EP 51: How To Use AI To Land Your Dream Job

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How can AI help you find a job? We always talk about is AI taking our jobs, but can it actually help you find one? That's one of the main things that we're going to be talking about today on Everyday AI. This is your daily livestream, podcast and newsletter helping everyday people like you and me not just keep up with what's going on in the world of AI, but how we can actually use it to our advantage and to our benefit, like helping you land your dream job. So before we get into that and bring in our guest who's going to help us learn how we can use AI to land that extreme job, let's talk about what's going on in the AI world and some news pieces. So as a reminder, if you go to your everydayai.com Sign up for our daily newsletter. We'll have more about these news pieces and a couple others in there as well. So first, AI cheating is the new boom. And there's a new report from the Guardian that looks at how this is becoming a cat and mouse game, actually between educators and students and how each side is trying to outsmart each other with how you can use AI to cheat and write your papers. Hot take educators. You cannot detect when a student is using ChatGPT or not. It's just not possible. Second piece is we've seen recently Twitter and Reddit really limiting the ability for even people and humans to use their site at high levels. So what does this have to do with AI? Well, a lot. So AI actually scrapes a lot of this information on the web and so when we ask it questions, it can refer to these sites. So Twitter and Reddit are two of the first sites that are kind of limiting, you know, access to their site in general. And one of the reasons is they hope to kind of keep AI out a little bit. So more in the newsletter about that. The third story that we wanted to touch on today is some new new study suggests that AI can look at smartwatch data. That's right, just your watch. And can help you detect Parkinson's disease up to seven years earlier. So, you know, a lot of what we talk about on the show here at Everyday AI is about how to use this for your career and all these other things. But there's so many fascinating use cases for not just generative AI, but traditional AI in, you know, medicine and, you know, Coming up with, you know, cures for diseases. So very promising signs from that study. So but if you tuned in today, you might want to hear about how you can use AI in your career. So let's talk about it. We're going to bring on our guests, so welcome. We have Marty McGovern, who is the founder of Career Therapy. Marty, good morning. Thank you for joining us.

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

All right, so let's get to it. As a reminder, if you are joining us live, ask us anything or ask Marty anything. He'll, he'll be able to handle your question. So if you have a question about how to use AI in your job search, how to further your career, please leave us a comment. But let's start here. Marty, how can people, we'll start with a super, super wide view. How can people use AI to, to get their next dream job?

Sure. Well, thanks for having me. It's great to be here talking about AI with you. So I think when it comes to how to use it, there's obviously infinite numbers of ways we can utilize this in our job search. And some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them are everywhere in between. But what I tend to find is that where people get the most stuck in their job search is in the basics. And with my work, I tend to help people deal with a lot of the emotional blockers that they're dealing with in their job search. And, you know, everyone knows they need to update the resume. They know they need a cover letter, they know they need to network, but they're just having a hard time getting over that hump and doing the thing right, that emotional blocker. And so we, what I think I can help do is sort of help people get past that first fear of like an outline for your for your cover letter or a bullet on your resume, because none of us are really trained on how to write this kind of stuff. Right. I think my first cover letter in college that I wrote was like four pages long. And it's like I was writing essays. I didn't know. And so using this to get a baseline that's not from some website that's trying to sell you something, I think is really helpful and it kind of cuts out a lot of the noise. So using it to help start your cover letter outlines for your resume, for your images if, if need be, we can talk about that a little bit. There's so many different ways. And even just plugging in a job description into chat GPT and asking it to give you like keyword optimization or some sort of overview or analysis or highlights. And then probably the biggest thing I would say is in mock interviewing, there's so much capability in the, in the tool to practice interview questions that are not just good for the interview, but tailored to the jobs you're applying to.

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's a great question. So job seekers, right. There's no shortage of information or resources out there that's, you know.

Yeah.

Promising to help them, you know, find their next street job or to help them write better cover letters. How do you think job seekers can actually use AI to cut through that mess and to focus on what actually matters? How can that happen? Or can it happen?

Well, I think it's. It's tough because not everyone's really up to speed on how to use AI, so you. It could just become another, like, hole that they fall into. So good thing you're here to help guide them. But I think what ends up happening is, you know, for the, for the stuff that is generic, that is just, you know, placeholder, basically. You know, we always say, like, no one's going to read your cover letter. You know, I, I can't think of a time I've talked to a recruiter in the past two years where they said that they read everyone's cover letters. And so why do we even have these things? Right. They're from a time when we sent actual letters and we had to say, I'm applying for this job because the letter was detached from the job description. Right. Like, I mean, or we were faxing it and faxes had cover pages on them, and that's why we had to write a little intro. If anyone remembers sending faxes. I remember sending faxes and it was like, at the tail end of it. And, and so, you know, why are we still doing these antiquated things? And then you look at the job boards, you look at what companies are doing, and they're utilizing AI in everything. They're utilizing it in their copywriting, they're utilizing it in their job postings, they're utilizing it in their company missions and, and their visions. So they're using it. And my, my mantra is always treat companies how they treat you. If a company is going to utilize AI to optimize every single aspect of their hiring process, which they've already been doing, and they keyword match and they do all that stuff on the back end. If anyone's ever seen the hiring back end, it's fascinating. You should use it to keyword match you should use it to optimize. You should use it to make everything more customized to the things, things that you're applying to and save yourself hours and hours of headaches.

Yeah. So. So let's talk a little bit about career therapy itself. So you are helping individuals, you know, traverse a very wild job market sometimes. Right. So even for you, how has AI helped in building your business? Or even maybe just. Are you able to be a little more personal with clients with AI?

Yeah. So the way that I've used it the most, and I've tried a lot of little experiments over the past year, but basically, you know, I'll. I'll use it to create maybe more customized blog posts, or I'll use it to create questions for interviews when I'm doing a podcast. Or I don't typically stick to those scripts because obviously one of the key things with AI is get a baseline and then build on it, customize it, utilize it as a starting point. But I think one of the best things I've seen it do is shift the way that I do mock interviews. So if you have ever tried to prep for an interview, it is an overwhelming experience. You go online and you say, what are the top 50 interview questions? And you get these blog posts that are designed to get SEO for the person's website. So it's not designed for you to get the job. It's not designed to give you questions that you'll actually be asked in an interview. It's designed to get them views. And so they might have a bunch of questions on there that are outdated. They might have a bunch of questions on there that are not tailored to what you're trying to get a job in. And so you might be prepping for the wrong questions. Now there's the basics. Tell me about yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? We need to know those answers. But what I've used AI to do is to actually take someone's job description and, or their job title or their company or a combination of all three and create highly customized questions for mock interview prep and utilize that in our work together. So I'll still say, like, tell me about yourself. And I'll do a lot of the generic stuff, but then I'll throw in something really tailored to like, you know, whatever their job is. And, and that is nice because it gives us a good blend of the two versus just this, like, hyper generic kind of Q and A. Or you go to some, like, websites and it's so specific that it's like, you know, how do you code this XYZ and they're like, that's not what this job. And so it kind of helps you just narrow and focus and have some really hands on stuff.

Yeah. So it sounds like there's no shortage of way that either, you know, you as a founder of a company or a job seeker can, can use AI, but it's, it can also be overwhelming.

Right.

Because you do see on social media even all the ways that you can. Here's 52 ways to use AI for your job search. Right? But maybe for someone that's, that's new to it, you know, because you can't career coach every single person out there, but how might you recommend that someone that's new to AI and is overwhelmed with a job search, how can they use it to get something, you know, like an actual output out of it and not just be a waste of time? Like what is that one piece that you could say, hey, do this one specific thing, it will help.

Well the nice thing about something like ChatGPT is if you don't know how to use it, you can ask it how to use it. And so, and so what I would say is like if you have job search questions, like just ask like I'm, I'm struggling with this. What are your thoughts or what are your recommendations? I actually before this show typed in what are the top five ways AI can help you in your job search? Right. And it has resume optimization, job matching and recommendations, interview prep, personalizing your insights for the career guidance and skill development and learning. So go in there, ask these questions. Yes, ask GPT how to use ChatGPT for job searching. And you can even say like, you know, I, I'll go in and I'll say like, give me five bullet points for, give me 20 key skills for a resume. Right? Key skills for this type of job on a resume. And it'll give me like these long descriptions and I'll just say, please remove the descriptions and just give me the words. Right? And so we'll take that and then I'll put it in someone's resume and they'll say, I'll say, let's go through this together and you tell me which things you're comfortable keeping, which things you want to remove and which things are missing. And so yeah, go into the AI, ask it questions and just kind of use it. I use it sort of as like a substitute to Google in a lot of ways so that I don't get. So that if, if I just tell someone to go Google a bunch of interview questions, they'll come back to me four hours later, completely overwhelmed. Right. But if you just go to ChatGPT and ask for 10 questions, you'll get 10 questions.

Yeah. So it sounds like, you know, if someone's working, you know, with someone such as yourself or a recruiter, this is a good maybe first step for people to do before, right before they're, they're meeting with, you know, Marty at career therapy, or before they're meeting with, you know, someone in TA or, you know, a recruiter. But do you see, even for you, do you see yet AI as a career coach, quote, unquote, Is that a possibly to the business, is that something or is it that people are always going to want to talk to people when it comes to job searching?

It depends. I mean, it could very well replace a lot of things, right? It's already trying to replace all customer service. It's already trying to replace a lot of different things. I was talking to someone in the customer service field and they were like, yeah, I mean, it'll replace a lot of the baseline stuff potentially, but at a certain point, you need to talk to a person, right? Because one of the things I've noticed and the reason that I've gone from marketing to coaching to now getting into the world of therapy is that, you know, I'll be talking to someone and they'll just open up about really personal stuff and I've got to switch from here. We're doing really kind of coachy stuff to like, oh, we got to like, take a moment and pause because most of us know what we need to do. Like, I can go say what do I need to do for the job search? And I'll get a list of things I need to do. The question is, why aren't you doing those things? Everyone knows they need to network. ChatGPT can say, go network. It can even say, here's some good organizations to go join. But the reason that you're not joining it and the reason you're not setting up those coffees and the reason you're scared to send send on that email is something a little bit deeper than that. And so I don't feel like it's quite going to be able to get to that point. You know, the biggest revelations I have with people is like, we take a personality test together and then they realize that the way that they're, that they get value from a social situation is what is preventing them from actually reaching out to someone. And so, you know, I've had people just break down into tears after taking that test and we've got to deal with that. I don't think ChatGPT is ready for tears, but I think for the baseline stuff for a lot of the, like, you know, just generic job search stuff, getting your cover letter and all that stuff, utilize the hell out of it.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, AI is probably not ready for a lot, but we do have some, some very specific questions. So Marty, we'll see if, if, if you could take some of these. So AMAD actually had two great questions that I'm sure a lot of job seekers are thinking about as well. So Aman asking, can you share examples of AI based job search platforms that utilize algorithms to match candidates with their ideal job opportunities? So, you know, obviously people have heard of, you know, job boards like, you know, indeed or, you know, even LinkedIn, but are there any, you know, AI kind of options out there that are a little better at analyzing who you are and what's in your resume and better opportunities?

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It's a tough one because I do find that a lot of what we have on our resume and a lot of what we put out there is not actually always tied to what we want. One of the things I try to work with people on is like, what are your priorities right now? What did you hate about previous jobs? What'd you like about previous jobs? How do we find things that fit that? I haven't found much that is specific to that yet. Maybe it's out there, you know, there's that great website, there's an AI for that. So I'm sure if we type it in, we'll find something. But I tend to find, you know, people will always ask me, you know, what job board should I be using? Should I be going here, here, here? And they throw me 50 different things. They, you know, customize ones, you know, per, like behind, you have to paywall ones. At the end of the day, it's, it's LinkedIn. And indeed right now still, and truthfully, it's not even those like that's such a small part of the job search. The majority of jobs are found through networking and the majority of jobs are found through, I think 80% are found through a personal connection. Right. And so if you're still just looking at job boards, there's more to it. So what I would say is go use ChatGPT or some of these AIs to help you create outreach emails so that you're not so paralyzed trying to reach out to someone for coffee and go set up a meeting with people that actually work in the field. So utilize it to, well, find people's emails. That's one thing we can do. But that's not even an AI thing, but that's a great tech. And then use it to help you write those emails so that you're not sitting at your computer for four hours going, and then, and then utilize it to create questions for the informational interview. And then utilize it to create a thank you note to follow up after if you're too nervous to do all that stuff yourself, like I was 15 years ago. There you go. You've got all the tools you need.

Yeah, and that's such a good reminder, Marty too, because I think in today's day and age, people think they have to apply for, you know, dozens or hundreds of jobs just to hear back. So such great advice there that, you know, there is still such a strong human element and relational and connections involved in the job search. So one or what? One or two other quick questions here. So one from Audrey here asking any just tips on optimizing your, your profile. I'm guessing that's LinkedIn. So. Yeah. What can job seekers be doing? Just, you know, best practice there.

Yeah, well, we were talking before the show how funny it is like, I mean, you've got a great photo there with a good background, but a lot of people have terrible photos on their LinkedIn. And so one of the things that we want to do, you know, I was working with someone the other day and they're like, you know, my head's off kilter, I can't get the background. There's a lot of AI tools out there now that will extend your background or clean up your photo or make it more high res if it's low res. So you know, you can look into those different tools to get a great photo. Because a photo is the most important thing on LinkedIn, unfortunately. I think it's so funny how we're like, take your photo off your resume because that'll create bias and then go create a LinkedIn and a personal brand and a YouTube channel. It's like, okay, Jesus. But the you can optimize your headline. So go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a bunch of different headlines for you. Although you probably just only need to put your job title there or your future job title. We can get into that. Definitely use it to create your about section. Use it to optimize your skills section. You can put 50 skills into your skills section that you get to add. So ask what are the top 50 skills for this type of job? And go replace or add the skills into that section. And then in your actual like body of your LinkedIn, although you could probably just copy and paste your resume and you're like 90% there. If you want to optimize it with a little bit more keyword and a little bit more description, you can, you know, LinkedIn is all about keywords. So go out and use all the tools that you can. Keep it simple for yourself. Just start with and then go deeper. But you know, utilize it to optimize those keywords.

Yeah, another great question from Aman here. So saying, how can AI help individuals showcase their soft skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork. I think that's a great one because so many people think of, oh, AI. Kind of like what you just said there, Marty, like, oh, let's use ChatGPT to improve my profile or to make sure I have all these keywords in my resume. But what about the next step? You know, going through, you know, the interview process. But yeah, is there anything that you think AI can help with in terms of developing those soft skills?

In developing the soft skills or showcasing them? Because they're either.

Let's go either.

Yeah, two, two different. So showcase. Let's start with showcasing. So I think there's a, a lot of weird things that happen when we try to showcase our soft skills. You know, if someone tells you they're a good person, your first reaction is why are they telling Me this, maybe they're not that good of a person often, right? So if you say I'm a great communicator, I'm gonna go, why are you telling me this? Like, show me you're a great communicator. Don't tell me you're a great communicator. So whenever I look at people's skills sections on their resume or on their LinkedIn, maybe LinkedIn's you can fudge a little bit more. But on your resume there's so little room. Don't, don't say like collaborator or team player. Like those are just weird. No one would ever say the opposite. No one would ever say, I am a weak worker. So saying you're a hard worker says nothing. No one ever say, I don't know how to solve problems. So saying I am a problem solver says nothing. So soft skills I feel like are more of a show, don't tell, put them into the bullets. And that's where maybe you can use chat, GPT or something like that to optimize your bullets. Where it's like, did this thing with this technology to achieve this result or did this thing in collaboration with these team members or these departments to achieve these results, it should be cause and effect in your, in your bullet points. So that's where you want to show your soft skills in, in what you did. Like if you say I mentored a bunch of people, I know you have good communication and leadership skills. You don't have to say it in your skill section. And so that's maybe on the showcasing side and then in the development side, there's tons of AI tools out there that will, you know, you can record yourself doing an interview and it will analyze it. I haven't gone that deep into my studies yet, but I know they're out there. There's tons of things that will like help you just sort of use the STAR method appropriately or just tell better stories and, and utilize your soft skills in that way. So maybe that's just scratching the surface, but I know there's a lot of depth there.

Yeah, yeah. And I think even this quick conversation is just scratching the surface because you can talk for hours or days, right? About the job searching process and how AI is changing that, whether it's for the good or the bad. But maybe real quick, Marty, just one last question. So if someone is, after hearing all of this, they're saying, okay, this is great. This is going to really prepare me for that next step, whatever it may be. What's kind of Your, your takeaway message to those job seekers out there who are maybe having a hard time. And they, they've gone through, you know, they've, they've done this, they've used chat GPT to, you know, better their resume, and they're working on their soft skills. What advice can you give to people that, you know from. From your experience to, you know, kind of keep with it as the times get tough? Because, you know, especially here in the US it can be a tough. It can be a tough uphill climb for people.

Yeah. My first piece of advice is stop reading the little news section on LinkedIn on the top, right? It is. It used to say some interesting things. Now it's just making you feel bad about the economy and your job, and it makes you think you'll never find one. And I can't tell you how many times I get on calls with people and they're just beside themselves when their job search is going fine. But then they read that, you know, XYZ is happening in the economy and that they'll never find a job again. And I'm just like, these waves come and go. We just got to, like, let the noise be noise and focus on your actions. Wake up every day and take the actions and you'll get there. And so, you know, when we're feeling like this is really just an overwhelming process, even with the AI stuff, right? Like, I jumped in the thing full force when it, when it came out, and I was like, I got to back off a little bit. I'm getting like a little bit too up to my neck here, and I'm like, signing up for, like, 50 different websites and it's just too much. It's the same way with, like, you know, the job search. It's like you have to create 20 different profiles just to get started. You don't slow down, focus more on people. And then, you know, you have your resume and your cover letter and everything ready to go when that person asks for it. So there's so much like, if anyone's ever heard of, like, the hidden job search or the back door or what I call the People first job search, it's like, yeah, the job boards are great and all these tools are great, and they can be very overwhelming if we let them be. But just slow down, use one tool, go a little bit deep with it, see how it is, and then ask yourself if you need to continue using this tool, right? Update your resume, and then have a real person look at it and see if it actually looks good and Then, you know, really just kind of take this process slowly. I know it's. It feels urgent and desperation can set in, but if we just slow down and be mindful and then reach out to real humans, I think we get a little bit lost in the online space. So sometimes just having a coffee with a real human who's doing the job that you wish you were doing can ground you a bit. So hopefully that'll be helpful.

Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. Because even, even on this show, you know, we always talk about AI and the latest tech and the latest advancement. So great advice, Marty. Just to slow down and to connect with other humans. So important in today's day. And so with that, Marty, thank you so much for joining the show. So many great nuggets. It was a great having you on.

Thanks for having me.

All right, so as a reminder, if you want to know more about not just Marty's career therapy, but everything that he's been talking about, we're going to be sharing some resources in the newsletter. So if you weren't able to keep up and type notes at the. At the speed of us talking, don't worry about it. Go to your everydayai.com so that's your everyday AI.com and we'll have so many more resources going out in today's newsletter. So with that, thank you for joining us. Now you know how to get started using AI in your job search, and we hope to see you back tomorrow and every day with Everyday AI.

Thanks. Go get them.

And that's a wrap for today's edition of Everyday AI. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating. It helps keep us going for a little more AI magic. Visit your everydayai.com and sign up to our daily newsletter so you don't get left behind. Go break some barriers and we'll see you next time.