Learn how to make technology a tool, not an obstacle, in your job search.
Rapidly advancing AI tools are reshaping the job market in real time in ways that are likely to have the most impact on early-career professionals. So what are recent or soon-to-be college grads to do?
Thea Cerio, director of Rhode Island College’s Career & Life Design Center, believes the important thing is for job-seekers to use AI to their advantage. Her office is working to ensure students know how to make the technology as a tool, not an obstacle, in their job searches. This includes using it to help build resumes and prepare for interviews.
Today, 82% of companies are relying on artificial intelligence to review resumes, according to the online platform Resume Builder. They’re using automated applicant tracking systems (ATS), software that collects the overwhelming number of resumes employers receive and screens them, separating the wheat from the chaff.
“Employers are doing this to save time,” Cerio explains. “If you have 300 resumes coming in for a position, you don’t have time to read them all. Applicant tracking systems pull in the candidates who have certain key words in their resume.”
ATS scans for keywords that match the skills the employer is seeking. This is a way of identifying the most qualified candidates. If those keywords don’t appear, a resume is likely to be flushed out of the matrix before a human being ever sees it.
“Applicant tracking systems are meant to weed you out of the applicant pool,” says Cerio. “We are here to help get you in.”
Instead of letting AI put them at a disadvantage, Cerio encourages students to use it as a way to gain an edge. There are many AI tools that can help their resumes make it past the tentacles of ATS and into the hands of an employer. But she also advises them to be mindful of the mistakes that are easy to make when outsourcing resume building to a computer program.
Her tips include reading the job posting thoroughly to ensure that even an AI-enhanced resume is a proper fit; not letting AI exaggerate their skills and experience; tailoring their resume to each individual job, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach; editing the text to make it sound more like their authentic voices; and limiting it to a page or two.
Of course, none of this is a secret. AI is writing thousands of resumes and cover letters every day to help job applicants get their foot in the door.
“If everyone has, relatively, the same experience, then it goes without saying that the deciding factor in getting hired becomes the interview. At the end of the day, it’s the interview that seals the deal,” Cerio notes.
That’s why the Career & Life Design Center is also helping applicants use AI tools for interview prep. For example, Cerio recommends pasting the job description into an AI platform like ChatGPT and asking it to generate sample interview questions.
“It’s like having a cheat sheet for the test,” she says. “It’s about working smarter.”
Applicants can then use the same AI platform to help them refine their responses to those questions. The Career & Life Design Center even offers an AI tool called Big Interview that creates mock interviews and records video, enabling students to review their own performances for common mistakes like bad body language, lack of eye contact or overuse of filler words like “uh, um, so, you know.”
Finally, applicants can use AI to research employers and career paths. ChatGPT can summarize information about companies, job roles and industries, helping job-seekers prepare for interviews or decide where to apply. It can also help them come up with smart questions to ask employers during interviews or suggest networking events.
“AI offers tools for both job recruiters and job seekers. The point is to use AI to your advantage,” Cerio underscores. “Your resume has six to seven seconds in front of an employer’s eyes to make an impression. It’s important that you create one that’s going to get you noticed.”