AI for job search can help but when it creates the illusion it’s helping and produces garbage instead – that’s a big issue.

I’ve been doing a TON of research and prompt testing. Here’s 5 ways it can help and 5 ways it falls short.

HELPS:
1. Comparing your resume to a job posting to identify strengths, missing keywords, and areas for improvement. It’s great at this.

2. Generating potential interview questions based on a job posting

3. Helping you get through daily overwhelm by saying “I’m overwhelmed right now and not sure what to do for my job search but need to take action. Help me create SMART goals for the next hour. ”

4. Finding typos in your resume

5. Having it help you find good positioning terms if you’re struggling “e.g. I’m looking for a good phrase that explains I make sure that new tech actually helps the productivity goals and needs of human workers. Can you give me some ideas?”

DOESN’T HELP.
1. Helping you tell a compelling career story. AI doesn’t get it. AI uses the same terrible outdated, non human-centered design principles. AI doesn’t understand resume and LinkedIn UX. Use humans who really get it for that.

2. Ensuring your resume/LinkedIn content is compelling. AI is great at matching, but it doesn’t understand the power of specificity. But then again, many resume writers don’t either.

3. Writing your whole resume or LinkedIn. It misses the boat on understanding the recruiter and hiring manager scan. I use it to assemble an early draft and then craft from there.

4. Helping you analyze the job market strategically. It has the same biases as group think. It’s not good at finding points to break through. The job market and the economy are both in disruption while the tech segment is also undergoing a downturn. With disruption the playbook is being written as things unfold. AI only has the information that’s already been discovered.

5. Getting all the different thoughts and feelings in your head sorted out so you can show up confident, connected, and curious. It takes some human empathy and a strong coaching toolkit to get there.

What have you found out about AI for job search? I’d love to know!

*All research done with ChatGPT 4o. I’ve also tested many (not all) AI for job search tools and have been consistently disappointed in the output.