How AI Can Accelerate and Improve Your Job Search Process

Sharon Hamersley discusses how we can all make the best use of artificial intelligence (AI) during a job search. With AI now part of our daily lives at home, school, and work, it’s become an essential tool for job seekers and employers alike. Yet, for many, AI can also be intimidating, especially when it comes to writing resumes, preparing for interviews, and navigating online job applications.

Across our conversation, we explore not only how AI can make your search faster and more effective, but also why it is crucial to maintain your own authenticity and judgment throughout.

Understanding AI as a Job Search Tool

Rather than fearing AI, we should treat it like any other revolutionary technology of the last fifty years. AI is the "fourth industrial revolution," following the creation of machinery, the development of infrastructure, and the advent of computers.

We talk about AI not as a replacement for human skill, but as a support tool. A fast research assistant and brainstorming partner. AI can process information quickly, identify patterns, and generate responses, but it’s only as helpful as the clarity of the instructions you give and the critical thinking you apply to its suggestions.

What AI Can—and Can’t—Do for You

One of the key topics we cover is the ways AI helps job seekers. AI can analyze job postings, pick out transferable skills, and suggest ways to improve resumes.

However, AI cannot write your resume for you. If you ask AI to generate your resume solely from a job description, you risk ending up with generic, possibly exaggerated claims. This is a phenomenon we refer to as "hallucination," where the AI makes up details that don't reflect your real experience.

Instead, AI’s strength lies in helping you organize information, identify missing keywords, refine wording, and prepare for interviews. It’s particularly useful for brainstorming bullet points, summarizing complex career achievements, and checking your material for relevance to a particular role.

Using AI Ethically and Protecting Your Privacy

If you use AI in your job search, you need to be careful about what information you put into the system. Always remove personal and proprietary data before uploading anything to an AI tool. By creating a plain text (.txt) version of your document, you strip away identifying markers, making it safer to use AI for feedback or analysis.

Never feed sensitive information to public AI databases. If you don’t want something available to the public, keep it out of the system.

Maximizing the Benefits, Avoiding the Pitfalls

Here are practical strategies for using AI effectively:

• Use AI to identify gaps in your resume compared to job descriptions.
• Ask AI specific, targeted prompts; focus on context, specifics, and objectives.
• Double-check everything AI generates—treat its output as a draft or starting point, not a final product.
• Request citations or sources when using AI for research, so you can verify the accuracy of information.
• Remember, your own experience and judgment must lead the process. AI cannot think critically or judge what best represents your skills.

Advice for Employers

We discuss how employers can use AI to clarify job postings, but stress that AI should never replace human judgment in hiring decisions. Overly broad or unclear job descriptions harm both candidates and organizations. Employers should use AI to support—not automate—key talent decisions and ensure both sides of the interview bring their best, authentic selves.

If you like this episode, please let us know. We appreciate the feed back, and your support of offset costs of producing the podcast!

FAQ: Smart Ways to Use AI in a Job Search

1. Can AI write my resume for me?

No, AI cannot write your resume for you. According to Sharon Hammersley, AI can help improve resumes by identifying transferable skills and missing keywords, but it generates generic content and may overstate experience. You must always refine and personalize the output to reflect your authentic experience 08:07, 12:19.

2. How can AI help me prepare for a job interview?

AI can assist in preparing for interviews by helping you understand the real intent behind interview questions (the "question behind the question") and by coaching you to prepare stronger, more relevant answers 08:13, 17:37. It’s especially useful for brainstorming and identifying areas where you can demonstrate your value.

3. Is it safe to put my personal information into AI resume tools?

No, you should never input personal, sensitive, or proprietary information into AI systems. Sharon Hammersley advises removing all identifying details and even using plain text files to anonymize your inputs, as anything entered may become public or used for AI training 14:10–15:57.

4. How do I check if a job posting is legitimate when using AI or internet tools?

Always verify a job posting directly on the company’s official website. Be wary of recruiters using personal email accounts (like gmail.com) or asking for money to apply—these are common scam red flags 29:08–30:02. AI may help you gather research, but the verification step requires your own judgment.

5. Can AI help employers with the hiring process?

AI can help employers draft clearer job postings and identify required skills, but it cannot replace human judgment in hiring decisions. Employers should not rely solely on AI to recommend hires; thoughtful, human evaluation is essential to find candidates who fit both the job requirements and company culture 33:05–35:27.

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Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants.

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Copyright 2026 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson

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Listener Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the experts interviewed on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcast hosts or any affiliated organizations. The information provided in these interviews is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals for specific advice or information related to their individual circumstances. The podcast host and producers do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information provided by the experts interviewed. Listener discretion is advised.

We are looking forward our way. Hi, this is Brett. AI is everywhere. Our home, our schools, and of course, workplaces. For many, it's something out of a sci fi film. For others, it is the crushing blow of a rejected resume. Today's guest is going to provide job search tips on how we can best utilize this computer generated intelligence. You may know her through the many workshops and programs she generously provides central Ohio job seekers at at local libraries and nonprofit organizations.

Please welcome Sharon Hamersley, the LinkedIn coach and the resume coach. Thanks so much for joining us again.

Good afternoon. I'm so happy to be here. I'm hoping that I will provide some good advice today.

Oh, well, if you weren't, you wouldn't be here.

Oh, there you go.

Nothing like setting the bar high.

Yeah. Brett and I are the experts to know the experts.

All right, all right.

Now, we've known you for decades, so. No, we know what we got.

That's true. It is decades now. Exactly.

Brilliant. Well, and Sharon and I were on

campus together so much longer.

Yes, another one of my OSU contact. I'm going to start a scoreboard on bread on the wall. Sharon, thanks so much. I so glad to see you. It's wonderful to catch up again. And what is wonderful when we get together is people think the issues on job seeking are the same all the time and they're not. Things are constantly changing and you're always bringing us new ideas. So we really appreciate that.

Thank you. I mean, I'm always finding new ideas and I have to say, having started to work with AI myself and it is a whole new world and that's what I'm hoping to give people some ideas about how it can be used effectively.

Right.

Well.

And as Brett and I have been talking with a lot of folks about artificial intelligence, it really gets down to if you only listen to the media, you are scared to death of artificial intelligence.

That's true.

As opposed to this isn't any different than any other revolutionary tool or we've all lived through for the past 50 years in technology. And the more you know about it and understand about it, the better you can use it and the less frightening that it is.

Yes, that is actually true. There are some real challenges out there. Yesterday in one of my career coaching groups, we were talking about AI as the fourth industrial revolution. You know, the first one was the machinery and the second one was like. No, the first one was the machinery. Second was just the building out of all the infrastructure. Third was the initial push towards it, towards computers and everything. And now this fourth industrial revolution is building on all of that.

Right, right. People are afraid of robots, artificial intelligence robots. Well, that's no different than when Ford started the car lines and changed the whole notion of how to make a car. It's certainly no different than when Honda came and started putting robotics into their car line. There's a lot of good that can come of this. There's always a lot of bad that can come of anything. There's a lot of good and we just need to know how to use it efficiently and ethically.

Yes.

All right, we got a little off topic there, but that's okay. So thanks to Sharon for coming to see us today. And as always, we always step back a little bit and ask Sharon to give us some of the information about her career journey.

So, yeah, I started my career with, well, next to Carol, sort of adjacent to Carol as an academic advisor at Ohio State, working with students to help them figure out what they wanted to do after they graduated. Then I spent 10 years in the private and partially nonprofit sector in health care, in training and that sort of thing. And in 2010, I decided it was time for a change. So. So I've been through a couple of changes myself. And my goal is to support clients who are seeking new jobs or change of scenery in our topsy turvy world here in the 21st century. It's interesting, we're now 26 years or 25 years into the 21st century and it's pretty interesting. And it has been the speed of light, literally.

Yeah, right. So I provide tools and resources, cover letters, resumes, job search strategy, coaching, interview coaching, LinkedIn profile development to help my clients figure out what it is that they want to do next. And my tagline is creating career clarity and confidence for experienced professionals, because that's my primary group. And by, by experience, I generally mean that you have maybe 15 years of experience, all the way up to how many ever years of experience you might have. Some people have 30 years of experience and it's not that that's bad in any way. It's just that the way things work now, it's very, very important to be able to demonstrate how that experience fits into the new workplace that we're experiencing now.

Right. And as a reminder to our listeners when this is posted, we're going to have lots of resources and Sharon helps me put together those resources for job seekers. Don't think you are alone in your job search. There are places you can go to for help and lots of incredible career counselors and we're really happy that we can have Sharon with us today and highlight what she does and what she knows about career counseling.

Yeah, yeah, I think. Well, this is a good time too. You just got a new website redesign. What's the web address?

Still the same old web address.

Good.

Www.the resume coach.com okay, good, good.

Because it's a beautiful website. Go and see it. Yeah, it's, it's. They did a great job.

We'll put it out there.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So AI, the term itself is so overused, it's hard to get a handle on what it actually is. Can you describe AI so we better understand what this tool, and I emphasize tool, is and what it can do for us, particularly those searching for employment.

Yeah, yeah, There's a lot of noise around that and I would say most of it isn't very helpful. No, actually, it's actually not.

What's the old movie? How that movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. And we are already 24 years past, 25 years past 2001 and almost 50

years past that movie, right? Yes, we are. So anyway, the way that I define and view AI, like you said, Brett, it's a tool. It processes information, it identifies patterns, generates language based responses. It's a very fast research assistant or brainstorming partner. That's, that's how I view it and actually how I use it for job seekers. AI can help analyze job postings, identify transferable skills. It can improve resumes. It cannot write a resume.

I need to be really, really clear about that.

Say it again.

It cannot write your resume. It can help with LinkedIn content. It's very helpful preparing for interviews because it can help you understand what's the question behind the questions in the job postings and being prepared to answer those questions and being in that sense a much more prepared and therefore a much more impressive candidate where the interviewer thinks, oh, this person really gets it. So it is very helpful in interviews

and people don't realize that it really is a question in an interview isn't necessarily the information the employer is looking for.

Exactly. Yeah. But you can, through the job postings, you can often figure some of that, at least some of that out, and even to refine your networking messages so they don't sound like every other generic message. Okay. What it does well is it speeds up parts of the process, the brainstorming part, I call it. You avoid, for the most part, Blank screen syndrome. It used to be blank page syndrome, now it's blank screen syndrome. What it cannot do is replace your judgment, your strategy, and your authentic person.

Because AI is the exact opposite of authentic. It's generic by nature. It is generic.

The language it uses makes it sound specific and authentic.

Yeah, but.

And you really have to really read, I think, not only read into it, but the more you use it, the more you realize it's generic.

Yeah, exactly. So the best results come when AI supports your processes. Does not replace your thinking. Yeah, your thinking, your judgment. You absolutely have to. Don't just take what it tells you. Think very critically about that. And I think that's the concern people have about using AI, that we're going to lose the skill to think critically.

So when I'm using AI, my very first question is basically, okay, so what's wrong with this? And then that gets me to the point where I can see where it gave me good information and where it's off track.

You sort of have to laugh because everybody sits back and goes, oh, these robots are going to take over our brain and they're going to take over our lives. Well, if you give it away, somebody's

going to take over.

Yeah, not going to be a robot.

But.

But. So, yeah, if you're really sitting there thinking through on your own, holding on to your own understanding and beliefs, you're going to be able to continue the process of prompting and asking AI.

Yep.

Very cool. Okay, so the one thing that I kind of keep harping on is, are the ethic, ethics issues. And I think part of that comes from so many people that I know who are teachers who have really had a hard time trying to. They basically had to rewrite all of their courses because they can no longer trust students to actually write their own paper.

Yeah.

You know, and so it's all in classroom writing now and that kind of thing. But job seekers need to understand that this, this affects them too. How can we best utilize this tool and how should we use it or not use it? And most importantly, how do we maintain ownership of what we feed into the AI programs?

So, yeah, the best way to use AI is a support tool. And we're going to keep hammering that. I think every. Every five minutes. Yeah. It's not a substitute for your own thinking. It can help you organize ideas, identify patterns, improve wording, prepare more efficiently. But you must always refine and evaluate the output yourself.

And then don't. We already said this, so I'm going to say it again. Don't ask AI to create your resume for you based on a job description. This strategy generally results in a resume that Overstates experience and sounds generic. I'm sure you've heard that AI hallucinates. It's great at hallucinating resumes, I can tell you.

So explain that, because I've heard that a couple of times and I'm not sure I understand when they say hallucinating.

Okay, so if you put a. Let's say you want to apply for a job and you put the job description in AI and you ask it to create a resume for you, it's going to take the job description and. And make up bullet points that have absolutely zero to do with what you've actually done in your previous job.

Interesting.

Yeah. And it sort of matches what the job description says, but it's not going to have a lot to do with what you do. And of course, this, you know, if you just turn that resume, upload that resume, turn it in, you're going to have a huge credibility problem if you get asked to come in for an interview, because nothing on your resume really matches your experience and what you've actually done in your previous job. So that's why I say, you know, AI hallucinates it. Hallucinates. It imagines.

Oh, interesting, interesting. I like that. Yeah, I like that nomenclature. Yeah, it's having a little brain burp what it thinks you did.

Fictional writing opportunity, right?

Yeah. Great fiction writer, not what you did. Okay. And ownership, this is really critical. You have to be really careful about what you put in because it's a public database. There are settings and I can't go into that in detail because it's kind of complex. There are settings to prohibit your ChatGPT or Cloud or whatever you're using from using the data to train the system. But that's several steps.

But anyway, because if you put a

document in, it's literally quote, unquote, learning from your document and you've just given that document away. Yeah, right.

Okay. Well, you've given. Yeah. If you put a whole document. So any personal information, proprietary data, sensitive personal information, anything like that never ever goes in AI. If you wouldn't want the information accessible to the public, don't feed it to the system. So basically, when I'm working with a client and I'm putting. And I'm, you know, I'm using AI to analyze something in their resume or something that's all anonymous, I put it.

Actually what I do is I take the information from the client's resume, I put it in a text document and actually txt document before I upload it, because that erases almost all of the markers about.

Interesting.

Okay, who created it? And so that's the point when you put information, because you want analysis, you want suggestions or whatever, you want to make sure that there's nothing in there that's personally identifiable, and you want to make sure that AI can't even discern all that easily where the information is coming from. And the way to do that, and this sounds really simple, like a step back into early computer technology is to put it in a text document.

Wonderful.

Yeah. So that's how.

Great tip.

Yeah. Right. So you want to use AI to strengthen your judgment and communication and not let AI speak for you. So, yeah, it's sort of basic common sense in many ways. It's like social media. What don't you want out there about social media? Although people seem to put a lot out there that maybe they shouldn't. But the same thing is true for AI. If you wouldn't want that information somehow publicly available, you don't want to put it in AI, you don't want to put it in any of the AI systems.

So, yeah, okay, that's good advice. Job seekers have a multitude of challenges in finding employment. Especially in today's workforce. Choosing to choose AI in their job search is a distinct decision. What can AI do to strengthen resumes, cover letters and other documents? And of course, we've kind of talked a little bit about it already, but let's get nitty gritty here. What are the dangers?

Okay, so job seekers, they can strengthen their resumes and cover letters and LinkedIn content by identifying missing keywords, tailing materials to specific roles, speeding up research, doing good interview preparation and job posting analysis. We talked a little bit about the questions behind the questions. You want to get at those questions behind the questions when you're developing your resume, actually, because that will increase employer interest. And then when you get into the interview and you can really talk to them about, hey, here's a challenge I've solved and I see you have something on your plate that I can help you with. The. That's one of the biggest things that impresses interviewers is when the person really gets it. That's your whole goal. You can start that process in your resume and on your LinkedIn profile.

You can basically speak to. Okay. If you're looking for somebody who could do this, if you have this challenge, this opportunity, all of that. And that's what AI is good at, is helping with that process. So. But here's the issue with that. People use AI blindly. It's generic, exaggerated, like we Said it hallucinates and it's completely disconnected from how you actually speak and think.

That's a big danger.

It needs to be your voice.

Yeah, yeah. You still have to speak in your voice. Now, over time, when you work with AI, it does learn more about your voice. And I found in working with it that over time it has actually become, you know, it understands how I speak because I'm always pushing back. That's what we said you need to push back on. I know. This is not what I meant. You know, this is not how I would say that.

All of that. And you can't get to that point. But you, you actually have to be able to speak in your own voice.

Sharon, we've talked, We've said this a couple of times, and I want to make sure we can identify what we mean. The question behind the question. Do you have an example of what an interview question could be where the employer may not be asking it very well? And not getting to the point, one, off the top of my head was that I used to talk to the students, if an employer asks you, like, what organization do you belong to or were you an officer? Blah, blah, blah, blah, what they were really wanting to know is, what are your leadership skills?

Yeah. And that would be a good example. Or if somebody might ask a very basic question, which is, what level are your Excel skills? Now what they're really asking is, and you should know this from having done your research before the interview. What they're really asking was, I need somebody in this position who is actually an Excel whiz. They have to be able to, on day one, they have to be able to pull the data, analyze it, put it in whatever form we need it accurate, complete all of those things on day one. And. And of course your answer's gonna. Be, well, in my previous position, I

was, I was able to create an Excel spreadsheet. I was able to join spreadsheets together or whatever.

Yeah. Right. So that type of.

Okay. Because that makes sense to us, because we've talked about that so much, but I was afraid that it might be a little misleading as to where. It's not that an employer is trying to trick you. They're just didn't come up with a really good question. And you don't want to miss the opportunity to really get the information out in your interview with that employer as to what all of your skills are and what they aren't. Yeah.

And what the employer. And match what you offer to what that employer is looking for and make that very clear.

The flip side of that is there are employers who say, I need somebody who's an expert at Excel. And, and in actuality, all they need is somebody who's, who has the ability to do some data entry.

Yeah, right.

They don't have to even know how to do. It's a, it's a program that, with an Excel background, but it's already programmed. You just have to plug in the numbers and so that, you know, it goes on both ends.

Yeah, right. So what you're really trying to avoid is the mismatch when you.

Exactly, exactly. Okay. All right, good. Thank you. Thank you for that additional information. So I've always maintained that a well written resume, that it's well thought out, it truly describes a person's skills and talents and shows the value that they bring to that employer. But most importantly, it also makes the job seeker a stronger interviewee because they have a firm handle on their candidacy. So we've talked a little bit about this already, but how can a candidate utilize information gathered from AI to strengthen their voice?

So what AI does well is it helps you organize information and then you are the person who's responsible to turn that information into accomplishment statements. It can improve clarity. It can pull out information that you may not have noticed. You can even ask it to do this with very specific prompts. Here's my resume. Here's a job description. What information is missing in my resume. And.

And then when it gives that back to you, you're like, oh, right. So what it's doing is it's helping you pull out information that you. We forget about stuff. We're doing our jobs. We forget about.

Especially somebody who's been working for 30 years.

30 years. Yeah, we forget about stuff. So it can also help you clarify. People are sometimes wordy and I find that when AI gives me too much information, I say, no, I need you to sharpen and focus this. And it's like, oh, okay, well, that's true.

Because God knows we've written a lot of bullet points and how many times you literally create that bullet point and you've talked yourself into a hole because there's no. And thought about the value of what that task was. And so. Okay, but you have to create it so AI can give you the information so that you can create in your voice. The true picture.

Yeah, the true picture. And it is helpful when you're working like this to have a specific job description that you're always referencing. And then you're writing bullet points, you're refining bullet points. AI is pulling information out of the job description that points out things that may be missing or that you could strengthen if they're really part of it. The bottom line is, and we've said this, and I think we're going to say this throughout this podcast, is you need to stay actively involved in the process, refining, personalizing the content. When. When you use AI to better understand your experience, not using the copy that AI generates, they're stronger and more confident interviewees because the message is genuinely theirs. You know, again, you start with the resume.

You put a strong message in the resume about your value to that next employer, and then in the interview, you. You can expand on that.

Right?

Yeah.

So we can't assume, though, that the job descriptions you're using and putting into AI are necessarily good job descriptions.

That's true. So you want to. And AI gives you. There are opportunities in AI to pull in information about this type of job, do research, and not have to go through ONET and five different things. But you can actually ask AI, given this job description, research information from onet, and you can give it several different sources. How accurate is this job description generally? And you can actually do research then to see that's what the employer thinks they want. But you can get a better handle on what this type of work actually entails by asking AI to do additional research.

That's a really good tool because it's not just to make sure your resume's on target for that particular job, but it can tell you what companies have those kinds of job descriptions and what are they looking for. So it really kind of expands your array of companies to look into and possibly apply to.

Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, you don't have to go to each company's individual job board. And AI, that is really the strength of AI, is it does the digging for you.

It's the encyclopedia of the Internet at your hand.

Yeah, exactly. And your main task is to figure out how to ask for the information.

Right.

And I mean, it could still give you stuff. That's not true. When you ask for any information like this, you must actually ask it. This is a tip. And I'm going to provide some prompts that we're going to put in the thing.

Right.

One item that you must always include when you're asking. You're doing information gathering research, provide citations.

Oh, okay.

Yep. Because then you can see. Oh, wait, that's. Wait, what?

I'm not interested in what this particular publication said. But you know, this particular publication.

Okay, Right.

Very cool. Well, it also stops the hallucination stuff,

it really tamps them down. Yeah.

Interesting.

So we all know that the Internet can be nefarious at times, to put it mildly. Yes, exactly. What should job applicants, job seekers be on the lookout for? What are some common things that are just like, no, that's not legit. What to be looking. Because when you're looking for a job, I'm not going to say you're desperate, but you are looking at things differently. You want a job, you want to change, and sometimes those opportunities go, well, that. Okay, let's do that. But maybe you shouldn't over and above

just knowing that when somebody asks you for money to apply for a job, that's a scam.

Right?

That's a scam. Yeah. There are other red flags. First of all, again, and I will say this one more time, is the information that you've included in your documents, is that all necessary? City and state. That's fine. Have you carefully vetted the opportunity to be confident that it's legitimate scams? Scams are out there. I could do a whole other podcast on scams, but am I comfortable with this information being stored or shared? I'll just mention a couple of key red flags that we're seeing recently. You get an email or a text or message in LinkedIn from somebody and it looks like a legitimate recruiter.

You can actually see their name out there, but the email address they want you to send the information to. Ismail.com people don't pay much attention to that. But the gmail.com is an immediate red flags. So I'll just put that one out there because that's really common. And then of course, what Carol said about never ask for money. Another one is folks offering to ATS proof your resume. That's a scam that's been around for a long time. It's still out there, but.

So, yeah, you just want to be. And here you can't ask AI actually to do research. This is something you have to do on your own. Go to the company website and make sure that it's out there. If it's posted on LinkedIn or you've received an email from a recruiter asking you to apply, just make sure that that job is legit at that company. Make sure the company is legit.

Right, right. Which really should be a step you're taking. Regardless if you think there's a scam out there, you should be checking to make sure and is also part of that. And to not assume because the job's been posted on Instagram It's a real job or it's posted on what's the other TikTok or whatever, that it's a real job.

Yeah, you should not do that. And actually, just because it's posted on LinkedIn, they try to pull those jobs down when they know about them, but they, they can't keep up, right?

Oh, yeah. I mean, we're looking not at even hundreds or thousands, we're looking at millions of. Of jobs. No system's going to be able to.

Yeah, right.

We've looked at how job seekers can just jump in and act like AI can get them a job. The flip side of that is employers who think, oh, I can use this new AI system and I don't, I don't need my HR people, I don't need this, I don't need somebody to schedule AI is going to take care of all of this. And really, job seekers are already up against ats, which is applicant tracking systems. And now with the AI programming that's being generated, employers really need to be careful in what they're doing from their side. One of the things we discovered in some other conversations is, you know, if you're putting time into a good recruiting system, you're going to have a greater retention on your folks. So what are some tips that employers need to have as well as the job seekers and preparing for an interview, posting the jobs, that kind of thing?

Yeah, right. So for employers, yeah, AI can be helpful, just like it's helpful to job seekers, but they can't replace hiring decisions. And I think that's. If you're asking your AI system to actually recommend who to hire, that's just not a good thing. That's the part that, that's the human judgment part. Are we perfect? No, we make mistakes hiring. But start with that clear and realistic job posting. And actually that's something that again, on the employer side, you can actually use AI to understand.

Is my posting clear? Is it aligned with industry standards? Am I sure that I'm posting my posting is going to attract the right population. Is it asking too much? Is it asking too little? Is it not clear? So that's true. And on the other side, and I see this all the time in job postings, they have a list of 20 bullet points that are requirements. You need to cut back on that because that just strong candidates. Also, here's another thing that employers don't always think about is strong candidates may not come from a field. So if you program your ATS to just look for people who are already in the field, you're going to miss some good folks. You really are. And on the job seeker side, ATS systems are designed to identify patterns and alignments, but when you tailor your resume, you're not trying to game the system.

So you really do need to do that. And when you come to the interview process, both sides, I think, need to think about, we've talked about how a candidate can appear. The interviewer also needs to do some really thoughtful analysis about what questions are going to pull the best answers and the answers that are going to help me make my decision. And I think that when you use AI and just say, generate 15 questions from this job description that I can ask a candidate, that's going to actually, that could be a disaster. You could hire somebody that you discover has no, people have to evaluate people. AI can help with the process, but people have to evaluate people. So if you are the hiring manager, the interviewer, the screener, whoever, it's on you to act as a real human being and view the other person as a real human being and treat that as an important transaction where you're both trying to get good information, get and give good information that will help in the process.

Bottom line is you, if you want to work with somebody that you like, you have to have that human element in the decision to know that this person is going to match the culture of the organization that you feel comfortable with that person. It makes no sense. Just as it makes no sense to send a hallucinated resume to an employer. The flip side, that an employer can't send a hallucinated job description out to the Internet.

Yeah, and it'll just, you know, you will not get the results you think you're going to get for sure.

Right. Well, the old adage garbage in, garbage out is relevant when prompting AI systems. We kind of alluded to that as well too. How do you ensure that the output of an AI system is accurate and acceptable information when you've asked a question?

Okay, so AI is only as good as the information and directives you give it. If you say, write a resume from this job description, it's going to give you, you know, that was garbage in, and it's going to give you garbage out. I can guarantee you. Prompts need to have context, specifics and a clear objective. So what is it? You know, what's the context for this? What are the specifics and what is the expected result? What am I looking for? And I'm happy I'm going to put in some prompts to give people ideas about that.

We'll include some specific prompts into our resources.

And when you get that result, don't assume that the information is accurate. Treat whatever you get as a draft starting point. Verify facts, evaluate relevance, refine the contents using your own judgment and experience. So that's the part. That's the human judgment part. I'm not sure people understand this yet when they're talking about, oh, AI is going to take over everything. Well, yeah, if we don't use our human judgment, it will, you know, but that's the whole point of it. You, you have judgment and you can use it.

You have experience, your experience informs your judgment. That's how you should evaluate any information that the AI system is. So the bottom line is basic skills for effective use of AI. Creating. First, creating targeted prompts that guide the output. And second, carefully evaluating the actual output for accuracy and relevance. If you keep that as your guiding light when, anytime you're using I for any purpose, not just for job search, but any other purpose that you're using it for, those two skills are absolutely critical. You have to create good targeted prompts that guide the output and then evaluate what you get for accuracy and relevance.

AI is never going to get upset or impatient if you ask it a lot of questions. That's true. You could just keep asking.

Yeah, keep asking.

What do you mean by this? What do you mean by that?

Yeah, right. I don't think that's right.

Yes.

And I've actually told it that. And it's like, oh, well. And then you see that little thinking thing for a while, and eventually it usually comes up with something that's better.

Right. I always, like when I put in a question and at the bottom it says, we can also give you this information. Would you like that? I'm like, well, that was very nice of them.

Yeah. Right. Sometimes it's not very relevant. Exactly. Or it's gonna lead you down a rabbit hole. So don't go there.

You know, I think that's too. Where it's more our impatience because we know we're going into a rabbit hole. The more questions we ask, the more information we're gonna get.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

So it, it's, it's a tool, but it's, it's, there's, there's no lacking power in an AI program. It's always going to spit out something.

Yeah. So it will never stop.

Right.

You have to stop. And that's actually. I hadn't thought of that, but it's actually a third point. Stop when you have the information. Don't gather a whole raft of information. Stop. When you have the first piece of information, evaluate that. Is that relevant, Then you can ask for more information.

I remember one time, I don't remember what the question was, but I asked a question, it was giving me a lot of stuff. And it asked me, do you want this? And I said yes. And it gave me a lot more stuff. And I'm like, we're really on the wrong path here. So I just closed it down, reopened it up and asked the first question differently. And then I was more on track of what it was I was looking for.

Yeah.

So you can't break it. You're not gonna break the system. So just keep asking what you need to be asking. So this was kind of fast. We just went through this. It's a lot of information. And we again will be posting some resources and information on how to contact Sharon. I'm sure that if you have a question, she's more than happy to talk to you through your question.

You can always find me on LinkedIn.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

Yes, I do see Sharon come up on LinkedIn. You know how they, you know, you get to the. Where you're only seeing particular people. And I'm always clicking. Glad Sharon's coming up because most of the other folks, I don't know who they are. Last words of wisdom. What is your advice on the utilization of AI in the workplace and the role we should allow it to play? Yeah.

So AI is going to be part of almost every workplace. We can't, I don't think you can avoid it. I, I see a lot of AI avoidance out there, you know, but at some point what you're going to need to do is learn how to use it thoughtfully, responsively and ethically. And that's something that people often say, oh, well, it's a huge environmental waste. Well, yeah, if you don't use it thoughtfully, carefully, and only ask it for what your waste. Yeah. You are wasted wasting environmental resources that we need. But that's the whole point.

Using it thoughtfully, responsively, ethically, and then from my perspective, great for brainstorming research, identifying key ideas to include your documents. And beyond that, you're responsible for using your own good judgment and your own creativity. One thing that AI, well, it can, can be a little creative, but it can give you ideas that will spark your creativity. And that's really what we're aiming for here. It can help you identify relationships that you should build out, but it can't build those relationships for you. For sure. My goal is not. The goal should never be to replace your thinking.

Should be to support better human thinking. So that's really the bottom line for me.

Wonderful. Thank you so much, Sharon. It's always good to see you. And great ideas and tips.

Yep. I always enjoy these sessions.

Good.

Let's do another one.

Exactly. We get a chance to, like, talk through, and it's not. I don't want to say it's not a big issue. It is a big issue, but the little tiny piece of it and really kind of come to some conclusions, but also some great resources. So we appreciate your time.

Yeah. And hopefully we're making people think about this and actually consider if they're AI shy, how can they find a way to figure out how they can best use the tool? And if they're rabid AI ers, maybe they should figure out how to use the tool more effectively because people just throw stuff in there and that's maybe not such a good use.

Right. Thank you again.

And many thanks to our expert guest, Sharon Hamersley, the LinkedIn coach and the resume coach, for joining us today.