to be critical. While AI resources can help make the search process more informed, online tools should not be treated as autopilot: job seekers should ultimately steer the wheel!
Here are three critical ways AI can help you optimize your search:
1. Finding and Learning About Roles, Companies & Industries
Career sites, job boards, and networking platforms can leave job seekers feeling overwhelmed or without direction. Using AI tools can help you discover and isolate the most relevant career opportunities and insights while avoiding less appropriate listings and data.
Based on the information you provide about your interests, skills, or goals, AI job matching services can help you research roles that are a good match. Bots like Kickresume’s Pajama Jobs can analyze your resume, search for openings that match your skills and preferences, and send you the top matches. Websites such as Huntr can help you track open positions, visualize, and organize your job search process, a potentially useful addition to regular career and job websites.
AI tools like Talentprise and Existential can provide AI-driven career assessments, while LinkedIn Premium offers a “career coach” chat bot for questions and custom advice. Both provide job seekers with a precious resource that’s often in short supply: time, which you can then use to invest in more networking.
AI can also help grow your industry awareness by rapidly compiling information about sectors and positions, allowing you to efficiently do research and expand your expertise.
2. Writing Persuasive Application Materials
Persuasive and skillfully written applications are vital to getting a job. Perhaps AI’s greatest benefits are that it can help you conquer the dreaded blank page, suggest building blocks for a strong written piece, and proofread. Programs like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini can help you write a first draft for a well-focused cover letter based on uploaded job and company descriptions—and even assess your writing’s strengths and weaknesses. Generative AI programs like Wordtune can list words and sentence variations to show different possibilities and suggestions to improve your writing. Jobscan can optimize your resume to increase visibility and GPT for Google Sheets can help you personalize and send messages or emails en masse.
Remember, AI programs get you started but they cannot replicate your unique voice or the kind of nuanced self-understanding that make written work compelling and reflective of the writer. Recruiters can spot AI generated applications, noting that they feel “generic…a little too robotic…and lack the personality you see from an applicant.” That’s why it’s critical to use AI writing programs as a supplemental tool for brainstorming, outlining, composing, and reviewing, rather than as a substitute for your own writing and, ultimately, you should always rely on your own judgement about whether or not AI suggestions serve you well.
The Final Round’s AJ Eckstein also cautioned that “AI requires verifying and fact-checking to avoid inaccuracies…and misrepresentation.”
So jumpstart your writing by considering AI programs’ suggestions, then move forward editing yourself, using your own best judgement.
3. Preparing for Interviews and Next Steps
Interviews are opportunities to tell a hiring manager who you are and learn more about them too. While AI-engineered simulations cannot replace human practice sessions, they can act as a digital practice field that strengthens your preparation.
One way they can do that is by helping you anticipate different interview questions, refine potential answers, and become a better conversationalist. Your goal should not be to memorize answers to every possible question but to understand how and why you would reply to a question in an actual interview. Huru and Wizco’s Ava are two AI interview coaches that ask questions tailored to a user’s background, field, career goals, and desired role before providing custom feedback.
If you are looking to increase your salary or for contract negotiation skills, you can consult AI websites like Salary Sage to practice, which allow you to draw on information you already have, including your experience level and the expectations for a role.
AI is an Assistant, You are the Boss
Applicant tracking systems and other algorithmic-based hiring methods can easily detect too-perfect, AI-written cover letters and resumes. And although HR departments consult AI software, real people lead the hiring process themselves! As a job seeker, you must therefore rely on your own merits and abilities to get the results you seek.
AI Tools Should be Part of a Diverse Toolkit
complementary to the traditional work you need to do: the more information you gather through both traditional research and AI, the better you can position yourself for success. If you appropriately supplement your efforts with AI tools, you can stand out in the application system while becoming a candidate who is more purposeful, productive, and prepared.