Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:15
And welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast, where our goal is not only to help you land your dream job, but to help you live your best life, should you use an AI resume builder? We’re going to be going into warnings, considerations, some things that might help you think through your own job search. Here, bare minimum, I want you to have some clarity on how you could use your own human abilities and perhaps some technology to combine forces to give you the best resume possible.

Chris Villanueva 0:47
Before I dive into this episode, I want to congratulate our resume package giveaway winner, James for winning a free starter package here at Let’s Eat, Grandma congratulations, James. I am so excited for you, and I wish you the best of luck in your job search.

Chris Villanueva 1:01
So according to the results, we’ll call them the survey results, 45% of job seekers have used a I don’t know why. I had a French accent that was very weird, and I hope that no one goes back and replaced that. 45% of job seekers have used generative AI to build, update or improve their resumes. This study comes from Canva and of course, these companies oftentimes commission these these surveys and this research to prove a point.

Chris Villanueva 1:32
So keep that in mind, even as I read some further statistics here in this episode, and also, according to a Microsoft 2024 work trend index, this indicated that 31,000 employees across 31 countries, found that three quarters of all employees are using AI at work in some capacity. I’ve seen some other research and studies out there that say that a good majority of folks are using AI in the workplace, but the frequency does matter.

Chris Villanueva 2:00
Looking at some of those studies, you’ll have a pretty strong subset of the population that uses AI, say, once or twice a month, or maybe, like, once or twice a week, just here and there. I will say, on a personal level, I am on the heavier side of an AI user. I’d consider myself to be a power user, if you could even call me that, using it multiple times per day.

Chris Villanueva 2:22
This is one of the most powerful tools out there right now, and I’ve used it to come break through creative barriers and get past writer’s block and to think about some new strategies and some ideas. A practical implication for me in this podcast could be, hey, I’m coming up with a podcast episode on AI resume builders. What are three considerations that folks might need to know about AI resume builders and a tool like chatgpt could give me three pretty darn solid recommendations here.

Chris Villanueva 2:52
I by no means saying that an AI Resume Builder is going to ruin your job search, but what I am saying is to proceed with caution, because I’m seeing a lot of crappy resumes out there and a lot of things out there that could be working against you in your job search.

Chris Villanueva 3:08
So let me give a few of those risks here, and I will identify a solution that I believe will be useful for you as the job seeker, on how to give you the best resume that will boost your results. But here are some risks when it comes to AI resume builders. Number one, it’s becoming easier and easier to get lazy.

Chris Villanueva 3:28
I would use that as the positive there, but to almost fabricate the information that ends up on your resume. It’s so easy, and I’m again, I’m speaking from experience and knowing how easy it is to put something in on an input and see how professional it looks when you get the return on the AI output, but it is so easy for job seekers to say, Okay, come up with a job description of a senior software developer, and not really to take the time to look through section by section to make sure that this speaks to you as a candidate, or even zooming out to say, Does this match the general big picture of the jobs that I’m going to be applying for?

Chris Villanueva 4:09
So this is the risk to give a little bit of nuance there. This is not going to sound as human as it could. There are some things that the average person, I believe, can pick up when it comes to looking at a resume and seeing, okay, was this a bot that wrote this line, or was this something that was carefully thought out by a human? In fact, from that same Canva study, this is the survey that talked about how frequent job seekers are using AI in their job search.

Chris Villanueva 4:38
The same study said that a majority of hiring managers. 67% of hiring managers believe they can tell when they are reading an AI modified resume. Of course, there’s human bias here. Folks believe that, yeah, of course, my judgment is awesome. So most people are gonna say, I’m a great driver, for example, or I am just awesome at inner. Viewing. But there is something to be said about when you think about reading something that is written by a human or something that was written by AI, you can kind of feel the difference between something that was machine made versus human made.

Chris Villanueva 5:13
There are certain things and certain phrases that humans say versus those repetitive words that we are seeing the algorithms spit out, because this is just something that the AI has been trained on. So be careful there, particularly when it comes to phrasing. Folks can sense when you are using AI language, not saying all the time, but there’s a good chance if you’re leaning heavily on AI that this is going to work against you. The second reason why folks might be missing the mark on AI resumes, or where AI resume builders may be truly failing, job seekers are formatting choices.

Chris Villanueva 5:55
These are some of the same designs that resume builders and resume builders have existed for decades. As long as there’s been software out there, there’s been some form of resume builder out there, but these formats are just I need to start being more upfront in these episodes. Just dog awful, just terrible. I’m seeing so many resumes out there that have a picture on the very top of the resume, and it’s like you’re not applying for a modeling agency.

Chris Villanueva 6:23
Why are you including a picture in the first place? Or resumes that have all sorts of colors on it, or icons or two columns, things like that that work against the job seeker. Doesn’t put the focus on the amazing things that you’ve done and how they pertain to the job posting. Those are the things that I’m seeing a lot of these AI resume builders still spit out again. That’s not really a call out for AI, but a lot of these same companies and software out there don’t understand what it is that is getting job seekers noticed this year.

Chris Villanueva 6:56
So that’s thing number two, the third thing, and this is the biggest thing that I’m going to tell you in today’s episode, you might miss the mark on content if you are just leaning on the AI. The things that are most important, the things that are going to get you noticed and eventually get you hired, are the impact that you’ve made for the company.

Chris Villanueva 7:18
Are those results you’ve achieved for the company, even some of the human things that you’ve done in a particular point in time with your team. Think about you on a daily basis. You cannot accurately in one sentence portray how your day has gone. And just like put that in a real, generic job description, you can’t say, okay, you know, I led a team of 10 to 15 software developers to come up with projects that helped with efficiency.

Chris Villanueva 7:51
Like you can’t just leave it at that, because your story goes so much more beyond that. What were the tools that you used to lead those teams there, what were some of the challenges that you had to overcome? Like, get specific. Those are the things that AI is never.

Chris Villanueva 8:09
AI is not ever at any point soon, I should say going to pick up and include in your resume, because you don’t have a little device that’s following you around all day and noting and understanding how you work as a human and saying, Okay, these are some really powerful things that I can later include on a resume at the end of the day, that’s going to be your own gut and your own human expertise that’s going to include these things and really, real, really, really, realize I have a great way of words today that these are the things that will get you noticed and eventually hired.

Chris Villanueva 8:40
So think about that very carefully. So here is my solution for you. I’m not going to be a huge AI critic all day again. I’m the one that uses it every day, but use it very cautiously and very intelligently. Here, in fact, I would propose that every job seeker listening to this still uses Microsoft Word because this is the tool for crafting resumes. It’s been the tool for decades.

Chris Villanueva 9:07
Use Microsoft Word to create your resume still. And if you are going to use AI, use chatgpt strategically to craft specific things in your resume. Do not use it as a crutch. Use it to come up with some ideas, for example, say, for example, you’re stuck on coming up with phrasing for a particular bullet point.

Chris Villanueva 9:26
You say, gee, how do I tell people that I used Salesforce to drive a 10% increase in my company? I don’t want to use the word drive, and I want to talk about adoption there. So type a sentence like that into chatgpt and see what it comes up with. Don’t use the first thing that it comes up with, say, maybe come up with three or four different examples of that bullet point, and use your own human judgment to come up with the best one that’s going to make your resume.

Chris Villanueva 9:52
So believe me, you’re going to want to lean in on your own human judgment first and foremost, and use AI. As a small tool within your job search. So 80% you 20% AI is perfectly fine with me. Certain companies are searching for AI resumes, and they’re not considering it to be something that is an asset. In fact, they’re looking to filter out AI resumes for candidates that are applying with them again, I want to give you the most accurate knowledge possible. I typically try to cite sources. I don’t have any here. This is just going to be hearsay. From what I have heard, certain hiring managers and people tell me what they’ve done, so it’s a bit more anecdotal. But just know that this is something that folks could be actively looking for and removing your resume because you used AI.

Chris Villanueva 10:46
So thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that this was useful, insightful and not all Doomsday, because I want this to be a very solutions oriented podcast for you. Make sure to head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to find out more about what we can do for you.

Chris Villanueva 11:02
We have a free resume review. We have a downloadable eBook that you can get completely for free as a resource for you and your job search and if you are looking for someone to handle your resume writing, you can, of course, partner up with one of our professionals here, we would love to take care of you.

Chris Villanueva 11:19
So thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you have an awesome rest of your week, and I’ll see you next time. Career warrior podcast, and before you go, remember, if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job, search our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages.

Chris Villanueva 11:44
We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search, and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention, you’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ Thanks, and I’ll see you next time you.