This told essay is based on a conversation with HR industry veteran Trent Cotton, Director of Talent Acquisition Insights at recruiting software company iCIMS. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
As someone who works in the human resources industry, I have recently noticed that many people think that AI can help make resumes look better. My answer to that is: You know that AI agents are flirting, right? It’s the same for everyone, so their efforts to stand out actually end up blending in.
Treat AI as your expert career coach
It’s fine to use an AI agent to improve your resume, but rather than asking an AI agent to do rewrites where mistakes may occur, encourage it to act like a professional career coach. Let us analyze your resume and ask you detailed questions that will help you further build your experience profile.
Next, ask the agent what roles you would be a good fit for based on your skill set. The results may include jobs you didn’t know about, so ask them to explain what those jobs are. Sometimes you just need to get a different perspective.
Explore unknown options with AI
In my work at iCIMS, I analyze millions of data points collected from recruiting software. Each month I take a deep dive into a specific area or hot topic.
One of the things I saw last year was a significant increase in the volume of applications in manufacturing. If I’m sitting in the technology industry, manufacturing isn’t the area I’m thinking about, but manufacturing requires technology to do things like track what goes in and out of the warehouse. AI can provide such insights, but only if users request them.
Sticking with this example, you want to ask the AI: What are the top manufacturing companies looking to hire tech talent? What kind of positions? Keep going down the rabbit hole to really understand what opportunities are out there.
Have a mock interview with AI Gordon Ramsay
Once you find a job posting you’re interested in, you can enter its description into the AI agent and instruct it to start an interview. When I was a student, I always took mock interviews. They can be absolutely brutal to you, but they have prepared you for it. In doing so, I think we have jumped several generations. AI can bring back mock interviews.
Tell your AI agent that you want your interviewer to be a business savvy person, like Stephen Bartlett from the podcast Diary of a CEO. But also tell them you want feedback from people like chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay. He’s known for providing brutally honest and constructive feedback to his employees. Suppose you want a true evaluation of your interview performance. Recommendations for improvement.
Most AI agents will say your answer is great unless you give them a persona like Ramsey. The AI version will tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly about him, and you’ll be better for it.
