AI-Powered Opportunities: Leveraging Technology for Career Success
The rate at which the world has embraced ChatGPT is astounding: The artificial intelligence tool had more than 100 million active users only three months after being introduced, though its use has slowed down somewhat as the novelty wears off. Depending on your current career path, you may be wondering whether AI will put you out of a job—or whether you can leverage AI for career success.
AI likely won’t put you out of a job, but it will substantially change your role. The secret is to learn how to put AI to work for you.
Use AI in your job hunt
AI is a growing force for both job applicants and recruiters alike, which is knowledge job applicants can use to their advantage. If you’re stumped about how to write your cover letter or optimize your resume or LinkedIn profile for a specific type of position, an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT will write a serviceable first draft. Just be sure to make it your own. Everyone has access to these same tools, and there is an inherent sameness to their results. This is simply a jumping-off point, and you don’t want to be seen as an AI plagiarist. Once your resume is written, you can access various AI tools online to review its content and receive suggestions for improvement.
Gone are the days of scanning online job postings—that’s going the way of the newspaper want ads. An AI career coach will evaluate your interests and skill sets and show you positions that are potential good matches.
Interview prep is a whole new ball game with AI. There’s a decent chance the hiring manager will ask a chatbot which questions to ask a particular type of candidate. You can do the same to start prepping.
AI can also shake up your approach to networking, allowing you to easily craft personalized messages for LinkedIn.
Figure out how AI can increase efficiency
Once you’ve landed the job, your goal is to put AI to work for you. That means understanding the ways it can make you more efficient and more effective. Can AI automate some of your routine writing tasks, much like it did during the job hunt, by preparing personalized boilerplate email text? This can be particularly helpful during the sales process, allowing you to extend your reach.
AI may also assist with data analytics. Can you learn tools such as Microsoft Power BI or Tableau to analyze datasets and uncover useful insights? You could set up a situation where your boss is turning to you for analysis and forecasting.
And don’t forget the power of AI in brainstorming. A blank page is overwhelming, and it’s easy to nix your own ideas before you even begin. Why not start with an idea list generated by AI? Team members can express their likes and dislikes freely—after all, a chatbot doesn’t have feelings to hurt—giving you good direction to develop something amazing.
Understand AI’s limitations
AI is powerful, and its results grow more impressive every day. But it still has limitations. Its results can only come from the information in its existing dataset, and paid models will be faster and more able to insert context. The results provided by a free AI chatbot are widely available. You don’t want to be one of 100 obviously chatbot-written resumes in a hiring manager’s inbox. Understanding how AI works and where it falls short will help you make better decisions about when to use it.
Be human
As powerful as AI is (and as it grows even more powerful), it will never replace your own ability to connect previously unrelated ideas and inject human authenticity and morality into your work. As use of AI grows more prevalent, questions about the ethics surrounding AI will only continue to increase. By focusing your brainpower on how AI can be used to both our benefit and detriment, you can put a human touch on this game-changing technology.