Artificial intelligence (AI) is already making it easier for workers to put together a job application. The jury is still out on whether it is also making it easier for them to get the job.
Nearly half of recent hires used AI to apply, according to a survey by Resume Builder released in May. One in five Gen Zers looking for a job has used ChatGPT to create a resume or cover letter, a survey released the same month by Resume Templates showed.
I have discussed these findings with managers, professors and mid-career professionals. The reactions range from “That’s cheating!” to “That’s smart.”
Illustration: Constance Chou
“The rules around this are super-unclear to everybody,” said Monica Parker-James, the associate dean for industry relations and career services at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. That leaves applicants and employers to use their own judgment — and weigh for themselves the pros and cons.
First, the cons. An AI-written cover letter would sound generic. That can be fatal to one’s chances of getting an interview. The output might sound like business-speak, but that does not mean it is good.
People say AI-generated cover letters sound eerily alike. Questrom clinical assistant professor Mohammad Soltanieh-Ha said he has gotten e-mails for open positions that were clearly written by ChatGPT — they were all “five paragraphs long and the language is very similar.” I know one editor who uses ChatGPT to assess article submissions; if the writing or ideas sound remotely similar to what the large language model (LLM) spits out after a similar prompt, it is an automatic rejection.
I know from experience that it can be quite challenging to edit turgid, jargon-filled prose into something zesty and original. So, rather than using ChatGPT to generate a draft, write your own, upload it to ChatGPT and ask for a critique, Soltanieh-Ha said. I tried this, using a couple of cover letters I had lying around, and was low-key astonished by the results. These letters by their nature are often formulaic and stilted; but still, it surprised me that the ChatGPT-ified versions sounded more natural than the original drafts.
That does not mean applicants should take every suggestion offered by the LLM. It can be a bit too enamored of “corporate-ese.” When I asked it to improve my resume, it changed a section saying I had “launched” and “hosted” podcasts to say I had “spearheaded” them, which tells a recruiter less about my specific skills.
Where generative AI might be strongest is in helping applicants prepare for the job interview. ChatGPT can generate a list of common interview questions based on the specific job description. It can also give advice on answering tricky ones like, “what’s your greatest weakness?” (The LLM’s recommendation: Acknowledge a weakness, show what steps you have taken to address it, highlight your progress and connect it to the role for which you are applying.)
The right way to use the tool is as a sparring partner to hone your own thinking, experts said.
As for employers, recruiters might want to emphasize interviews and projects — work the candidate has already completed, whether at a previous job or in school — more than application materials. In fact, recruiters might need to spend more time talking with candidates, as written applications start to sound more alike, University of Porto associate professor and LTPlabs cofounder Pedro Amorim said.
Additionally, any who oppose AI use by applicants should make that clear in the job posting. If you are planning to ask finalists for a writing sample and want to make absolutely sure ChatGPT is not involved, you could ask them to provide it in your office — with paper and pen. If that sounds silly (and I have to say it does), you would just have to accept that some candidates would get a little technological help.
However, I do not think it is cheating to use AI to apply for a job. People have long used templates to write resumes and cover letters, a laborious process that does not always produce great results. We have tools today that work better, and candidates who do not use them — or do not, at least, learn how to use them — might be left behind.
After all, many recruiters use technology to screen job applications. It seems only fair that the candidates, who might have to apply to dozens of jobs to get an offer, be able to use efficiency-enhancing technology, too.
However, candidates should only use AI if they are willing to be honest about it.
One in three candidates said a hiring manager has asked about their use of ChatGPT, the Resume Templates survey showed. It would be a bad idea to lie.
Moreover, the tools to be able to tell whether someone has used generative AI are coming, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research research scientist Nick van der Meulen said.
Attitudes about new technology can shift quickly. I am old enough to remember when you had to ask Microsoft Word to run spell check (now it is automatic). It did not take long for my teachers to shift from “It’s cheating to use spell check” to “Always use spell check.”
We are not there yet with AI, but we are getting closer: According to a recent Korn Ferry survey, 80 percent of professionals say ChatGPT is a “legitimate, beneficial work tool.”
It is also a legitimate, beneficial tool for people searching for work.
Sarah Green Carmichael is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and editor. Previously, she was an executive editor at Harvard Business Review.
The return of US president-elect Donald Trump to the White House has injected a new wave of anxiety across the Taiwan Strait. For Taiwan, an island whose very survival depends on the delicate and strategic support from the US, Trump’s election victory raises a cascade of questions and fears about what lies ahead. His approach to international relations — grounded in transactional and unpredictable policies — poses unique risks to Taiwan’s stability, economic prosperity and geopolitical standing. Trump’s first term left a complicated legacy in the region. On the one hand, his administration ramped up arms sales to Taiwan and sanctioned
The Taiwanese have proven to be resilient in the face of disasters and they have resisted continuing attempts to subordinate Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless, the Taiwanese can and should do more to become even more resilient and to be better prepared for resistance should the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) try to annex Taiwan. President William Lai (賴清德) argues that the Taiwanese should determine their own fate. This position continues the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) tradition of opposing the CCP’s annexation of Taiwan. Lai challenges the CCP’s narrative by stating that Taiwan is not subordinate to the
US president-elect Donald Trump is to return to the White House in January, but his second term would surely be different from the first. His Cabinet would not include former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former US national security adviser John Bolton, both outspoken supporters of Taiwan. Trump is expected to implement a transactionalist approach to Taiwan, including measures such as demanding that Taiwan pay a high “protection fee” or requiring that Taiwan’s military spending amount to at least 10 percent of its GDP. However, if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) invades Taiwan, it is doubtful that Trump would dispatch
World leaders are preparing themselves for a second Donald Trump presidency. Some leaders know more or less where he stands: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows that a difficult negotiation process is about to be forced on his country, and the leaders of NATO countries would be well aware of being complacent about US military support with Trump in power. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely be feeling relief as the constraints placed on him by the US President Joe Biden administration would finally be released. However, for President William Lai (賴清德) the calculation is not simple. Trump has surrounded himself
RSS