Before putting a draft resume into ChatGPT or asking another AI tool to craft a message to a recruiter, job seekers should avoid a few things.
“I’ve never used the language ChatGPT spewed out, but I definitely used it to figure out where I was missing useful information and where I had too much,” said one person who responded to a Business Insider survey asking how job seekers are using AI. Another said they used it to create a thank you message leveraging information from the company’s website, such as the employer’s values. Another use was to compare resumes and job descriptions.
More than 7 million people are unemployed in the United States alone, and about a quarter have been actively looking for work for at least 27 weeks. “Now is the time to make some adjustments to your strategy,” said Pat Whelan, director of career products at LinkedIn. “That’s where AI can be a big help.”
Still, he added, AI tools are just a starting point for the job search. Here are six examples of AI mistakes and overuse you should avoid to avoid ruining your chances.
Don’t lose your humanity by giving technology complete control
In the end, humans, not AI, are the ones who have to sign on the dotted line and take on the duties of a new job.
Priya Rathod, Indeed’s Workplace Trends Editor, has found that AI can help job seekers enhance their applications. However, we are careful about handing over all responsibility for material creation to AI. Job seekers need to personalize materials to tell their story.
“Use AI as a collaborator,” Rathod said. “Once you write out your resume, you might use AI to tweak or enhance it, or make existing bullet points clearer.”
Meg Martin, a resume writer and career coach, suggested avoiding telling AI tools, “Here’s the job description. Please write a resume for this job I want to apply for,” and also not telling them who you are and what experience you have that fits what the employer is looking for. Without personal touches, she says, it’s just a run-of-the-mill resume that won’t accomplish much. Martin said if you want to use AI to help you draft your resume, feed it the text and have it match your voice.
Don’t forget to fact check
Before you upload your resume to a job application, take a look at it and make sure the skills, experience, and other AI-enhanced sections are actually about you.
This is important if you reach the interview stage. “If you can’t speak confidently about each bullet point on your resume, you’ll be at a disadvantage during the interview process,” said career coach Lee Ann Chan.
Rathod emphasized that cover letters and resumes created with the help of AI should match what can be detailed during the interview stage, as employers look for consistency throughout the process.
“AI may exaggerate qualifications or hallucinate job responsibilities, and timelines may not be accurate,” Rathod said. “This means we need to thoroughly review the output produced by AI.”
Don’t just use the style or sentence structure given
“The key point I’m sharing with everyone is that there is no such thing as an AI resume or a non-AI resume,” said Sam Wright, head of career strategy and one-on-one job search support at AI resume writing company Huntr.co. “Is that a good resume or a bad resume?”
Wright says that on average, recruiters spend just under 10 seconds writing a resume. If there are clear signs that it’s a resume written by AI, “in that case it’s probably going to be a bad resume, because ultimately what we’re dealing with is the preferences and biases of the people deciding on the job applicant,” he said. Wright said signs of AI use could include em dashes or contrasting expressions such as “That’s not X, that’s Y.”
He said the main mistake AI-based job seekers make is thinking that these tools will require less attention or effort. Job seekers should do their research on what to include. “If you’re not an expert, or you don’t know what a good resume is in the first place, using these AI tools won’t really help you create a better resume because you’re defaulting to what you already know and creating prompts based on that.”
Wright also said that some AI users make the mistake of copying and pasting parts of their conversations with the tool into job application materials, so don’t forget to double-check.
Don’t give too wide a range of inputs to your AI tools
Mr. Martin said that since garbage in equals garbage out, job seekers should try to use detailed and strategic prompts to get useful outcomes.
“If you give just a one-line prompt, you’re going to get something very general and different than if you give all the details about your background, your experience, what you’re looking for, how you think you’d fit into the job in question,” she says.
Career experts tend to advise quantifiable details on your resume. Chan said that instead of simply uploading your resume and telling the AI tool to tailor it to your resume, you give the AI tool numbers and details about your work history.
“Tell them exactly, ‘When we were working on this group project, we leveraged these resources and collaborated with these people and were able to get a 20% increase,'” Chan gave an example.
Then clarify what you want the AI to do with that data, including creating specific bullet points on your resume that leverage that information. Also, please tell me the length of the point.
Avoid overusing common buzzwords on resumes, cover letters, and even networking
One common part of resumes is a professional summary at the top that briefly describes the job seeker and his or her measurable accomplishments. Martin noticed that AI tools tend to fill sections with buzzwords and commonly used verbs.
“After a while, they all start to sound the same. You have to find a way to make yourself stand out,” Martin said, adding that editing is key.
When it comes to cover letters, she said people need tools to guide them in writing style and word choice to avoid coming up with something more generic. “They usually start with, ‘I’m looking forward to applying for such-and-such a job,’ and that’s a total bonus,” she says. But she said it should still be human-like so people can use the output of AI tools as a guide rather than an end result.
Chan said candidates need to include numbers in their cover letters to demonstrate their impact. She said a common phrase used too often is “transforming data into actionable insights, proven track records, and results-oriented professionals.”
“It’s not that you can’t use that word, but you have to back it up with results,” Chan said.
Don’t create cold and overused outreach messages
AI tools can also help with networking. Whelan said that while AI can save time drafting messages, job seekers still need to review and customize their messages.
“Make sure to stand out to the hiring manager and tell them why you are uniquely suited for that particular role,” he said.
Recruiters are constantly receiving messages from people saying, “We saw you working at a particular company and would like to ask you a few questions,” Chan said. Instead of telling the AI that you are about to apply for a job, or have already applied, and would like to write a short message to the recruiter, instead of telling the tool specific details about the person, tell the tool something that will help make the message less general, such as that the recruiter recently spoke at a particular event.
Is your job hunting going well? To share your story with this reporter, contact: mhoff@businessinsider.com.