Here’s how AI can help you find your new role.

24 || May || 2023

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Issue #31

Using AI for
job hunting

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Greetings ET people 🖖🏾

If you’ve ever been on the job market searching for a new role, then you’re all too familiar with how frustrating and time-consuming the process is. Perhaps you’ve even thought to yourself, I wish there was a way to make this process easier. Well, we’ve got some good news for you.

We’ve gathered recommendations for a wide range of AI tools that can help ease your job-hunting process, from building your resume to finding open roles and even applying to them for you! Isn’t that great (and also a little creepy)? 

If you’re currently job hunting, today’s edition will be a welcome one for you. And good luck, may the odds of a dollar salary be in your favour 🙏🏾


by Pamela Tetteh and Timi Odueso.

Tech trivia

We’re back to trivia this week!

  • What are the best-selling mobile phones of all time?

An AI refresher course

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. 

Join Gurudemy’s Free Training

Gurudemy is currently running a 3-week free training programme for you to acquire skills. Courses available are data analysis, digital marketing, product design, graphics design and frontend development.

Start building your future in tech!

How AI can help in job-hunting

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. 
  • 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.

  • 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.

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.

  • 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.

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.

  • 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.

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!

Ask a techie

Q. I am a graduate of English, and I’ve worked as a subject teacher and assistant teacher for over a year now. I transitioned into tech—web development, frontend—in 2022 and I must confess it hasn’t been easy. I’ve been hooked on understanding JavaScript and everything seems difficult these last few months. Should I give up on this and try another tech skill? I have put so much effort to get this far but right now I’m out of my teaching job and it doesn’t seem I am making any progress toward getting a tech job now. I’d like to know what other tech skills I can master within the next two months and surely secure a job.

Well done on all the effort you’ve put into working on tech, and on being honest. As much as we try to simplify tech careers, the actual work of entering tech—which you’re doing—is a hard path. 

We’d be lying if we said there was a tech skill you can master within two months. There are none. Mastery of anything, tech skills or otherwise, takes years and painstaking work. Frontend itself is forever evolving and you have to understand that you’re learning a whole new language, similar to how you teach others. It will take time to get comfortable with JavaScript, and consistency is what will bring mastery.

What we can do is organise a small Twitter Space where you can speak to expert frontend developers who can answer questions about frontend, and how learning can be easier for you. We’ll send you an email when we have more details, but for now, stay the course. Everything we want is on the other side of consistency.


That’s all we can take this week. Have any questions about working in tech? Ask away and we’ll find answers for you.👇🏾

Ask a question

Tech trivia answers

The Nokia 1100 is the best-selling mobile phone of all time with over 255 million units sold to date. The Nokia 1110 follows with 250 million units sold, and the third-best is the iPhone 6 with 220 million units sold.

Opportunities

  • Applications are open for the Startupbootcamp Sustainability Accelerator Program 2023. Startups will receive an intense 3 months digital acceleration, €15,000 initial investment, mentorship, and more than €500,000 in exclusive partner deals from Amazon, HubSpot, SendGrid and others. Apply by May 31.

  • If you are a young (no older than 24 years of age) and emerging photographer looking to embark on a career in the world of photojournalism, the Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant 2023 (up to £10,000) is open for Applications. Apply by August 31.

Jobs


There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board.

Disclaimer: TechCabal is not affiliated with or associated with jobs and opportunities listed on all its job boards and newsletters. All applicants bear the responsibility of researching about the roles and companies they apply to.

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Timi Odueso Senior Editor, Newsletters

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