Working Strategies: Using AI to organize or even conduct your job search

Amy Lindgren Second Sunday Series Editor s Note This is the eighth of 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 r sum s 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 r sum 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 nowadays s topic Could AI conduct the entire search for you And track your results And do your follow-ups Well of lesson it can The products are blossoming faster than tulips in spring so there are a lot to choose from Here are a few 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 a multitude of jobs they applied for last week or even the previous 24 hours 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 preponderance of the alternatives such as entering each activity into a spreadsheet a process that nearly unfailingly falls apart after a scant weeks Quite a sparse AI options will help or take over this project including these three Careerflow This activity provides both free and premium options to build a dashboard where you can monitor your applications and organize follow-up pursuits 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 Genuinely quite a lot of tools will do this now although the results vary a lot Since you ll be trusting the activity to interface with the employer or at least the employer s bot you ll want to check for user reviews before diving in Various tools in this category will search the internet for jobs revise your letter and r sum accordingly and or complete an application on your behalf and then send it out all without your intervention Others will do the first sparse efforts 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 r sum 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 compelling 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 and for and 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 inevitably this short primer is only a sampling of available AI tools and a smaller slice yet of what will be available a scant months from now Even so it s a place to start Come back next month and we ll continue the AI discussion Related Articles Working Strategies Particular survival tools for uncertain times Working Strategies Navigating part-time jobs at a professional level Working Strategies Finding a part-time job requires a plan Working Strategies Holding on when things get tough Working Strategies Using AI tools to prepare for interviews Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St Paul She can be reached at alindgren prototypecareerservice com