The Future of Jobs Searching and Application Process: How to Let AI Do the Work for You

In today’s difficult job market, it can feel like you’re constantly fighting an uphill battle to advance your application for even the most basic work opportunities. But what if there was a process that could streamline the process of searching through job listings and submitting applications, reworking résumés and cover letters every time? There is a way. LinkedIn, one of the leading social media sites for jobseekers, has announced a series of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools that aim to transform the process of searching and applying for jobs for its premium customers. AI Trait, a keyword-identifying tool, will automatically generate auto-written résumés. A new template will allow users to generate variations of customized cover letters with a click of a button.

HIGHLIGHTING THE AI-ASSISTED ADVANTAGE IN JOB SEARCHES

Perhaps most notably, LinkedIn has improved its jobseeking search feature, with the help of artificial intelligence. Whereas a regular job search on the professional networking website has previously led to a deluge of irrelevant results, the new features on LinkedIn allow the user to enter complex conversational queries that could read something like, ‘find me a job with the title “marketing” that is fully remote and pays me $100,000 or more per year’. With this new job search feature, the goal is to make the user’s search through disparate listings more targeted and relevant based on their specifications.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF GETTING A RESUME AND COVER LETTER MAKEOVER

In a world beyond the job search, the AI there works especially well because it can help you refine and tailor stuff like application letters. With a few clicks, the built-in assistant will scan the resume you upload and offer suggestions for rewording certain parts of it, based on what you input about the job description you’re targeting. LinkedIn can also take a crack at your cover letter, with drafts that pivot on your experiences and the needs of the prospective job.

A FIRST-HAND LOOK: HIGHLIGHTING AI’S CAPABILITIES

Previewing the tools, the cover letter crafted by LinkedIn’s AI showed a nice level of targeting and a natural tone lacking in the robotic output I might expect from such automation. There was also greater specificity, in that the cover letter could draw upon details from my profile. I was sceptical at first, but the AI had picked up details about my profile, and wove them into the desperate cover letter. It’s a helpful tool for job-hunters, but it requires a bit of polish and your own touch, input and voice to make it yours, instead of some sort of soulless machine’s.

BEYOND THE BASICS: HIGHLIGHTING AI’S FUTURE IN JOB APPLICATIONS

LinkedIn, for example, sees a bright future beyond better searches and polished résumés as these AI tools also take over more parts of the hunt – possibly turning the AI into a proxy agent-worker for the job-hunter.

THE HUMAN TOUCH: HIGHLIGHTING THE ROLE OF AI IN SUPPORTING, NOT REPLACING

I continue to stress that these are not AI replacements for jobs applications – to the contrary, our wealth of experience suggests there are far too many people who would like to apply for jobs but, for one reason or another, because they haven’t gone to ‘the right school’ or started their working life at ‘the right address’, have been too intimidated by the prospect of writing their story down on paper to give it a go. They would welcome this kind of support to prepare them for the fascinating and complicated task of composing a story that they can both live by and the rest of the world can recognise as being a great fit for this particular job. Whether AI is rather like the scriptwriter cheering them on or inspiring them to write it in the first place is up to them.

CONCLUSION: EMBRACING AI FOR A COMPETITIVE EDGE

LinkedIn’s AI brings many of the benefits of intelligent applications and job searching to bear: the more time you spend developing your profile, the more likely LinkedIn will find relevant job openings and help you draft personalised application materials. As we move into the next few decades, we seem sure to see AI play an increasingly prominent role in job searching and applications – in fact, we’ve basically already arrived at a dystopian future where technology combined with human ambition enables humans to find amazing jobs. Yay.

UNDERSTANDING HIGHLIGHT: THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE TRANSFORMATION

Highlight is not just a buzzword, but a guiding principle at the heart of LinkedIn’s AI-centred approach to job-search and application: to highlight is to draw attention to those most important qualifications, experiences and skills that a jobseeker has in his or her possession. By strategically placing highlight at various key steps of the job-search and application process, we can be certain that the best components of a candidate’s profile are highlighted, which increases his or her visibility to potential employers, and thus improves the odds of receiving an offer for their dream job. To survive and thrive in the digital job marketplace, the most important skill to master is the art of the highlight.