February 11, 2025 • 25 mins
The episode delves into how AI is revolutionizing the job search process and the evolving landscape of career development tools. We discuss the significance of using AI effectively to craft resumes, prepare for interviews, and tailor cover letters without losing personal authenticity. Artificial intelligence is not just an emerging trend—it's a game-changer.
Join us as we recount our experiences with AI and how we've evolved in our approach and usage in every day life. We tackle our initial skepticism surrounding AI’s role in skill development and demonstrate its practical benefits. You'll hear about AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, which are transforming the conventional processes of resume and cover letter creation. As the job market evolves, employers are also advancing their methods to detect AI-generated content. This episode sheds light on the importance of having foundational knowledge to effectively prompt these tools, ensuring that AI assistance aligns with your personal touch and authenticity.
The episode underscores the significance of training AI tools to reflect genuine personal experiences in job applications. Whether you’re a job seeker or a coach, our insights aim to equip you with the knowledge to incorporate AI into your career journey, embracing its potential for personal growth and professional success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The game has changed, like if you were job searching
five years ago and you're aboutto job search now.
It is a totally differentplaying field because people are
using AI to help with theirresumes, to prepare for
interviews and write those coverletters.
And we've seen cover letterswritten by AI where we're like
whoa, that doesn't even soundlike a real person, but
(00:22):
employers know that people areusing it and employers are
starting to come up with toolsto assess whether it was written
using AI right.
So you're in a differentplaying field.
If you are job searching nowand as opposed to like a few
years ago, you are listening toCoffee and Career Hour, we are
(00:47):
your hosts.
I'm Armina and I'm MJ, twocareer counselors and friends
chatting about all things lifeand career.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So grab a cup of coffee and join us Hi everybody,
welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Happy February.
Wow, it's Happy February, wow,it's already February.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I said this in my last Instagram post, but January
felt like 10 years and Februaryfeels like it's flying by.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it's been a very interesting start to the
year.
All of our LA listeners willunderstand.
We're happy that things arekind of shifting back to normal,
quote unquote.
And we're here and we'reexcited to talk about our next
topic.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, I think, when it comes to this next topic,
there are so many resources andtools out there for job seekers,
people who are just trying toget ahead of the game, and this
tool really has enhanced a lotof people's mobility in the
workforce.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh my gosh.
Yes, and if you haven't guessedalready, we are going to be
talking about AI, artificialintelligence, today.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Which, armanay, can you describe a little bit to our
readers how you have switchedto what you call the dark side?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, I have switched to the dark side.
Actually, I love the robots.
Now, I figured you got to lovethem, otherwise they're going to
come for us.
I got to have a goodrelationship.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, they're going to come for your job.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Seriously Well, mj, I went to a conference back in
December.
I posted about this on myInstagram.
I went to the M-PACE conferenceand it was very technology
focused.
It's a career developmentorganization and the conference
was about career developmenttopics, but technology was
embedded in many sessions.
So I learned a lot about how AIcan be used in our line of work
(02:43):
as career counselors, as highereducation professionals, and
how it actually can be reallybeneficial.
And also I realized that youreally do have to have the
knowledge.
You cannot replace yourknowledge, because I think
that's what I was resistingearlier on with AI was that it's
(03:03):
you know.
People can easily come up withproducts and papers and do
things without having theknowledge, and I was hesitant
towards that.
But I realized that youactually have to have the
knowledge, because this thingcannot replace that.
You actually have to teach itwhat it is that you need from it
(03:25):
and then it can help you bemore efficient yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I think efficiency is key.
A lot of people tend to see thenegative side and the impact
and, ironically, I was listeningto a podcast, a couple uh, I
think it was this morningactually, and it was.
It was talking about how theseAI it's expanding the way it's
expanding in the world, where itstarted off as a chatbot, right
(03:52):
, and even before that it waslike your messages, predicting
the couple words after you typeor in your email if you ever use
Outlook, like if you type Ihope you, and then it can finish
in gray to say you're doingwelllook.
Like it can like if you say youknow, if you type I hope you,
and then it can finish like ingray to say like you're doing
well or something like that.
That's AI.
Yeah, it's learning ourpatterns or the way like
(04:14):
different configurations work indifferent apps that we use.
Right, that's artificialintelligence.
But it's grown to where we canhave a communication, a
conversation with this.
You know chat bot, bot and Ichoose to name mine so they seem
more friendly.
I actually even gave itpronouns the other day.
I was calling it like him andhe did this and I don't know why
.
Mine's a male, but yeah, Idon't know that's weird, but
(04:37):
anyway, long story short.
I was listening to this podcast,a hard fork by the new york
times, and they were talkingabout how like it can progress
and be like a, like asalesperson.
It can do these basic jobfunctions and it's wild that
it's expanded to the fact whereit can take over like a new
browser, do like DoorDash.
(04:58):
It was one of the recentepisodes and I'm like where did
we go from?
Like two years ago, like thiswas very new, people were using
it for homework, people wereusing it for job search, people
were using it for um emailnegotiation, like all the things
that we see.
And then now it's like actuallymoving towards, like well, it
can do this, it can be acustomer sales representative,
(05:19):
like all these different thingsyeah, no, it's insane how fast
it's also evolving.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, and you know it's already been multiple
iterations ever since chat gptitself came out and we learned
about it.
What I feel like that was likea year ago maybe and it's
already at like level the thirdor fourth variation, right and
so it's evolving really fast.
Um, and I feel like we canresist it all we want it's here.
(05:49):
It's like the future is here,right, and we either have to
embrace it and actually use itto our benefit and advantage or
we're gonna fall behind.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I 100% agree, which is why I'm completely and
utterly shocked that, like it'ssomething that you use for the
good right, it's for your ownefficiency, for our own learning
too, because it does help usexpand in different ways we
didn't think about before, butit just creates and makes things
so much easier in our everydaylife.
You and I were talking aboutlike email responses, right, or
(06:22):
like quick um responses toquestions that people have all
the time that I I know I'm justso tired I don't want to type it
out or do whatever.
I use it a lot to like help mebrainstorm, so I like to pitch
it ideas and then say what doyou think about this?
How would this work?
Give me an activity, what wouldthat look like for this type of
setting?
And bounce off a lot, a lot onit.
(06:44):
And I do what you do by sayingplease and thank you, and I talk
to it like it's a human.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, me too.
That's so funny because Iliterally was using it today at
work and I was sharing my screenand our other colleague, she
saw me type in please, and she'slike that's so funny.
You're saying please to the AI.
I'm like, yeah, I feel Sometype of weird energy around just
like saying do this?
Yeah, right.
But then the funniest part isit actually responds back.
(07:12):
When I say thank you, it'll belike you're very welcome.
Is there anything else?
Yeah, and it's like you'restarting to engage in
conversation, right, it can bescary, like thinking about going
down that loophole in thefuture and like how that can
actually evolve.
It can be a scary space, but Ithink that you know, as long as
(07:35):
you're not allowing it to takeover, take over your mind and
like understanding what's realand what's not.
I think that using it to youradvantage is actually smart to
do these days, because the worldis moving fast and everybody
has so many things we'rejuggling on our plates, right,
so why not utilize this superadvanced technology to help us
(08:00):
do the things that we need to dobetter?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
yeah, yeah, I was, um , I've been talking to you about
a trip I've been thinking aboutand I asked it the other day.
I was like so I'm planning togo here.
Here are my thoughts.
This is what it's for, likewhat are locations?
What would you recommend?
An ideal one to two week plan?
Like I want walking tours, Iwant to do tourist things, but I
also want to relax, and it waslike very comprehensive the
(08:24):
amount of information.
I um, I like to use the ai, sochat gpt is, like, I think, the,
the most known um, depending onwhat version you have.
There's the paid version, whichis the 4.0, and then there's
like I think, 3.0 or 3.5, whereit's not, you know it can't
search the internet.
So I use ai as co-pilot frommicrosoft to Google Gemini that
(08:48):
can search the Internet, so Ican get links and resources and
be able to see where theinformation is coming from.
So I do dictate like facts fromfiction, on the AI too.
So it's what you're talkingabout using every day Like that
was really cool for me to seetoo.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Amazing.
No, I love that you're doingthat and that actually, each AI
out there now has differentcapabilities, absolutely, and so
you can pick and choose, Iguess, which one works best for
you.
But today we also found outthat there is AI tools that
(09:24):
could analyze a whole bigdocument.
Like, we plugged in 360 pagesof a document into it and it
turned into a 80 minute podcastepisode isn't that insane.
I didn't know.
Apparently you knew about it.
I had no idea that it's to thatlevel, right, that um, it could
even create a podcast episode.
So I thought that was.
You know.
It's already like going to thenext level, and who knows what
(09:46):
else it can do.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny because you know, I want
to say like a year and a halfago we were really against it.
We were really against it.
I was.
I was against it because forwhat we do, it's very practical
and it's it annoyed me in thebeginning that like people could
just use this thing and it likemy thing.
(10:07):
With career development and allthe aspects that we do, there's
skills you need to learn forlife.
If you have something else,just do it for you.
You're not going to learn right.
It's the same thing like how Ithink about parenting if you
clean up your kids toys, they'renot going to learn to be
organized.
So that's how, like ai worksfor me and in this way where
we're like resume stuff andinterviewing and it can't do it
(10:29):
for you and you have to learnthese skills because they're
life skills.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Right.
That's why I was against it.
But I think I realized that itwon't replace the skills,
because in order for it toactually work appropriately and
be effective in what you'reusing it for, you actually have
to have the knowledge.
Yes, to feed it the informationso it can give you what you're
looking for.
So if there's knowledge gapthere, then the ai cannot tell
(10:52):
you what you're asking it to doyeah, yeah, and I that's where I
was really annoyed with it inthe beginning.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
and you're right, you have to be like a great, you
have to give it a great prompt,you have to let it get to know
you and your style and whatyou're looking for, because it
cannot reach your mind.
There have been times where I'mlike, okay, help me outline
this or this, this and that, andit doesn't give me what I want.
Or I'm like no, it's not whatI'm looking for.
And the poor thing I say thepoor thing because I now
(11:20):
personify it It'll be like I'msorry, I should have known that.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And I'm like no, you shouldn't have, because.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I'm assuming that you're thinking the way I'm
thinking and I have to give youa great detail.
And then it makes me be like,well, I should have just done it
myself, because the amount oftime I'm using it to feed it
prompts.
But like it's the efficiency.
It's the efficiency.
And when you think aboutsomething like job search or
preparing for that, applicationcycles, for all the different
opportunities, it makes thingsso much easier.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It definitely does.
So let's talk about that.
Mj like job search.
So for our listeners anybodywho's out there currently job
searching or just thinking aboutgoing through that process the
game has changed, like if youwere job searching five years
ago and you're about to jobsearch now.
It is a totally differentplaying field Because people are
(12:09):
using AI to help with theirresumes, to prepare for
interviews and write those coverletters, and we've seen cover
letters written by AI wherewe're like well, that doesn't
even sound like a real person,but employers know that people
are using it and employers arestarting to come up with tools
to assess whether it was writtenusing AI right.
(12:29):
So you're in a differentplaying field if you are job
searching now and as opposed tolike a few years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
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Yes, they're amazing and they offer a fantastic
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It was so cute the first time I was scrolling
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(14:11):
The link will be in our shownotes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Absolutely Happy holidays everyone, and thank you
for listening to the Coffee andCareer Hour podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Now let's get back to our episode and I'll add on to
what you said earlier if you, ifyou're not jumping on now and
playing with it, testing it, youdon't have to use it 110, but
keeping up with it, you'refalling behind because what the
job, what the jobs and the tasksare like, you have to be able
to know how to use it with whatyou're doing, because you don't
(14:42):
want to be the person that'sfalling behind, because then now
you have a huge skills gap.
So so, yes, you're right, inthe last three years even it's
changed so much.
Like before, there used to be,you know, like a platform called
a job scan.
It would be able to take thejob description you're looking
for, pull out keywords.
Now you can feed it and itwould have like a limit of five.
I think that was its like limitor something.
(15:12):
Five or ten, I don't really.
I don't really remember.
I can give this thing to chatGPT or Google Gemini and say
here's the link to the jobdescription here's the post,
here's my resume and am Ianalyze if I'd be a great fit or
not?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
yeah, I.
When I learned about that atthe conference, I was.
I think that was one of thereasons why it sold me, because
it's so impactful, like imaginehow much more prepared you would
be for this job interview,where, when you can upload your
resume and then the AI cananalyze and highlight key skills
(15:38):
that you have and then how itmatches the job description.
I mean, that's what you'resupposed to be proving in the
interview is that you can dothis job and your qualifications
match what they're looking forRight.
So AI is helping you do that,but it's not replacing your
knowledge.
You already have theexperiences and the skills on
your resume.
You did those things.
(15:59):
You might not know how toarticulate it best, and it's
making you more efficient infiguring out how to articulate
the skills that you have right.
That's why I think it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, absolutely One of my favorite features ways to
use it with students and toteach them like even clients too
, when they're preparing forinterviews and saying you know,
here's the job description,here's the resume, you know what
are 10 first round behavioralinterviews?
What are 10 technical interviewquestions?
(16:30):
What are director levelquestions that they would have
for this candidate?
And here's the resume.
Can you pose some good pointson how to respond?
And it's great when doing amock interview.
It's very efficient and I thinkit's very to the point.
Before I think you would agreewith me we would have like our
20 most common interviewquestions and you and I you know
(16:50):
we can always in any careercounselor can always come up
with like a good few, liketargeted, but you really don't
know and you never really knowin an interview.
But this is one step closer togetting very targeted, aimed
questions right to the jobdescription, targeting the
person's experiences, and itdoes what we teach them to do.
Use your resume as key skillsand examples on how you would
(17:12):
respond to this in an interview.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
It gives you language right touse and it actually makes you
think about your experiences ina different way than maybe you
couldn't see.
That, right, you couldn't seethat just analyzing your resume
yourself.
So I think it can be useful inthat sense.
I also, at the conference,remember some of the counselors
(17:36):
talking about there was a wholesession actually on this where
the counselor used it to helptarget her counseling approach
and her sessions with particularstudent populations that she
didn't know as much aboutbecause she wasn't part of that
identity group, right.
And so she's working with thesestudent populations and, yeah,
(17:56):
you can be an amazing counselorand have your basic, your
actually your foundationalcounseling skills, but then
there are very specific nuances,like this counselor was working
with student veterans.
She's not a veteran herself.
There's so many policies andprocedures around being a
veteran and what benefitsthey're able to receive, right.
So the AI allowed her to takeher sessions to a whole nother
(18:21):
level because she had all theseadditional resources and
policies that she could provideto her students and she would
actually use it in the sessionswith the student, right, it
didn't mean that it's replacingher knowledge base or giving her
additional knowledge that shedidn't have it just she was
already a great counselor, butnow she has tools at the tip of
(18:43):
her fingertips right, it'senhancing her, her career, her
career counseling capability.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Question to you was she using a chatbot that could
search the interview Like howdid she detect if these policies
and things were like factualand like real, and what to use
and how to use it?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I believe they built that chatbot.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
yeah, Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
They built that, so she had to do the research and
have all the information as wellon their end and then feed it
to the chatbot Gotcha, and thenit helped her be efficient in
her sessions.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Cool.
And from a practitioner's pointof view and I know we're
speaking to job seekers, but I'mI, after this recording, I'm
like I have a few ideas now forour own practice, yeah, um, but
we could talk about that laterbut from a job seekers point of
view, you, what you can takeaway from what Armin is sharing
about the stories you have totrain these bots.
(19:42):
You have to train the way totell them, like, who they are
and who you want them to be.
If you want it to be an expertrecruiter who has, like you know
, phenomenal resume writingskills and is a person who can
write killer cover letters andall these things, you have to
tell it that it will not assume,that it will not assume those
(20:02):
roles of how you want it to betreat, of how you want it to
respond to you, and you need toto let it.
You need it to be trained, yeah, and that's really important
when you're job seeking, becauseone of the things with it is
you can use it, it's great, butyou also have to give it your
own taste and flavor.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it needs to be good.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It does.
Yeah, I mean, it's not 100%perfect.
Sometimes it'll use use wordsthat people don't use in regular
day-to-day.
You're like, okay, this isdefinitely written by AI, so you
do have to vet through it andmake sure it sounds like you and
it's still very authentic toyour voice, and that especially
when it comes to cover letters.
Right, it's so easy to have therobot write your cover letter.
(20:42):
I know that a lot of the clientswe work with they don't want to
write cover letters.
Right, it's so consuming.
You have to tailor it to thejob and you have to figure out
which skills to highlight andresearch their mission statement
and embed it into your coverletter.
It's actually pretty timeconsuming for a job that you
don't know if you're even goingto get an interview for.
But as career counselors, wealways talk about quality over
(21:05):
quantity.
Right, it's better to apply toless positions but put more
thought and intentionality intoyour applications than it is to
apply to hundreds of positionswith the same resume and cover
letter.
But now that we have this AItool, you can use it to help you
build a cover letter that isthe best representation of you,
(21:28):
with the knowledge and skillsthat you have and that you're
feeding into the, into the airight, yeah, and then edit it to
make sure it sounds like youand it's authentic, your voice
100 and again emphasizing thatpoint of editing and reading
through it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
You know, the thing you don't want to happen is and
this could happen with any likeresume writer or cover letter
writer.
You know, let's say you do thatservice, you give me my
documents, I submit them, getcalled into an interview.
I never, I've never, read thembefore.
I don't know what the hellthey're talking about.
They're asking me these thingson my resume, on my cover letter
.
It's the same thing with an aioh, totally, because guess what?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
let's say, you do have the ai write it for you.
It doesn't sound like you atall.
You don't even review or editit and it's this like super
fancy, phenomenal document.
You submit it, you get aninterview.
You're gonna go to theinterview and you're not gonna
represent yourself the same wayyou were represented in your
documents.
They're gonna see through thatright and now employers even can
vet through and like they'repaying more attention to like
(22:28):
hey, does this sound like it waswritten by a person?
Or?
Or an AI?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, and the thing you got to pay attention to is
the way in which it framesdifferent.
It can misconstrue a lot of andmake assumptions.
Yeah, so you want to payattention to how it's writing
things, or what's it saying,because a lot of it can be false
.
Right to how it's writingthings or what's it saying,
because a lot of it can be false, right.
It can say, for example, for myjob, my titles, our titles, are
(22:52):
assistant directors.
Like what if in one of thebullet points it says you know,
direct team of eight counselors?
And that's totally false and Idon't catch that.
They're like, oh, you'vesupervised like eight people.
Like what the heck?
No, you know.
And those are things you haveto really pay attention to and
how it's describing your skillset at the things that you do.
Um, and again, most importantly, targeted to the position
(23:13):
you're applying for yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So it can be a very useful tool in helping with
highlighting your key skills onyour resume match to the job
description.
It can help you brainstorm anddevelop a really great cover
letter and it can help youprepare for interviews.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
100 it is really good in all these different aspects
and I think something, too, islike your linkedin profile um,
how to develop that, how towrite your summary I know it's
supposed to be personal and itcan be, but can help you there.
How to write these descriptions, how.
I know it's supposed to bepersonal and it can be, but it
can help you there.
How to write these descriptions, how, what to add.
What are things that employersare looking for?
Key skills that you should betargeting, industry trends and
(23:55):
updates that you're noticing somuch information that it can
give you.
That's only going to enhanceyour experience and hopefully
get you one step closer toobtaining a job.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, Amazing tools that are at our fingertips.
In a future episode we willtalk more specifically about
prompts that you can actuallyput.
We'll develop prompts for youall and kind of give you
examples of, if you're askingabout a cover letter or an
interview or so forth, what youcan actually say to help you get
the most that you can get outof AI.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, absolutely so.
In that future episode we'llgive you all you need to know.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you enjoy our show, we askthat you write a review on Apple
Podcasts to help us reach morepeople looking to level up their
career.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Want to connect with us, be sure to follow our
Instagram and websites.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Follow Career Rise on Instagram for career advice and
motivation to help you stay upto date on all things career.
Be sure to also visit mywebsite, careerriseorg, to book
a session with me and accessfree resources.
My goal is to help you clarifyyour goals, make a plan and feel
confident in your careerjourney.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Follow Career Confident Latina for your weekly
dose of career advice and myjourney as a first-gen Latina
counselor.
You can also send me a messageon mjcareerconfidencecom if you
want to book a career counselingsession.
I want to help grow yourconfidence as you reach your
career dreams.
The game has changed, like if you were job searching
five years ago and you're aboutto job search now.
It is a totally differentplaying field because people are
using AI to help with theirresumes, to prepare for
interviews and write those coverletters.
And we've seen cover letterswritten by AI where we're like
whoa, that doesn't even soundlike a real person, but
(00:22):
employers know that people areusing it and employers are
starting to come up with toolsto assess whether it was written
using AI right.
So you're in a differentplaying field.
If you are job searching nowand as opposed to like a few
years ago, you are listening toCoffee and Career Hour, we are
(00:47):
your hosts.
I'm Armina and I'm MJ, twocareer counselors and friends
chatting about all things lifeand career.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So grab a cup of coffee and join us Hi everybody,
welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Happy February.
Wow, it's Happy February, wow,it's already February.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I said this in my last Instagram post, but January
felt like 10 years and Februaryfeels like it's flying by.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it's been a very interesting start to the
year.
All of our LA listeners willunderstand.
We're happy that things arekind of shifting back to normal,
quote unquote.
And we're here and we'reexcited to talk about our next
topic.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, I think, when it comes to this next topic,
there are so many resources andtools out there for job seekers,
people who are just trying toget ahead of the game, and this
tool really has enhanced a lotof people's mobility in the
workforce.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh my gosh.
Yes, and if you haven't guessedalready, we are going to be
talking about AI, artificialintelligence, today.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Which, armanay, can you describe a little bit to our
readers how you have switchedto what you call the dark side?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, I have switched to the dark side.
Actually, I love the robots.
Now, I figured you got to lovethem, otherwise they're going to
come for us.
I got to have a goodrelationship.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, they're going to come for your job.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Seriously Well, mj, I went to a conference back in
December.
I posted about this on myInstagram.
I went to the M-PACE conferenceand it was very technology
focused.
It's a career developmentorganization and the conference
was about career developmenttopics, but technology was
embedded in many sessions.
So I learned a lot about how AIcan be used in our line of work
(02:43):
as career counselors, as highereducation professionals, and
how it actually can be reallybeneficial.
And also I realized that youreally do have to have the
knowledge.
You cannot replace yourknowledge, because I think
that's what I was resistingearlier on with AI was that it's
(03:03):
you know.
People can easily come up withproducts and papers and do
things without having theknowledge, and I was hesitant
towards that.
But I realized that youactually have to have the
knowledge, because this thingcannot replace that.
You actually have to teach itwhat it is that you need from it
(03:25):
and then it can help you bemore efficient yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I think efficiency is key.
A lot of people tend to see thenegative side and the impact
and, ironically, I was listeningto a podcast, a couple uh, I
think it was this morningactually, and it was.
It was talking about how theseAI it's expanding the way it's
expanding in the world, where itstarted off as a chatbot, right
(03:52):
, and even before that it waslike your messages, predicting
the couple words after you typeor in your email if you ever use
Outlook, like if you type Ihope you, and then it can finish
in gray to say you're doingwelllook.
Like it can like if you say youknow, if you type I hope you,
and then it can finish like ingray to say like you're doing
well or something like that.
That's AI.
Yeah, it's learning ourpatterns or the way like
(04:14):
different configurations work indifferent apps that we use.
Right, that's artificialintelligence.
But it's grown to where we canhave a communication, a
conversation with this.
You know chat bot, bot and Ichoose to name mine so they seem
more friendly.
I actually even gave itpronouns the other day.
I was calling it like him andhe did this and I don't know why
.
Mine's a male, but yeah, Idon't know that's weird, but
(04:37):
anyway, long story short.
I was listening to this podcast,a hard fork by the new york
times, and they were talkingabout how like it can progress
and be like a, like asalesperson.
It can do these basic jobfunctions and it's wild that
it's expanded to the fact whereit can take over like a new
browser, do like DoorDash.
(04:58):
It was one of the recentepisodes and I'm like where did
we go from?
Like two years ago, like thiswas very new, people were using
it for homework, people wereusing it for job search, people
were using it for um emailnegotiation, like all the things
that we see.
And then now it's like actuallymoving towards, like well, it
can do this, it can be acustomer sales representative,
(05:19):
like all these different thingsyeah, no, it's insane how fast
it's also evolving.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, and you know it's already been multiple
iterations ever since chat gptitself came out and we learned
about it.
What I feel like that was likea year ago maybe and it's
already at like level the thirdor fourth variation, right and
so it's evolving really fast.
Um, and I feel like we canresist it all we want it's here.
(05:49):
It's like the future is here,right, and we either have to
embrace it and actually use itto our benefit and advantage or
we're gonna fall behind.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I 100% agree, which is why I'm completely and
utterly shocked that, like it'ssomething that you use for the
good right, it's for your ownefficiency, for our own learning
too, because it does help usexpand in different ways we
didn't think about before, butit just creates and makes things
so much easier in our everydaylife.
You and I were talking aboutlike email responses, right, or
(06:22):
like quick um responses toquestions that people have all
the time that I I know I'm justso tired I don't want to type it
out or do whatever.
I use it a lot to like help mebrainstorm, so I like to pitch
it ideas and then say what doyou think about this?
How would this work?
Give me an activity, what wouldthat look like for this type of
setting?
And bounce off a lot, a lot onit.
(06:44):
And I do what you do by sayingplease and thank you, and I talk
to it like it's a human.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, me too.
That's so funny because Iliterally was using it today at
work and I was sharing my screenand our other colleague, she
saw me type in please, and she'slike that's so funny.
You're saying please to the AI.
I'm like, yeah, I feel Sometype of weird energy around just
like saying do this?
Yeah, right.
But then the funniest part isit actually responds back.
(07:12):
When I say thank you, it'll belike you're very welcome.
Is there anything else?
Yeah, and it's like you'restarting to engage in
conversation, right, it can bescary, like thinking about going
down that loophole in thefuture and like how that can
actually evolve.
It can be a scary space, but Ithink that you know, as long as
(07:35):
you're not allowing it to takeover, take over your mind and
like understanding what's realand what's not.
I think that using it to youradvantage is actually smart to
do these days, because the worldis moving fast and everybody
has so many things we'rejuggling on our plates, right,
so why not utilize this superadvanced technology to help us
(08:00):
do the things that we need to dobetter?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
yeah, yeah, I was, um , I've been talking to you about
a trip I've been thinking aboutand I asked it the other day.
I was like so I'm planning togo here.
Here are my thoughts.
This is what it's for, likewhat are locations?
What would you recommend?
An ideal one to two week plan?
Like I want walking tours, Iwant to do tourist things, but I
also want to relax, and it waslike very comprehensive the
(08:24):
amount of information.
I um, I like to use the ai, sochat gpt is, like, I think, the,
the most known um, depending onwhat version you have.
There's the paid version, whichis the 4.0, and then there's
like I think, 3.0 or 3.5, whereit's not, you know it can't
search the internet.
So I use ai as co-pilot frommicrosoft to Google Gemini that
(08:48):
can search the Internet, so Ican get links and resources and
be able to see where theinformation is coming from.
So I do dictate like facts fromfiction, on the AI too.
So it's what you're talkingabout using every day Like that
was really cool for me to seetoo.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Amazing.
No, I love that you're doingthat and that actually, each AI
out there now has differentcapabilities, absolutely, and so
you can pick and choose, Iguess, which one works best for
you.
But today we also found outthat there is AI tools that
(09:24):
could analyze a whole bigdocument.
Like, we plugged in 360 pagesof a document into it and it
turned into a 80 minute podcastepisode isn't that insane.
I didn't know.
Apparently you knew about it.
I had no idea that it's to thatlevel, right, that um, it could
even create a podcast episode.
So I thought that was.
You know.
It's already like going to thenext level, and who knows what
(09:46):
else it can do.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny because you know, I want
to say like a year and a halfago we were really against it.
We were really against it.
I was.
I was against it because forwhat we do, it's very practical
and it's it annoyed me in thebeginning that like people could
just use this thing and it likemy thing.
(10:07):
With career development and allthe aspects that we do, there's
skills you need to learn forlife.
If you have something else,just do it for you.
You're not going to learn right.
It's the same thing like how Ithink about parenting if you
clean up your kids toys, they'renot going to learn to be
organized.
So that's how, like ai worksfor me and in this way where
we're like resume stuff andinterviewing and it can't do it
(10:29):
for you and you have to learnthese skills because they're
life skills.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Right.
That's why I was against it.
But I think I realized that itwon't replace the skills,
because in order for it toactually work appropriately and
be effective in what you'reusing it for, you actually have
to have the knowledge.
Yes, to feed it the informationso it can give you what you're
looking for.
So if there's knowledge gapthere, then the ai cannot tell
(10:52):
you what you're asking it to doyeah, yeah, and I that's where I
was really annoyed with it inthe beginning.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
and you're right, you have to be like a great, you
have to give it a great prompt,you have to let it get to know
you and your style and whatyou're looking for, because it
cannot reach your mind.
There have been times where I'mlike, okay, help me outline
this or this, this and that, andit doesn't give me what I want.
Or I'm like no, it's not whatI'm looking for.
And the poor thing I say thepoor thing because I now
(11:20):
personify it It'll be like I'msorry, I should have known that.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And I'm like no, you shouldn't have, because.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I'm assuming that you're thinking the way I'm
thinking and I have to give youa great detail.
And then it makes me be like,well, I should have just done it
myself, because the amount oftime I'm using it to feed it
prompts.
But like it's the efficiency.
It's the efficiency.
And when you think aboutsomething like job search or
preparing for that, applicationcycles, for all the different
opportunities, it makes thingsso much easier.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It definitely does.
So let's talk about that.
Mj like job search.
So for our listeners anybodywho's out there currently job
searching or just thinking aboutgoing through that process the
game has changed, like if youwere job searching five years
ago and you're about to jobsearch now.
It is a totally differentplaying field Because people are
(12:09):
using AI to help with theirresumes, to prepare for
interviews and write those coverletters, and we've seen cover
letters written by AI wherewe're like well, that doesn't
even sound like a real person,but employers know that people
are using it and employers arestarting to come up with tools
to assess whether it was writtenusing AI right.
(12:29):
So you're in a differentplaying field if you are job
searching now and as opposed tolike a few years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Do you also indulge on your favorite cup of coffee
during our show?
We want to share something todelight any coffee lover this
holiday season Unique coffeethemed merchandise.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I'm so in.
I'm always looking for uniquegifts, and coffee themed items
are always a hit.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, and where better to find them than on
buyblackitcom.
Buy Black.
It is all about weavingtogether style, art and prints
inspired by generations, pastand present.
They created their store toprovide items that are
heartwarming, inspirational,thoughtful and funny, so that
you can share with the peopleyou love and care about.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yes, they're amazing and they offer a fantastic
coffee lover selection with awide variety of coffee themed
merchandise, from stylish mugsand t-shirts and even my
favorite coffee accessories.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It was so cute the first time I was scrolling
through it.
I'm, as I'm always, thinkingabout coffee related gifts for
my colleagues because, of course, they're all huge coffee fans.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Oh my gosh.
Yes, you can really findsomething special for every
coffee lover on your list, andwith the coffee lover selection
on buyblackitcom, you're sure tofind unique and stylish items.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It's really the perfect place to find that
special something for the coffeelover in your life.
Use our affiliate link to get15% off any items on their
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That is buyblackitcomB-U-Y-B-L-A-C-K-E-T-T dot com.
Forward slash coffee and careerpod.
(14:11):
The link will be in our shownotes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Absolutely Happy holidays everyone, and thank you
for listening to the Coffee andCareer Hour podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Now let's get back to our episode and I'll add on to
what you said earlier if you, ifyou're not jumping on now and
playing with it, testing it, youdon't have to use it 110, but
keeping up with it, you'refalling behind because what the
job, what the jobs and the tasksare like, you have to be able
to know how to use it with whatyou're doing, because you don't
(14:42):
want to be the person that'sfalling behind, because then now
you have a huge skills gap.
So so, yes, you're right, inthe last three years even it's
changed so much.
Like before, there used to be,you know, like a platform called
a job scan.
It would be able to take thejob description you're looking
for, pull out keywords.
Now you can feed it and itwould have like a limit of five.
I think that was its like limitor something.
(15:12):
Five or ten, I don't really.
I don't really remember.
I can give this thing to chatGPT or Google Gemini and say
here's the link to the jobdescription here's the post,
here's my resume and am Ianalyze if I'd be a great fit or
not?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
yeah, I.
When I learned about that atthe conference, I was.
I think that was one of thereasons why it sold me, because
it's so impactful, like imaginehow much more prepared you would
be for this job interview,where, when you can upload your
resume and then the AI cananalyze and highlight key skills
(15:38):
that you have and then how itmatches the job description.
I mean, that's what you'resupposed to be proving in the
interview is that you can dothis job and your qualifications
match what they're looking forRight.
So AI is helping you do that,but it's not replacing your
knowledge.
You already have theexperiences and the skills on
your resume.
You did those things.
(15:59):
You might not know how toarticulate it best, and it's
making you more efficient infiguring out how to articulate
the skills that you have right.
That's why I think it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, absolutely One of my favorite features ways to
use it with students and toteach them like even clients too
, when they're preparing forinterviews and saying you know,
here's the job description,here's the resume, you know what
are 10 first round behavioralinterviews?
What are 10 technical interviewquestions?
(16:30):
What are director levelquestions that they would have
for this candidate?
And here's the resume.
Can you pose some good pointson how to respond?
And it's great when doing amock interview.
It's very efficient and I thinkit's very to the point.
Before I think you would agreewith me we would have like our
20 most common interviewquestions and you and I you know
(16:50):
we can always in any careercounselor can always come up
with like a good few, liketargeted, but you really don't
know and you never really knowin an interview.
But this is one step closer togetting very targeted, aimed
questions right to the jobdescription, targeting the
person's experiences, and itdoes what we teach them to do.
Use your resume as key skillsand examples on how you would
(17:12):
respond to this in an interview.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
It gives you language right touse and it actually makes you
think about your experiences ina different way than maybe you
couldn't see.
That, right, you couldn't seethat just analyzing your resume
yourself.
So I think it can be useful inthat sense.
I also, at the conference,remember some of the counselors
(17:36):
talking about there was a wholesession actually on this where
the counselor used it to helptarget her counseling approach
and her sessions with particularstudent populations that she
didn't know as much aboutbecause she wasn't part of that
identity group, right.
And so she's working with thesestudent populations and, yeah,
(17:56):
you can be an amazing counselorand have your basic, your
actually your foundationalcounseling skills, but then
there are very specific nuances,like this counselor was working
with student veterans.
She's not a veteran herself.
There's so many policies andprocedures around being a
veteran and what benefitsthey're able to receive, right.
So the AI allowed her to takeher sessions to a whole nother
(18:21):
level because she had all theseadditional resources and
policies that she could provideto her students and she would
actually use it in the sessionswith the student, right, it
didn't mean that it's replacingher knowledge base or giving her
additional knowledge that shedidn't have it just she was
already a great counselor, butnow she has tools at the tip of
(18:43):
her fingertips right, it'senhancing her, her career, her
career counseling capability.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Question to you was she using a chatbot that could
search the interview Like howdid she detect if these policies
and things were like factualand like real, and what to use
and how to use it?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I believe they built that chatbot.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
yeah, Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
They built that, so she had to do the research and
have all the information as wellon their end and then feed it
to the chatbot Gotcha, and thenit helped her be efficient in
her sessions.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Cool.
And from a practitioner's pointof view and I know we're
speaking to job seekers, but I'mI, after this recording, I'm
like I have a few ideas now forour own practice, yeah, um, but
we could talk about that laterbut from a job seekers point of
view, you, what you can takeaway from what Armin is sharing
about the stories you have totrain these bots.
(19:42):
You have to train the way totell them, like, who they are
and who you want them to be.
If you want it to be an expertrecruiter who has, like you know
, phenomenal resume writingskills and is a person who can
write killer cover letters andall these things, you have to
tell it that it will not assume,that it will not assume those
(20:02):
roles of how you want it to betreat, of how you want it to
respond to you, and you need toto let it.
You need it to be trained, yeah, and that's really important
when you're job seeking, becauseone of the things with it is
you can use it, it's great, butyou also have to give it your
own taste and flavor.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it needs to be good.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It does.
Yeah, I mean, it's not 100%perfect.
Sometimes it'll use use wordsthat people don't use in regular
day-to-day.
You're like, okay, this isdefinitely written by AI, so you
do have to vet through it andmake sure it sounds like you and
it's still very authentic toyour voice, and that especially
when it comes to cover letters.
Right, it's so easy to have therobot write your cover letter.
(20:42):
I know that a lot of the clientswe work with they don't want to
write cover letters.
Right, it's so consuming.
You have to tailor it to thejob and you have to figure out
which skills to highlight andresearch their mission statement
and embed it into your coverletter.
It's actually pretty timeconsuming for a job that you
don't know if you're even goingto get an interview for.
But as career counselors, wealways talk about quality over
(21:05):
quantity.
Right, it's better to apply toless positions but put more
thought and intentionality intoyour applications than it is to
apply to hundreds of positionswith the same resume and cover
letter.
But now that we have this AItool, you can use it to help you
build a cover letter that isthe best representation of you,
(21:28):
with the knowledge and skillsthat you have and that you're
feeding into the, into the airight, yeah, and then edit it to
make sure it sounds like youand it's authentic, your voice
100 and again emphasizing thatpoint of editing and reading
through it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
You know, the thing you don't want to happen is and
this could happen with any likeresume writer or cover letter
writer.
You know, let's say you do thatservice, you give me my
documents, I submit them, getcalled into an interview.
I never, I've never, read thembefore.
I don't know what the hellthey're talking about.
They're asking me these thingson my resume, on my cover letter
.
It's the same thing with an aioh, totally, because guess what?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
let's say, you do have the ai write it for you.
It doesn't sound like you atall.
You don't even review or editit and it's this like super
fancy, phenomenal document.
You submit it, you get aninterview.
You're gonna go to theinterview and you're not gonna
represent yourself the same wayyou were represented in your
documents.
They're gonna see through thatright and now employers even can
vet through and like they'repaying more attention to like
(22:28):
hey, does this sound like it waswritten by a person?
Or?
Or an AI?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, and the thing you got to pay attention to is
the way in which it framesdifferent.
It can misconstrue a lot of andmake assumptions.
Yeah, so you want to payattention to how it's writing
things, or what's it saying,because a lot of it can be false
.
Right to how it's writingthings or what's it saying,
because a lot of it can be false, right.
It can say, for example, for myjob, my titles, our titles, are
(22:52):
assistant directors.
Like what if in one of thebullet points it says you know,
direct team of eight counselors?
And that's totally false and Idon't catch that.
They're like, oh, you'vesupervised like eight people.
Like what the heck?
No, you know.
And those are things you haveto really pay attention to and
how it's describing your skillset at the things that you do.
Um, and again, most importantly, targeted to the position
(23:13):
you're applying for yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So it can be a very useful tool in helping with
highlighting your key skills onyour resume match to the job
description.
It can help you brainstorm anddevelop a really great cover
letter and it can help youprepare for interviews.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
100 it is really good in all these different aspects
and I think something, too, islike your linkedin profile um,
how to develop that, how towrite your summary I know it's
supposed to be personal and itcan be, but can help you there.
How to write these descriptions, how.
I know it's supposed to bepersonal and it can be, but it
can help you there.
How to write these descriptions, how, what to add.
What are things that employersare looking for?
Key skills that you should betargeting, industry trends and
(23:55):
updates that you're noticing somuch information that it can
give you.
That's only going to enhanceyour experience and hopefully
get you one step closer toobtaining a job.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, Amazing tools that are at our fingertips.
In a future episode we willtalk more specifically about
prompts that you can actuallyput.
We'll develop prompts for youall and kind of give you
examples of, if you're askingabout a cover letter or an
interview or so forth, what youcan actually say to help you get
the most that you can get outof AI.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, absolutely so.
In that future episode we'llgive you all you need to know.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you enjoy our show, we askthat you write a review on Apple
Podcasts to help us reach morepeople looking to level up their
career.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Want to connect with us, be sure to follow our
Instagram and websites.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Follow Career Rise on Instagram for career advice and
motivation to help you stay upto date on all things career.
Be sure to also visit mywebsite, careerriseorg, to book
a session with me and accessfree resources.
My goal is to help you clarifyyour goals, make a plan and feel
confident in your careerjourney.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Follow Career Confident Latina for your weekly
dose of career advice and myjourney as a first-gen Latina
counselor.
You can also send me a messageon mjcareerconfidencecom if you
want to book a career counselingsession.
I want to help grow yourconfidence as you reach your
career dreams.
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History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.