For many recent graduates around the country, while the past few months may have been filled with music festivals, travelling or working hard to save money, it was also filled with hours spent on Indeed and LinkedIn, fine-tuning CVs and writing countless cover letters. <\/p>\n
Applying for jobs can feel like a job in itself, and coupled with widespread media coverage of how AI<\/a> is impacting the job market, it can feel like the system is working against you. <\/p>\n Angela Curran, guidance counsellor and founder of mycareerverse.ie<\/a>, has seen first hand the inner-conflict that graduates can have towards AI. \u201cThey\u2019re at such a vulnerable stage, because they can\u2019t get their foot in the door, and they\u2019re up against AI just to get in the door. Then it becomes a negative connotation to them. They\u2019re frustrated. That frustration is real.\u201d<\/p>\n She notes that graduates are engaging with AI on both sides of the hiring process: employers are using AI to select candidates for interviews, while applicants are increasingly using AI to generate CVs or cover letters. \u201cThere\u2019s very little human contact at the first stage in their career plan,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n [\u00a0The signs are AI prefers AI-written CVs, and one law firm\u2019s experience is revealingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n She points to the fact that some graduates are now being asked to complete interviews with an AI avatar before being granted an in-person interview.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s certainly true that these factors pose a challenge to graduates, \u201cit\u2019s not all doom and gloom\u201d, Curran says. \u201cAI is there. You have to use it to your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than avoiding AI at all costs, Curran says those who take the time to understand how the technology works, and what it means within their sector, will stand out as applicants. \u201cIt definitely comes up as an interview question,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be an expert in it, you just have to know how it works. You have to be able to speak about it.\u201d<\/p>\n She says employers are looking for someone who can \u201cthink and adapt and work alongside these machines, not competing against them\u201d.<\/p>\n For those who want to learn more about AI systems, she says there are plenty of courses online that can help them to upskill, giving LinkedIn Learning and Coursera as examples. She reminds graduates that they also should be demonstrating their knowledge of AI to employers, such as through posting the completion of these courses on their LinkedIn page. \u201cOn LinkedIn, once you get a certificate, blast it up. As much as you might think that\u2019s cringe … you\u2019re going to have to put on LinkedIn that you got this certificate, and then people start to notice it. It\u2019s like a marketing strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n From working with graduates, Curran has observed that one place where they can go wrong on the job hunt is over-relying on AI to complete their applications. Many employers now use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which can scan and extract text from your CV to categorise your experience and skills. <\/p>\n The system matches your application against the requirements listed in the job description, allowing recruiters to filter candidates who best fit the requirements of the job. This has led to many graduates using AI to curate a CV that mirrors the language of job vacancies they are applying for. <\/p>\n \u201cI see on the ground that students are using AI tools to develop CVs, based on the job interview. They\u2019re asking AI to produce an actual CV based on the job application, and they\u2019re firing that in. They\u2019re not actually using it to build a framework and then put their own information in and populate what they\u2019ve done.\u201d <\/p>\n Rather than completing generic CVs based on job descriptions, she recommends that graduates build off these templates, and consider how their skills match the role they\u2019re applying for. She also reminds graduates to avoid typing all of their personal details into AI. <\/p>\n She says most recruiters can tell quite easily if a CV has been fully generated by AI. \u201cYou can see the poor formatting on them, and the language is so Americanised. So people know if they\u2019re written by AI.\u201d<\/p>\n