10/03/2023Artificial Intelligence

The Role of AI in Your Job Search

The use of AI marks a turning point in how we work: it influences the way we search for and secure employment. There is currently a plethora of tools that facilitate the work of job seekers with minimal computer knowledge. This article assesses the interactions between generative AI solutions and job searching. To do this, we will follow the adventures of Coraline, a fictional character.

Preparing for an Interview

Coraline worked for about ten years in a tech company as an executive assistant.

Why an executive assistant and not a cleaning staff or an electronics engineer? Firstly, because with a bachelor's degree and living in the Paris region, Coraline is not among the 7% of French people who have difficulty reading, nor among the 15.4% of French people suffering from digital illiteracy in metropolitan areas. This eliminates a certain number of jobs where computer skills are optional.

Secondly, for jobs in high demand (such as engineering), AI software is currently not very suitable for recruiters' demands. Due to the rarity of the profile, recruiters are more likely to search for candidates through sourcing and evaluate them themselves.

Following a layoff, Coraline is looking for another job in a different sector. Two complementary solutions are available to her:

Coraline has carefully built an online reputation on LinkedIn during her years of activity. She diligently filled in what she does and promoted her former company. She can rely on her network or look for a job on LinkedIn, which, thanks to an algorithm, will determine the most suitable job based on her skills and professional background.

Example of LinkedIn recommendation algorithm result

Coraline decides to send spontaneous applications and/or respond to job offers by consulting job websites and company websites. Once she has indicated her skills, a chatbot guides her toward a profession she might not have considered. Among these chat software, today we find La Bonne Boite, fed from databases of Pôle Emploi, Urssaf, and companies. When this tool has a data history of at least four years, it can calculate the probability that a candidate will be hired.

Conversation with the Robot: Hi! I am Una, your personal job assistant at Unilever! You can ask me anything about our business, culture, team or I can help you start your job search!
Thanks for accepting our Terms of Use. What are you looking to do at Unilever? — Starting a conversation with Unilever robot

Conversation with the Robot: Great! Take a look at the Executive Assistant position I found for you in United States. — Unilever's chatbot introduces itself and presents some job offers

Responding to a Job Posting and Getting Selected

Once Coraline has gone through the job offers and propositions, it's time for her to work on her resume and cover letter. Today, there are many solutions that assist or entirely accomplish this task.

In case Coraline doesn't feel like browsing job offers, she can automate her entire job search process. Paid tools refine her resume or LinkedIn profile to send up to 150 applications on all desired platforms. A follow-up with a dashboard is automatically generated to manage all her requests. Primarily used for English speakers, these tools are likely to become popular in France in the near future.

If ChatGPT seems to be the flagship tool for writing tasks now, Kickresume or rezi.ai specialize in generating and automating resumes and cover letters.

If Coraline is a fan of graphic design, she can turn to Image Color Picker's AI to extract and literally color her documents in the company's colors.

Extracting Color Palette from a Website to Create a CV — Using a URL, Coraline extracts colors from the company's website and adds them to her resume

Generated and optimized resumes meet the requirements set by recruiters' software, the ATS (Applicants Traffic System) in terms of format and content.

Interview Preparation

Preparing for interviews is essential to stand out and land a job. OpenAI has understood this perfectly and released the fourth version of ChatGPT.

Coraline can chat with the tool to access a summary of all documents and identify the essential and decisive elements of job offers.

With interviewby.ai, she can also anticipate questions about the position and the company through interview simulations. The goal is for candidates to feel confident during their interview and also train the AI on anonymized data.

When the day of the interview arrives, Coraline only needs to rely on her personality and skills to convince the recruiter.

Towards a 100% Automated Job Search?

It is becoming easier and easier to automate your job search to save time for other activities. However, the solutions mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. Regarding the automation of the recruitment process, it remains reserved for a primarily English-speaking population who can afford a subscription.

Job searching and the associated process are very resource-intensive in terms of physical and mental resources. This can be even more detrimental when opportunities for certain jobs are limited and paradoxically require originality to stand out. Job searching sometimes leaves little time for training or maintaining a life on the side. Due to these repetitive actions, it is tempting to use AI that allows job seekers to more easily secure employment.

However, this gained time is not without consequences: digital pollution, the use of personal data, and lack of transparency in job searches. Questions that also arise on the side of recruiters, with the added issue of biases.