Artificial intelligence and your job hunt - the do’s and don’ts

Needless to say, AI has captured the imagination of many with its ability to answer questions, generate content, mimic human voices and create surreal imagery. But with its many practical and fun applications come concerning ones. It has the ability to spread convincing disinformation by creating fake images, videos and voice recordings quicker and better than ever before.

Educators have expressed their concerns about AI as well. What is the point of assigning projects if students will simply paste their prompt into ChatGPT and turn in what it produces? How can we accurately and fairly assess student capabilities in light of the wide use of ChatGPT?

The European Union has also taken note of these advancements. It has drafted rules to regulate AI through the AI Act. The bill identifies different classes of AI systems with levels of risk ranging from limited to unacceptable. Unacceptable applications include using biometric data in a public setting to automatically identify people and manipulating the behaviour of people. Applications of AI in categories such education and employment will be highly regulated. They will be required to be more transparent and use accurate data. Violations of these laws will result in fines of up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue. Targeting the applications of AI means the legislation remains relevant regardless of how the technology evolves.

Using AI in projects and assignments

It might be tempting to simply paste assignment questions into ChatGPT and submit its response as your work, but obviously we would strongly advise against it. Bear in mind that if anyone else decides to do the same, you will end up submitting the exact same work.

Furthermore, with the development of sophisticated AI applications that can write your assignments come AI detectors. These detectors are easy to find, easy to use and in many cases, free. A quick search reveals multiple examples of such programs. Your work can be simply pasted into these programs to reveal what percentage of it was produced by Artificial Intelligence. Much like how colleges have been using plagiarism detectors, the use of these detectors could easily become standard practise.

There are ways to use AI to help you with your work without having it do the job for you. You can ask AI systems such as ChatGPT questions when you are stuck, you can use it to suggest improvements on your work, check your spelling and grammar or debug your code. However, do not use its suggestions uncritically! ChatGPT isn’t some form of all knowing genius. It is simply repurposing the information it has been fed and can make mistakes in its outputs. The same way Google Translate doesn’t always understand the languages it’s translating to and from, ChatGPT doesn’t often actually understand the questions it’s answering or the conversations it’s having.

Also keep in mind that while you might be able to rely on ChatGPT to help you in college, this might not be the case once you start working. ChatGPT does not have knowledge of any proprietary systems that your employer might use. You need to be able to solve problems relating to your job yourself and develop the skills that you will need for your career

Using AI for your CV and cover letter

Another fast-growing application of AI amongst graduates is its use in CVs and cover letters. Apart from ChatGPT, there are specially designed AI systems that will design a CV for you and write cover letters. As with its other applications, using AI for your CV can have its downfalls.

AI systems will use a template to create you CV and cover letter so they might not be as unique as you think. Cover letters written by AI may be bland and generic and will certainly lack your personal touch which may be what would have stood out to a recruiter. If you are using AI to help you with your CV and cover letter, be sure to thoroughly proofread the outputs and alter them to better suit who you are and the job you are applying to before submitting them.

According to Angela Collins, head of career services at SETU, “Students could use ChatGPT as a starting point but should then personalise what the bot gives them. That way, hiring managers "can see that this is somebody that's taken time to think about who they are and the organisation they’re applying to”

AI in recruitment

HR departments are also increasingly using AI to screen CVs. This has its downfalls as AI may replicate the biases of the data it has been fed. It may also overlook some of the information on your CV as it is parsing it rather that actually reading it. However, there are things you can do to help your application get past AI screening tools and in front of a human being.

1. Tailor your CV to a job. Emphasise your most relevant experience and skills.
2. Use key words from the job description, but don’t go overboard. Keep in mind that a human recruiter will read you CV and cover letter before you get an interview so keep readability in mind.
3. Use clean and simple formatting with clear headings. This helps the AI extract the information it is looking for when parsing your CV.