Navigating Job Hunting in the Age of AI

The Problem with Job Hunting Today: It’s All About AI

By Alexander Hernandez, J.D., Professor, and Author of Consumer Bankruptcy Law (Routledge).

Updated on September 30, 2025.

Job hunting has always been difficult, but today, it’s a whole new level of frustrating. The reason? The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the hiring process.

As someone who has spent countless hours applying for jobs, I’ve seen firsthand how AI is changing the game. I once applied for over a hundred teaching positions and heard nothing back. It was baffling. Who could be more qualified than me and not even get a callback? For the record, I used curse words when I was thinking this out loud, but we’ll keep it a “family blog.”

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With time, I found out the answer was not a person who rejected my job application, but a machine: the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). I sure did waste a lot of hours applying to get nowhere!

 How the ATS Complicates Job Hunting

The ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is a form of AI that companies use to screen resumes. Instead of a human reading your qualifications, this system looks for specific keywords from the job description. If your resume doesn’t have the “magical keywords,” you can get overlooked, even if you’re the perfect candidate.

This is a major problem for a few reasons:

1.  It’s Time-Consuming: The system often makes you re-enter all your resume information into a form, a process that can take hours for just a few applications.

2.  It Misses Qualified Candidates: It relies on an algorithm, not human judgment. It will skip a brilliant resume if it doesn’t contain the right keywords.

3.  It’s Not a Measure of Motivation: Companies argue that people willing to go through all these steps are the most motivated. But being desperate for a job doesn’t mean you’re the best person for it.

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The current system forces you to tailor your resume and cover letter for every single job you apply for. Who has the time for that? It’s a painful process that feels like a step backward from the days when a human being would simply review a resume.

 The Bigger Picture: AI’s Impact on the Economy

This issue with job hunting is just one symptom of a much larger problem: AI’s growing impact on our economy.

The number of available jobs is shrinking while the number of people applying for them is increasing. This creates a highly competitive environment. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently noted that the outlook for college graduates is as bad as it’s been in a long time, partly because they’re competing with AI.

We need to adapt to this new reality. This means:

Becoming less expendable: Figure out how to make yourself indispensable in your career.

Learning to work with AI: The older generation may see it as a simple search engine, but we all need to get comfortable using it as a tool to improve our skills and efficiency.

Exploring new paths: For those who are younger, they are considering jobs that require manual labor or “tool belt” skills, which are less likely to be fully automated. So now we have the “toolbelt” generation.”

It is frustrating, but we have to face these issues head-on. Don’t let AI kick you out of the running. Be prepared, be smart, and adjust your strategy to navigate this rapidly changing job market because the world we know as of today may not be recognizable in a few years!

Colleges and universities can purchase my bankruptcy law textbook directly from Routledge Publishing. Paralegals and students who are buying single copies can do so via Amazon Books. To access my YouTube channel, click this link. You can also listen to my podcast on Spotify.

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