Amy Lindgren
Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the eighth of 12 columns on AI and work, which will appear the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column described AI tools for interview prep, while previous columns looked at résumés and cover letters; best practices for companies using AI; tips for using ChatGPT; work opportunities with artificial intelligence; AI use in the hiring process; and an overview of artificial intelligence in general.
We’ve been looking at a variety of AI (artificial intelligence) tools in this Second Sunday series: résumé builders, cover letter generators, interview practice applications … it seems like there’s nothing AI can’t do when it comes to job search.
Which bring us to today’s topic: Could AI conduct the entire search for you? And track your results? And do your follow-ups? Well, of course it can. The products are blossoming faster than tulips in spring, so there are a lot to choose from. Here are some that I explored, in different categories.
AI tools that track your applications
Tracking applications has befuddled job seekers since the days of pasting newspaper ads onto index cards. Things have only gotten more complicated now that the search is conducted online.
I speak with job seekers every day who don’t know how many jobs they applied for last week or even yesterday. Rather than tracking the applications submitted, they rely on hearing back from the employer. If they don’t hear back, it’s out of sight, out of mind.
That might seem efficient, if you assume that no news is no news. But it robs you of the opportunity to analyze your search results on any level, other than the number of days or months you’ve been looking. On the other hand, I’ll admit I don’t love most of the alternatives, such as entering each activity into a spreadsheet — a process that nearly always falls apart after a few weeks.
Quite a few AI options will help or take over this project, including these three:
• Careerflow. This program provides both free and premium options to build a dashboard where you can monitor your applications and organize follow-up activities. (www.careerflow.ai)
•JobCopilot. Building on the dashboard-based model, JobCopilot provides additional features such as archiving the original job postings. It’s not free, since the job tracking comes in bundled sets of services. (www.jobcopilot.com)
• Notion. Already a well-respected platform for managing written content, Notion enters the field with a series of templates designed to help you manage different aspects of the job application process. (www.notion.com)
AI tools that do the applying for you
Actually, quite a lot of tools will do this now, although the results vary a lot. Since you’ll be trusting the program to interface with the employer (or at least, the employer’s bot), you’ll want to check for user reviews before diving in.
Some tools in this category will search the internet for jobs, revise your letter and résumé accordingly and/or complete an application on your behalf, and then send it out, all without your intervention. Others will do the first few steps but await your approval before sending.
Two programs to consider in this category are Sonara (www.sonara.ai) and Teal (www.tealhq.com)
All-in-one AI job search tools
Here’s another category with several options to consider. These are platforms that help you build a résumé, write your cover letter, enhance your LinkedIn profile, and practice for interviews, in addition to providing the application and tracking features we’re already discussing.
To get you started, check out Zapier (www.zapier.com). This one includes a suite of services, including Zapier Workflows, which creates emails on your behalf, ranging from application follow-ups to thank-you letters.
A notable exception: human + AI
For an interesting exception to the automated products, consider ApplyAll (https://applyall.com). This model is built around the company’s unique AI-human partnership. Instead of letting AI do all the work, a human reviews the AI-generated output and removes the errors.
This option isn’t free (current sale rates of $199 and $259 for 100 and 200 applications, respectively) but it does include a money-back guarantee if you don’t get at least one interview in the first month.
My usual caveat
As always, this short primer is only a sampling of available AI tools, and a smaller slice yet of what will be available a few months from now. Even so, it’s a place to start. Come back next month and we’ll continue the AI discussion.
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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.
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