AI for job applications: support or self-sabotage?

How to improve AI content?

Not to fear though, ChatGPT was also kind enough to provide 4 tips to ‘inject’ (ooh I do like that one) a personal touch:

1. Adding personal anecdotes or experiences
2. Include unique opinions and perspectives
3. Changing sentence structure and tone to match your style
4. Introducing small imperfections or informal writing

Which is some solid advice, but it’s missing some key details. For instance, before you introduce blemishes and informality, remember your audience. Before you include personal tales, take a moment and think about whether that particular story is going to alienate the person you are sharing it with. You might become so wrapped up in not getting caught out, you end up making an even bigger mistake.

By relying too heavily on what AI is telling you to focus on, you may miss a key area you should probably highlight on your application, and let’s be honest, if you don’t have to do the work yourself, your brain may skim over the information provided and you won’t even know what kind of organisation you’re applying to work for. Is that really a risk you want to take?

Equally, if you’re hiring and are looking to automate the process and speed it up, you won’t even know what talent you’re missing out on. You will lack that human connection and may miss important things in applications and interviews that, as a company, you usually value and look for. AI doesn’t have true abilities to feel emotions and relate to values like us (yet), so while AI can mark applications superficially, is that really how you want to grow your team?