How to use AI responsibly for job searching and applications

Artificial Intelligence is shaking up just about every industry at the moment. In particular, Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude are a hot topic.

Whether you’ve only logged into an AI tool once to generate some cheesy puns, or you’ve become a whizz who uses generative AI daily, you may not have considered how AI can be helpful for your graduate job search.

Contents
Bright Network's research on AI in job searching
Five important rules for how to use AI responsibly
How to use AI to help with your job search
Can AI help you write your CV?
How can AI help you write a cover letter?
Can AI give feedback on your job applications?
How can you prepare for an interview using AI?
Is it worth paying for AI tools like CV generators?

At Bright Network, we're always on the lookout for new trends in the student and graduate careers space. We've conducted research with our members and employer partners to get the lowdown on AI and its effects.

In our Bright Network Annual Research Report, we ask our members for their thoughts on all areas of the graduate careers space. In 2024, our ninth annual report surveyed over 14,000 students and graduates, and revealed that over 38% had used already generative AI (also known as GenAI) in job applications.

We were keen to know more, so we sent out a follow-up survey. This time, we found out that 58% of our students and graduates have already used AI for job applications, mostly to save time on CVs and cover letters. That's an increase of 20% in just a couple of months – showing us that AI usage for applications is growing fast.

It makes sense, then, that 72% of our respondents do not perceive using AI as a form of cheating during the recruitment process.

What does all this tell us? That AI is quickly changing the game for graduate recruitment, and that (as usual) students are ahead of the curve.

When we speak to our employer partners, we get a slightly different view. Most of them have seen a huge uplift in application volumes, some with upwards of 500% versus the previous year.

Despite the uptick in applications, 53% of employers say they do not yet have guidelines in place for how applicants should or shouldn't be using AI. We'll be keeping an eye out, however, because 28% of companies revealed plans to include new guidelines on AI for next year's intake of graduates.

Paul Porter is Bright Network's Platform Partnerships Director, and he's in a unique position of liaising with many of our 300+ employer partners as well as global recruitment companies. That means Paul gets lots of daily insights into how employers are responding to AI in hiring processes.

Employers can tell when you've used AI depending on the extent you've relied on it.

If you copy and paste a response directly from an AI tool into a job application, the hiring managers will almost definitely notice. Spotting AI-generated writing is easy because it tends to be more generic than human writing. The main factor that sets it apart is uniqueness – or lack thereof.

Hiring processes are all about the employer getting to know you. If you don't write the application yourself, they won't be able to do that. The result? A high chance of an unsuccessful application.

However, using AI for brainstorming, planning or feeding back on your application can yield strong results, if you do it responsibly.

At the moment, there's a bit of uncertainty about how much AI should be allowed into the job application process.

Employer insights tell us that over-using AI could be potentially damaging to job applications. Equally, you don't want to miss out on the opportunities that AI can bring.

While recruitment processes catch up with new technology, you might not know how much – if at all – you should be using AI in your graduate job applications.

That's why we've put together this guide to help you understand how AI can benefit your job search, and how you can make the most of it in a sensible way.

AI can be a helpful time-saver, but it has its downfalls – namely accuracy, uniqueness and writing style. One of our top tips for using AI is not to rely on it too heavily.

If there's one piece of advice you take away from this article, let it be this: AI should never be a replacement for your own work.

Think of AI as an assistant who's super keen to help, but often gets things wrong and occasionally makes some dodgy judgement errors. If you wouldn't let a person with those qualities do your work for you, then you shouldn't let a machine do it, either.

If you're still tempted to copy and paste AI responses into your applications, keep in mind that doing so may hurt more than help your chances. As it's trained on masses of data, Generative AI tends to sound generic and predictable, and therefore less interesting to employers.

When using AI for drafting and writing assistance, you'll need to rewrite the outputs and edit back in your uniqueness and personality. AI can follow rules for tone of voice to some extent, but it can't capture your particular way of thinking (which is something an employer will want to see!).

Here are some features of AI-speak to avoid:

• Being overly formal, eg. "In addition to pursuing interests of an academic nature..."
• Listing generic adjectives, eg. "Not only am I collaborative, communicative and team-oriented, but I am also meticulous, passionate and solutions-driven."
• Overly dramatic language, eg. "I cultivate a shining beacon of synergy"
• Telling, not showing, eg. saying "I am passionate" without giving evidence of your passion

As a rule of thumb: if you wouldn't use that phrasing normally, get rid of it.

You heard us: check those facts, figures and dates. When writing text for you, AI tools often make up their own numbers and statistics. We call this 'hallucination' and it's one of the main issues to be wary of when using generative AI.

Don't submit any claims that you can't verify and remember not to exaggerate your skills or experience. In its effort to help, AI can sometimes be misleading, but it's your responsibility to stick to the truth.

Another top tip is to check the data training cut-off for the AI model you're using. If the AI was trained on data from a year ago, it won't have a frame of reference for recent events, trends or information that have come about since.

AI-generated content tends to read well on a quick skim, but when you dig deeper, you might find it's more artfully arranged buzzwords than meaningful information.

That means AI outputs tend to include filler and a fair bit of waffle. Read through your AI-generated content paying attention to what's actually being communicated. You can probably get the point across much quicker by cutting out some unnecessary words.

Another top tip? Watch out for repetition. AI models are trained to write in a pattern-based way, which means certain phrases and ideas can pop up again and again.

If there's anything you'd rather an AI model wasn't trained on, don't input it into a tool as a prompt. Whether that's personal information about you or potentially confidential details about an employer's application process, it's better to be on the safe side.

Your prompts and inputs might be used differently depending on which tool you use and its privacy policy. In general, it's a good idea to be aware that sometimes your information might be used for continuous machine learning.

With those tips in mind for using AI responsibly, we'll now share some handy ways that AI can help you out. Step one of any job search is finding roles to apply for based on what jobs you think will be a good fit for your skills and experience.

For recommending what jobs to apply for in the first place, AI can be a real time-saver.

Bright Network's job-matching algorithm analyses the information you provide about your degree and work preferences to bring you customised job matches.

With a twice-monthly newsletter rounding up relevant roles straight to your inbox, we'll keep you updated on what the best opportunities are, whether it's jobs, internships, placements or events. That means less time spent scrolling for you. Between emails, you can check your matches yourself on your Dashboard under the 'Apply' tab.

If you're not sure what sector you want to go into, try taking our Career Path Test, which uses data science to pair you with the best industries and job titles for you.

Generative AI tools like LLMs can act as creative collaborators for early-stage job research and coming up with ideas. You can quickly create lists of resources, job titles or companies.

For example, try asking your tool of choice for recommendations on trade publications in your sector. You'll likely get a solid starting point to support with your commercial awareness research in just a few seconds.

Interested in a sector that doesn't have many grad schemes or structured pathways available? You'll need to know what entry-level job titles to look into. You can ask a GenAI tool for a breakdown of the roles you should be searching for, or even upload your CV to get its take on what you could apply for.

Keep in mind that AI is prone to ‘hallucination’, meaning it can give you inaccurate or misleading information. That’s why we recommend using it as a starting point or a helpful initial brainstorm, but not as a research resource itself.

Take AI-generated ‘facts’ with a pinch of salt and back up any advice with your own research from reputable sources with demonstrable expertise (like Bright Network)!

While AI can't take the whole CV creation process off your hands, it can certainly help you make a start.

Using chat-based LLMs, you can easily prompt the tool to summarise your key experience or come up with key skills to highlight.

As well as the most well-known Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Bing and Gemini, however, there's also a whole new world of AI out there designed specifically for CV support.

One caveat for using these tools? Remember to prioritise your privacy. Don't share any information with these tools that you're not comfortable with being used for machine learning.

Kick Resume is a tool that uses AI to help you build a CV from customisable templates.

What we like about Kick Resume

• You can build your CV manually, using AI or by importing a LinkedIn CV
• The design elements are very customisable, from font to colours and which sections you want to include
• For an additional cost, you get your CV proofread by a team of humans

What to watch out for

• You need to pay for the most interesting and industry-specific CV templates
• The CV templates typically include a space to upload a picture of yourself. We don’t recommend having a picture on your CV as it's not standard in the UK. Your experience should speak for itself without an image
• The tool is not designed just for the UK, so watch out for US spellings and vocabulary

Our overall take? Kick Resume is a decent tool for CV development. The free version gives you basic access to the essential tools, while the paid version offers more sophisticated options. Just beware of AI hallucinating false facts about your experience, and edit your work to make it 100% accurate.

Similar to Kick Resume, CV Help is an AI-powered CV generation tool.

What we like about CV Help

• You have access to 19 CV templates, most of which are professional-looking and easy to read 
• You can create a new CV from scratch or upload an existing one to improve upon
• The tool gives you tips as you go, and you can customise sections if you want

What to watch out for

• As with Kick Resume, the templates often include space for images, which we don't recommend using
• If you want to make lots of revisions to your CV or tailor it to different employers, you need to use the paid version
• The AI-generated text includes some inaccuracies, so you should make sure to check it carefully

Our overall take? CV Help is a little less advanced than Kick Resume but still includes AI tools to support you in creating a winning CV.

Rezi is another AI-powered CV creation tool.

What we liked about Rezi

• You can create your CV from scratch, use LinkedIn to connect your experience or upload an existing CV as a document
• Rezi will give you a score based on the strength of the different areas on your CV
• The AI Writer feature can help with creating a profile summary for the job title you're applying for

What to watch out for

• You only get access to one very simple CV template for free. For visually engaging CV templates and the cover letter support feature, you'd need to pay
• The templates are fairly plain in terms of design, which is fine for traditional industries but may not be eye-catching enough for more creative roles
• There are lots of pop-ups encouraging you to pay for the Pro model

Our overall take? With fewer customisation options than Kick Resume and CV Help, we'd say Rezi is a useful starting point if you don't know how to create a CV, but you'd get a similar experience by using a CV template via Microsoft Word or Canva.

Just like you can use AI to help build a CV, you can use it for cover letters, too. Kick Resume and CV Help do have cover letter-writing options, but you can also go straight to your favourite generative AI chat tool for support.

Here's how we recommend using AI for cover letters:

1. Make a list of the skills and experience you want to include in your cover letter. Think about relevance to the role in question. What have you done that is transferrable to this specific employer and position?
2. Next to each skill or previous experience, make a quick note on how it relates to the job spec or demonstrates responsibilities that you'd have in the role. AI can sometimes struggle with logical linking, so doing this yourself helps get more accurate results.
3. Copy and paste the job description you're applying for into a prompt, along with your list of skills, experience and links to the role.
4. Ask your GenAI tool to use the information you've provided to create a cover letter outline for you. The AI will suggest a structure, which can then form the basis of your paragraphs.
5. If you don't want to draft your cover letter from scratch, this is where you could ask your tool to create a draft of the letter itself, using the outline it's just generated.
6. Take the first draft and edit, edit, edit. You'll want to ensure the writing sounds like you, not like a bot.

Generative AI models will give you outputs based on the cover letters it has been trained on, but that doesn't mean they'll be perfect for you. Don't be afraid to rewrite them to let your personality and your passion shine through, and follow your intuition.

If you'd prefer to use a tool that creates the prompt for you, we've reviewed a couple of options to help you decide.

Cover Letter Copilot is an online tool for creating cover letters using AI.

What we liked about Cover Letter Copilot

• You can choose which AI model you'd like to use
• The cover letters produced make clear links between your experience and the company values in the job description you've pasted in
• You can upload your CV for the AI to reference

What to watch out for

• The tone of voice can be quite over the top, straying into exaggeration
• You only can generate one cover letter per day and cannot make edits to existing letters on the platform
• You'll need to closely check the accuracy of the AI-generated statements

Our overall take? This tool helps overcome the intimidating step of starting to write a cover letter. It uses OpenAI, so if you feel comfortable making up your own prompts, you'll get similar results working directly with ChatGPT.

Coverdoc AI is another AI-powered tool to get you started with the tricky process of writing a cover letter.

What we liked about Coverdoc AI

• The tone of voice options provided are 'professional', 'technical' or 'business casual'
• Coverdoc is upfront about the work needed to edit your AI-generated cover letter, and it has articles on how to prioritise authenticity
• The AI combines keywords and experiences from your LinkedIn profile with the key role requirements you share with it

What to watch out for

• The output cover letter takes a few minutes to send to you as an email, so it's not as instant as some platforms (but it's still very fast)
• The output is shared with you as a Google doc, so there are no in-text AI editing features
• The initial draft is on the long side at around 400 words, and it's a little generic in content. We'd recommend cutting the filler and replacing it with specific anecdotes and examples

Our overall take? Coverdoc works slightly better than Cover Letter Copilot, and it includes guidance about how to work with the output, which other tools don't always have. This tool seems like a great starting point for creating a strong cover letter.

With ChatGPT 4 now available for free, you can upload files to the tool and ask AI to analyse them for you. One way this could be helpful is by getting feedback on your application or cover letter.

For the best feedback, include the job description of the role you're applying for in your prompt. Ask the AI to review your application with it in mind and tell you any areas for improvement.

Once you've made it past stage one (the application), the next step is often an interview. So, what can AI do to help with this part of the hiring process?

A handy way to use AI is to run through interview questions with it – especially when your housemates get tired of teeing you up for the big day.

You can easily prompt a tool to give you ideas for interview questions so that you get an idea of what an employer might ask.

Using a tool for interview prep has the benefit of not just giving you practice questions, but helping you out with feedback on your practice answers, too. We tested out two platforms to consider using during the interview preparation process.

Interview Warmup is Google's AI tool to prepare you for job interviews. You select a sector and then answer five interview questions to get feedback from the AI.

What we liked about Interview Warmup

• You can either type your interview answers or record a voice note answer
• Different question types are helpfully explained
• Within each question, the tool provides sub-questions to give you ideas for things to say
• The AI highlights different points from your answer so you can see exactly what you've covered and what you could include more information about

What to watch out for

• You can choose from sectors for interview practice, but you can't get more specific than that with job titles
• As a result, the questions offered are fairly broad
• The feedback on your answers is a little slow to review as there isn't one holistic summary

Our overall take? This tool would be good for 'warming up' and getting into the headspace of answering interview questions.

Prepper is another interview preparation tool, which gives five questions to help you practice your responses.

What we liked about Prepper

• You can add the entire job description for the role you're interviewing for, plus the company and the exact job title
• As a result, the questions are specific examples of what an interviewer might ask
• There's an easy mode and a hard mode – and just for fun, a pirate option
• The example answers are detailed and long, with reasoning explaining what makes them strong responses to the question
• When you type in your answer, you get a score out of 100 with an analysis of what you did well and how you can improve

What to watch out for

• You can't select what interview stage or type you're practising for (competency, experience or values for example)
• The example answers are great, but also made up, so a little difficult to relate to your own experience
• You can't use a voice record functionality here, so it's not quite as representative of what you'd say out loud and under pressure

Our overall take? This tool is great for practising and getting feedback on your interview answers. With its ability to give example questions for very specific roles, we think it's a great option for running potential questions ahead of a graduate job interview.

As we've mentioned throughout this article, many career-focused AI tools offer free and premium models to support your applications, CVs and cover letters.

Our Bright Advice is to be savvy about what you're paying for. Expensive platforms that promise magic results often use technology that's available for free if you're willing to put in a little more manual work.

We recommend learning some prompting methods and working directly with your favourite AI model where possible if you want to avoid the extra cost.

Whatever kind of AI tool you use, you'll still need to put in most of the work yourself. Ultimately, the strongest applications are the most personalised ones.