Job Search Strategies for Survival, Part Two

Part 2:      Ditch the App Goggles

Using AI to help with your applicant tools is just skimming the surface. More than a wordsmith, AI can help you strategize your search approach. From editor to agent with the flip of a prompt.

What do I mean?

Let’s say your brain is struggling to keep all of your applications straight. What began as a laser-focused job search for three specific job titles has morphed into a wide-open fishing net that has you applying for jobs that you can’t even adequately understand. You know how “beer goggles” refer to the phenomenon about the more beer you drink, the more bar patrons you’re apt to find attractive?

We’re talking app goggles now. A similar phenomenon where the more applications you send, the less discerning you become about who is lucky enough to receive your next submission. It’s a blurry mess that probably won’t land you anywhere good.

Enter AI.

The more you use AI, the more it “gets to know” you. Consider it your prize for opening up and trusting AI with your resume and LinkedIn profile questions. It can now offer you pretty solid guidance about the open roles that are truly a fit for you (and which ones mean it’s time to sign your tab, sleep it off and look elsewhere tomorrow).

Copy and paste a job description into AI with a prompt to advise how the role aligns to your career interests, background, skillset and cultural preferences (and if the tool doesn’t know about these, tell it). It will tell you if the job is even worth applying to, without worrying about hurting your feelings or saying what you want to hear. For me, I know very specifically what kind of corporate culture I want and don’t want, which can be hard to glean from a description or an internal reference. AI can scour, scan and regurgitate insights about companies and culture that I may never fully extrapolate myself.

Again, you need to take AI’s guidance with a grain of salt, but it’s information to consider. Information leads to knowledge, and knowledge is power.

Reign in the app goggles. Let AI be your wing person.