How to use AI-based tools to find your next job

The tradition of real people reading your résumé and assessing you in a face-to-face interview may be going away—at least in the early stages of the recruitment process. AI has certainly changed the hiring process. But the good news is that if you work with the new machine-based system you’ll do just as well—perhaps even better—than you would have in the traditional hiring process.

First, be prepared to be pursued by a machine. Companies are using the intelligence of machines today to search for talent, and they may come after you. Employers are using the power of AI to search through millions of profiles to find candidates. AI also searches for talent among passive candidates: people who are employed, but may be open to a change.

If a bot reaches out to you as a possible candidate for a job posting on LinkedIn or elsewhere, you’ll need to decide whether you want that job or not, and whether the bot would likely rate you as a top candidate. If you decide to go for that job but are rated as having only a few of the requirements, you’ll want to rewrite your online profile so that it better reflects the requirements of that posting.

Before submitting your résumé, make sure all language is as concise and direct as possible. Education levels and proficiency levels based on the job requirements are usually the first things evaluated by the machine. People often outline all their skills, but the machine wants to know what skills were actually used on the job and what problems applicants have solved.

The machine also picks up details. It looks for names of companies you’ve worked for, titles you’ve had, and how long you’ve been in each job. It also looks for hard numbers that show your impact. The machine analyzes your résumé for keywords and related concepts that are in the job description. If possible, incorporate the important words into your most recent job experiences.

Don’t forget to give your cover letter attention too. This letter might be your first opportunity to appeal to a human being, but in many instances, you’re still dealing with a machine. Think of it as a summary of the résumé. That means including language that parallels the job description. Machine scans may also test them for optimum length, contact information, measurable results and skills.

Finally, you may encounter the bot at the interview stage. While many companies provide all candidates with human interviews, some have a machine evaluate you in a one-way taped pre-interview. Once you get through the bot-driven screening process, you’ll likely deal with human beings in live interviews. Here your interpersonal skills will come into play.

AI gets to work in the background, gathering and analyzing your behavior—everything from your mouse clicks to reaction speeds. It then crunches the millions of data points and creates a personal profile that includes things that don’t appear in a regular resume, such as your personality, longer-term life goals, and the type of work culture that you would flourish in.

The more you reveal regarding your career ambitions and personality, the better your chances of matching with companies and roles where you’d be a good fit. You need to make sure your resume accurately reflects where you’re trying to go. When used effectively, AI can reward job seekers with a newfound sense of control. It can put the power to steer their career path into their hands.

Traditional strength and personality assessments aren’t going anywhere, but they are becoming more sophisticated. To better understand whether or not a candidate is the right fit, employers are using assessments with more intelligent algorithms that can determine how you’ll perform in a specific job environment. Some address cultural fit, and some are built to measure technical skills.

Chances are, you’re familiar with the ‘scenario’ type of questions in an interview that asks how you would react in certain situations. Pretty soon, you may have to show, not just describe, how you’ll handle on-the-job-scenarios. Companies that have substantial resources and that are hiring en masse are taking it a step further by using VR to build workplace scenarios.

Employers are looking beyond your résumé and building a profile based on your online activity. Beyond the obvious steps of cleaning up your social profiles, think in terms of creating more content that can actually support your image. Share your thoughts with LinkedIn posts, start a blog, or create an online portfolio. Companies have resources at their disposal, but job seekers have options too.