For over a year advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) fill the headlines. In particular, the rise of generative AI represents a new level of capabilities with its impressive range of skills. As the name indicates, it can generate new content, instantly. This has left some people concerned for their jobs (e.g., writers and other artists). While others profit in a fraction of the time.
However, it is sometimes valuable to stop and reflect on what we are really gaining. As the world seems to process everything faster, time feels shorter than ever. With all this technology and advancements, I feel like that should free me up to do the kind of things I enjoy most. Yet, it seems that learning about new technologies consumes more and more of my time. This includes how to use them and also how to protect myself on them. The rest of my time is spent using the new technologies, or sometimes just getting frustrated. I think the frustration comes from my expectations that everything should be a seamless experience. Often, it’s not. It’s the same old clunky processes, except now I have to bumble through them in paper or poorly designed electronic mediums.
The other day I was chatting with one of my coop students about cover letters. A professor wanted to use his cover letter as an example for other students. I agreed that he had written a great cover letter. In fact, I used it as a tie breaker between him and the other shortlisted candidate. More importantly, I could tell that he hadn’t used AI to generate his cover letter. Or if he did, he spent time customizing and editing whatever AI prepared.
What really caused me to think was when the student mentioned some of his colleagues had applied to hundreds of positions. My student, however, had only applied to a few dozen. Even with the benefit of technology to author cover letters, write, and customize resumes for specific jobs, applying for hundreds still takes a lot of time. On the hiring side, it also takes lots of my time to filter through the applicants, even if I use AI to help.
Does using AI to apply for that many positions increase your hiring rate by the same amount? Or is the time “saved” spent sifting through quantity over quality to ultimately achieve the same outcome?