Employers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence technology to help automate the hiring process. Those same tools, while imperfect, can help Long Islanders in their job hunt, local hiring and technology experts said.
Hiring managers have adopted generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini to help sift through applicants, local experts said. Today, 57% of companies say they use AI in hiring, with 34% of those same companies saying they use the technology for interviews, according to an August report by Resume.org.
Many firms, especially those on Wall Street, are taking steps to prevent job candidates from using generative AI tools during online tests and evaluations as well as video interviews, by deploying detection software.
“It’s a catch 22,” said Jim Morris, owner of the Farmingdale Express Employment Professionals, a franchised staffing firm. “Companies don’t want people using AI to write their resumes, but they are using AI to screen their resumes.”
Long Island experts in hiring and computer science said there were ways for applicants to take advantage of the time-saving utility of AI tools without misrepresenting themselves or hurting their chances of employment.
Here are five things to keep in mind when using AI in the job hunt.
Can AI help me find a job?
AI tools can help job candidates find job postings, said Aaron Zweback, owner of staffing agency PrideStaff in Melville. However, like with all generative AI tools, they may provide false information and need to be checked, he said.
By using tools like ChatGPT with specific prompts, job hunters can have AI present them a full list of job titles, geography and pay information across multiple online job boards in seconds, making initial searches easier, he said.
For example, jobseekers can craft a prompt asking the AI to “provide me a list of all remote Java developer job postings in Nassau and Suffolk counties that pay $130,000 a year or more from job boards like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.” Within seconds, candidates can have a compiled list with links to the original sources.
A prompt on ChatGPT “can tell me the company name, how much they are paying, if it’s remote or non-remote, and it will pull that data fairly quickly.”
Should I have AI build my resume?
AI tools today, Zweback said, are an excellent resource for making sure a candidate’s resume is professional and targeted to the job they are applying for.
But applicants should be careful about what goes into final draft and make sure the information presented by the AI is accurate by being “its fact checker.” Zweback said it’s important to review information in a draft carefully to make sure the AI did not insert incorrect information.
Kira Seale, assistant director of student career programs at the Hofstra Career Center, said there’s also cybersecurity concerns when it came to entering personal information into public AI’s like ChatGPT.
“If someone is going to use one these AI tools for their application documents, I highly recommend not putting in any personal information like their contact information,” said Seale said. “It’s just safer.” Phone numbers, emails and home addresses should not be entered into an AI tool, she said.
How can AI help me prepare for an interview?
“A lot of these services, like ChatGPT or Character.ai, they have a voice powered interface,” said Lee Stemkoski, professor of computer science and mathematics at Adelphi University.
“You can ask one of these services to role-play a hiring manager at a company and have it ask you questions verbally. When you’re done, you can ask the model for feedback with how aligned and succinct and relevant your answers were.”
Can I use AI to write my cover letter?
Although drafting a business document with clear, professional language can sound like a perfect use for tools like ChatGPT, applicants should be cautious about turning in a cover letter they haven’t crafted to some degree, experts said.
“With cover letters, it’s very tempting to have AI generate that for you, but it’s always very dangerous because anything generated by a conversational AI, like ChatGPT, is going to sound very generic,” said Stemkoski, who sits on hiring committees at Adelphi.
Although a cover letter written entirely by AI may sound professional, it could come across as dull or vague to readers because the AI is trained on “all the cover letters it has” access to on the web, he said
Should I use AI to answer questions in a video interview?
Local experts said job candidates should avoid using AI during interviews because it can make jobseekers look less genuine. And hiring managers and interviewers can usually sense that something is up, especially if applicants look distracted.
“For preparation purposes it can be helpful … but I do not recommend using it during the interview,” Seale said. “You want to make sure you’re being authentic.”
