🚀Entering Tech #31: How AI can help in job hunting

We’re back to trivia this week!

We’ve talked about artificial intelligence (AI) on #EnteringTech🚀, and how you’ve been using AI for the past decade without even knowing it. From asking Siri if you’ll ever find love, to trying to use Google Maps to navigate the messy streets of Lagos and Nairobi, the case for AI has been silently growing.

In Edition #28, we talked about five careers in AI you can consider. In today’s, we’ll talk about how you can use AI to find and apply for jobs. 

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Job hunting is a tiresome process—it’s a full-time role in its own right. But with the launch of several AI tools in the past two years, it can become almost as easy as adding a Microsoft internship on your LinkedIn profile—even though you only passed by the building on your way to get coffee. 

Over 65% of recruiters are already using AI to find talent. Here’s how you can match their energy:

1. Job Searching

In this newsletter alone, we’ve listed seven sites where you can find tech jobs for Africans. Within these sites, there are hundreds of job postings—that’s a lot to scroll through. The good news is that there are AI tools that will help you save your scrolling for TikTok, and find you only the best fits. 

• Pyjama Jobs, by Kickresume, where all you have to do is upload your resume onto the platform. The platform will then compare your experience with all the job offers it has, and spit out only relevant jobs that match you perfectly—like pyjamas, or nicknames. 

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out Pyjama Jobs here.

• CareerFlow is next, and its job is basically to judge your experience and tell you where you belong—like a 15-year-old high schooler or the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. It’s an all-in-one platform that you can add to your Google Chrome browser to help you search for anyone hiring for your particular skills in any country, and also keep track of all your job applications.

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out CareerFlow here.

• Sonara is the final AI tool we’ll recommend because it’s gotten good reviews. With Sonara, all you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and upload your CV, and the platform will do the search and even apply for jobs for you.

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out Sonara here.

2. Resume/CV Building

If your CV still has your high/secondary school information, your date of birth or your picture, you’re wasting valuable space. You should read Edition #11 to learn how to write a stellar CV, but just in case you don’t want to do all the work yourself, AI is here to help. 

As we’ve said, recruiters have been using AI for a while to sort through the thousands of job applications they get. Many use Application Tracking Systems (ATS) that filter out resumes or CVs that don’t have specific keywords. Here’s how you can use AI to beat AI:

• Pyjama Jobs, listed above, also has a free Resume builder tool that will help you craft resumes for specific jobs in minutes

• Skillroads is next, with its free CV builder which requires you to fill a questionnaire. After a couple of minutes, the platform will pop up a CV for you. The only con here is that you’ll have to read through the CV and make sure all the Is are dotted and the Ts crossed.

• Free (for the first resume)
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out Skillsroad here.

• The final one we’ll recommend is Resumaker which can examine your job history, education, and talents in order to produce a customised CV that best showcases your credentials.

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out Resumaker here.

3. Cover Letters

Cover letters are the worst. They’re the Dwayne Johnson of every job application—they add very little value to the plot even though they say a lot and are nice to look at. 

Given that recruiters, on average, look at cover letters for about six seconds, it’s critical that the cover letter you submit highlights the skills and value you’ll bring to that job role. Here are the AI tools that can help.

• ChatGPT is not only useful for completing last-minute assignments, it can also help you write a cover letter. All you have to do is enter a detailed prompt. Include the job description in the prompt, as well as your experience and ChatGPT will drop a great cover letter you can share with prospective employers.

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out ChatGPT here.

• Google’s Bard: Bard is only a few weeks off the grill, but many people already prefer ChatGPT to it. Bard has one advantage though, it’s a happening babe—it can analyse content post-2021. With Bard, you can share a job description and your resume, and ask the AI tool to draft a cover letter—with specifications on word count and tone.

• Free
• Phone + Internet access
• Try out Bard here.

Some of these tools are cross-functional, like an intern at a startup. KickResume’s tool, for example, can help you find jobs, craft your CV, and write brilliant cover letters while at it. 

We’ve tried to introduce new tools for each work, but you’ll find that most of these tools do the same job, and they do it well.

There are other aspects of job-hunting AI can help you with, like preparing for a job interview, but that’s all we have time for today. We’re trying to write short concise newsletters so we don’t get dragged on Twitter and Instagram for doing too much!

The Entering Tech Shorts

What does being a technical writer mean, and how can you become one? Ama Udofa, Content Lead at Vendease, answers in one minute!

Watch the YouTube Short here!