Job searches after college can be time-consuming and stressful, like any major lifestyle transition. It's already difficult enough to come up with ways to adjust your resume, write a compelling cover letter, and find a job that actually interests you. Combine it with the story of artificial intelligence (AI) that exchange jobs in a particular field or are used throughout the various recruitment processes. The pressure on graduates can feel even more heavy.
Understanding how to navigate the use of AI in the recruitment process can be challenging. That's whether you decide whether to use it to coordinate your recruitment application or find out how to interact with recruiters who use it.
We chatted with Angela Burke, a career consultant at Angela Burke.ie. It leads graduate recruitment programs for global technology organizations and Big 4 companies, and is about how graduates can navigate the use of AI in job search and employment practices.
How is AI changing its recruitment practices?
AI says it is “a hot topic like this at the moment.” With a specific open position that attracts thousands of applications, “some organizations can leverage AI to quickly process applications, align candidates with roles, and ultimately connect candidates with application responses more quickly.”
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What does this mean for graduates?
“For alumni, it's important to focus on adjusting your resume, as the initial filter is often digital,” Burke said. This includes ensuring clear structures, relevant keywords and simple languages to make AI systems and human recruiters easy to understand your skills and work.
How do employers use AI in their employment process?
Burke said, “AI is a sharp learning curve for everyone,” and many employers still think about whether it's best to use it within their hiring. “Many people use it to support CV screenings, chatbots for candidate queries, and sometimes automated video interviews,” she said.
Her advice to applicants is to ensure that the documents will be “clean and easy to scan” and “prepare to engage with a digital platform with confidence.”
If you find yourself in an AI interview, “don't be deferred to the lack of instant feedback you normally receive during interviews with human recruiters in the form of nonverbal gestures, expressions, etc.” Burke said.
She advises applicants to not only know what you know, but also to prepare answers that show how you think and work together to ensure they are tailored to what the job specifications show.
Can I adjust my CV to go through the AI Applicant Tracking System?
As some open positions often receive thousands of applicants, “many companies use applicant tracking systems to filter CVS before contacting recruiters,” Burke said.
To increase your chances of passing this stage in the recruitment process, Burke recommends mirroring keywords and phrases from job descriptions to avoid overly complicated formatting and clarifying job and dates.
“I'm always driving client points with fluff distractions from important details, so think about what you need to keep and remove fluff.”
Should applicants use AI tools when preparing their recruitment applications?
“ChatGpt is great for brainstorming ideas, understanding and refinement,” Burke said.
But “Your resume is a ticket to an interview, and this is your ticket to work,” she said. “That's not a ticket you want to outsource to the bot, given your future is on it!”
What are the human qualities that AI is still valued as inexpressible?
“Creativity, empathy, teamwork, communication, stakeholder management, problem solving” are qualities that employers are always looking for, Burke said. “All of these abilities are extremely important in the workplace.
“I also pay attention to detail and accuracy. AI is definitely useful, but it's not necessarily accurate and requires human eyes to ensure dangerous errors.”
Are you watching AI replace certain jobs?
Rather than wiping out jobs, “AI is reducing repetitive tasks and reshaping roles,” Burke said.
“If graduates want to move on, they can prepare themselves by learning how AI tools will be used in their chosen field. In this way, they position themselves as someone who can use AI effectively, rather than compete with it.”
What is the best way to explore different career paths when you don't know what you want to do?
“First of all, it's important to emphasize that very few people know exactly what they want to do in their early 20s when they graduate, so I really hope that it removes pressure from those who put that expectation on themselves,” Burke said.
“I have a great belief that we can have many careers in our lives, which is usually something that naturally leads to the other.”
She said most clients who work with “early or late in their careers” are worried about making the wrong career decisions.
“I support people to make as informed decisions as possible, but I really believe that the experience is not wasted and that each one is clear that they are not working for you.”
She encouraged graduates to tell their families about what their work days look like and said, “If you're in a position to talk to someone like you, career experts can really help you out of your head and get to a clear place.”
