AI is making job hunting harder. Here’s how to navigate it

AI is making job hunting harder,some experts say. Here’s how to navigate it. By Claire Thornton Globe Staff, Updated December 6, 2025 It’s the question every job hunter seems to be wrestling with: How do you get your resume past the AI bots and in front of a human decision-maker? Turns out, Generative AI is creating challenges for many job seekers and employers, many of whom are having a harder time connecting the right candidates to roles, according to some experts. When everyone can use ChatGPT to churn a personalized cover letter, job seekers end up competing against more applicants. And for hiring managers, application materials made using the technology start to look all too similar,said Ethan Mollick, a business professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “Cover letters used to be an indicator of something, now they’re not,” said Mollick, who co-directs Wharton’s Generative AI Lab. “It’s an example of broader chaos.” Also worrisome: Experts on race discrimination and other biases in technology are raising the alarm that AI could be more likely to reject applicants who have a disability, an accent, or marginalized identity. As the average length of the job-hunting period ticks upward,applicants must focus on building human connections at would-be employers and use AI to their advantage earlier in the job search process, said Lynn Wu, another Wharton professor who studies AI. “The best thing to actually stand out in AI world is to have human connections,” Wu said. Here are five things to know about AI screening in hiring: How do AI screeners work? There are two main types. Older versions of AI have been used for nearly a decade to screen for “key words” in resumes that match words in the online job description, Wu said. More recently, a smarter version of AI referred to as machine learning is used to read cover letters and get a broader sense of whether an applicant is a match, Wu said. After an application makes it past the first, older AI screen, the so-called ML screen will score the applicant, Wu said. “Like, out of 0 to 100, how does this cover letter fit to the job,” said Wu, adding that anyone above a cut-off score will get a first-round interview. Many employers use both AI screens for a two-pronged approach, Wu said. However, AI is changing so rapidly that many experts are still catching up to what technology companies may be using to screen applications, she said. Don’t forget key words in resume, but don’t overdo it To get past the first AI screen, Wu said, make sure that lots of key words and required skills from the job description are in your resume. However, don’t overdo it, says Hilke Schellmann, an AI researcher at New York University who wrote the book “The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, And Why We Need To Fight Back.” “Beware of looking too good on paper,” Schellmann told NYU News last year. “Aim for a 60–85 percent match because AI might filter out resumes that match the job description 100 percent, inferring they are a copy of the job description." Don’t use symbols or images that may trip up a biased AI screener Schellmann said her research found AI screens are biased against symbols that vary from the 26-letter alphabet and standard punctuation, like ampersands (&) or tildes (~). She told NYU News that applicants should use a simple template without images, columns, or special characters. Highlight human connections in your cover letter (but also: get out and meet people you can reach out to for jobs) Wu, who has taught at Wharton since 2012, said nearly half of all jobs in the US still come from personal referrals. In the age of AI, any human connection such as a coffee chat or college alumni group will help a candidate stand out, she said. A coffee chat can even be done remotely over Zoom, she said, and then an applicant can write about that personal conversation in a cover letter. From there, the smarter machine learning AI might recognize that the candidate is a strong fit for the company, she said. “Write that you had a coffee chat — or even just met someone — and mention it high up in the cover letter," she said. “Any kind of personal touch — not AI touch, surprisingly — helps you get past AI." Do use AI to find roles you’re a good match for Using AI earlier in the job hunt can help you more efficiently find roles that are good for you, Mollick said. Job seekers, especially young people new to work, can ask ChatGPT to find specific job listings that correlate with their skills, background and other parameters, he said. You can even feed ChatGPT your resume and ask it how to best position yourself for job applications, Mollick said. “AI is usually pretty good at giving advice,” he said. “You can use it as a job counselor, adviser or helper to put your best foot forward.” Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.