How AI Has Impacted the Job Search Process

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We are back now with our Consumer Confidential for anybody who's on the job hunt. [00:00:05] Speaker 2: The process to find and land a new role has changed dramatically over the past few years. [00:00:10] Speaker 3: So this morning we're going to talk about the latest trends and how to also stand out. LinkedIn's editor-in-chief, one of our favorite guests, Dan Roth, is here to walk us through all of this. Everyone's using AI. It's become, it feels like it's become ubiquitous like that. Claude, AI, Chad, GPT, Gemini, all these things. How are job seekers specifically using artificial intelligence? [00:00:30] Dan Roth: Yeah, look, if you have not applied for a job in the last three years, I think you will be shocked at how much AI has embedded itself into the entire process. Searching, researching, applying, writing cover letters, writing thank you notes, networking. We did a recent survey, found that 80% of people say they plan to use AI in their job search. 42% of people said that AIs help them feel more confident in the interview process. And I'll give you like a pretty cool example of that. There was a guy who left a comment recently saying that he went into Claude, said, here's a job I'm applying for. You're the hiring manager. Look at this job. Look at me. And then come back with any concerns or see whether I'm a culture fit. And they found a couple of yellow flags that he had to deal with before going into the interview. So it can help you. It can also flatten you. Like one thing to be careful of is every recruiter I talk to now says every resume looks perfect. Every cover letter is perfect. So standing out is more difficult than it has been in the past. You've got to find ways to make sure that you express what it is that you uniquely do. [00:01:26] Speaker 3: Well, to that point, though, if everyone's using sort of the same tools, how do you stand out? [00:01:31] Dan Roth: Yeah. So number one is you have to just be you have to talk about the areas that you are where you are like where you've shown impact, where you have driven something within your company. You want to be ready with examples. So once you get to the actual interview, so first of all, the interview process has changed. The first interviews you're going to do are probably with a robot at this point, like a chatbot, or you have to answer, like, questions on a phone. You submit your video questions, and then that gets sent through AI, and then it comes back, and you can see whether you actually get to a human interviewer. Once you sit down with a human interviewer, you've got to be ready with your examples of the impact you've done, the revenue you've driven, like exactly how you have changed your company or what you've done in your particular projects. [00:02:14] Speaker 1: So when we talk about that pre-interview, Dan, I would guess that even if you're doing it with AI, you still need to make an impression, and so you probably should do the same things you would do if you were doing a live interview. [00:02:27] Dan Roth: I mean, it's a great call. That is 100% right. You have to prepare. It can be awkward, off-putting to go and talk to a chatbot. You should prepare for this. You should do the same kind of prep that you would do for a human interview with an AI interview. So you have to practice doing, like, really great, you know, speaking quickly and succinctly in video. You have to be ready with the examples you want to do. You should practice using AI tools to be able to talk to AI. So you have to treat it as seriously as you would treat sitting down with a human. [00:02:56] Speaker 2: Now, what if you're not applying for, like, a huge tech role? Do you still need to be prepared to talk about AI and how you've used it? [00:03:05] Dan Roth: I mean, 100%. Almost every company asks now at this point, how are you using AI to do your job? So even if you are not applying for a technical job, coming in and saying, I use AI to be able to be more effective in my job. They just want to see that you are curious and adaptable and willing to learn. Like, those are the areas that they want to make sure is when they put you into this job in a market that is changing quickly, where companies are changing quickly, dealing with inflation, dealing with tech changes, that they have an employee who can actually guide that change versus being scared by it. So you want to say, I use AI to become more effective in my job, and here's exactly how I've done it. Real examples matter. [00:03:41] Speaker 3: Dan, you're always really good at keeping us up on the latest trends in terms of hiring. What are employers looking for specifically right now? [00:03:50] Dan Roth: Yeah. I mean, the biggest change that we've seen is that they are hiring based on skills. So recent data we found shows that 50% of recruiters are using skills when they are starting their search. That's a big change from a world where you would look at diplomas or what someone's job title is. So now it's like, can you do the things that we need you to do? That is great. That means there is less emphasis on, like, perfect career arcs, and there is much more emphasis on being able to actually accomplish things within your job. Now, that changes how you do the interview. When you go into an interview, they want to know things like, how have you applied judgment? How are you adaptable? Like, one of my favorite examples is Amazon asked this question. When you get in there, they say, what's the time that you've failed and what have you learned from that? And it's that second part that matters to them is what have you learned from it? You have to show, you have to be able to say, look, when I failed and here's how I dealt with it and this is what I did next. Because they're looking to see how you will adapt in a very fast-moving, fast-changing environment. So that's the secret. [00:04:48] Speaker 3: Yours, always. I mean, when I get fired, you're my first call. [00:04:51] Speaker 1: Call me. [00:04:52] Speaker 3: First call. [00:04:53] Speaker 1: Thank you. Hey, thanks for watching. And don't forget, you can catch The Today Show every morning on NBC or take Today when you're on the go. Just follow The Today Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.