How recent BYU graduates are using AI tools in their job search

To land their first job, members of the class of 2025 are using the very tool poised to decimate white-collar, entry-level jobs.

The boom of artificial intelligence and the ensuing threat to white-collar workers has dominated the online conversation for the past three years. And the idea of entering a completely upended workforce has been looming in the background as the class of 2025 went through the classrooms.

Now that they have graduated, that time is here.

One of the most adaptable generations

The class of 2025 applied to college during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. And then they had the rise of AI unveiled in front of their eyes.

They have also seen one of the highest unemployment rates in a while for their age group.

For a group that’s had historically lower-than-national-average rates, recent graduates had a 6.6% unemployment rate as of May 2025, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In a market with declining job openings, recent grads are looking for the secret sauce, the X factor that will give them the edge in an application.

Making AI work for them

In an ironic twist, the class of 2025 has turned to AI in hopes of succeeding in their job search.

Katarina Martinic, who recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in media arts, knows the need to apply to several jobs to land an interview. ChatGPT, her tool of choice, optimizes her application process.

The bot turns into a sort of personal assistant when Martinic, in a quasi-consultation fashion, types the question, “Hey, what’s something that I could improve in my resume or highlight differently?”

Martinic has fed ChatGPT her resume, so it knows her qualifications, and can spit back some suggestions. She’s usually looking for “something that matches the (job) description better.”

This helps Martinic in her resume tweaking and cover letter drafting, to ensure that each application is tailored for the job she’s applying for.

Using AI this way will help students capture the keywords and phrases they need to “get noticed by the robot that’s reading the resume,” Justin Jones, the director at Career Studio at Brigham Young University, said.

Jones, who has spent part of his career teaching people how to get past applicant tracking systems, routinely uses ChatGPT with job seekers coming through the career center.

Young people have an instinctual knack for AI, Jones explained, but they might not be using it to its full potential. Part of his job is to help them leverage these tools in more sophisticated ways.

In addition to role-specific, bullet statement suggestions, job seekers can assign ChatGPT the role of a hiring manager to receive more useful feedback, Jones said. The bot can then search across the internet to identify the criteria hiring managers in any given field look for, helping candidates take their applications one step further.

Jones and Martinic agree on how AI streamlines the job search process. Using ChatGPT liberates time for Martinic to continue looking for jobs, and then it’s just rinse and repeat.

She’s one of many.

Flooding the system

But the surge of AI applications means an overwhelmed system on the other end of the stick.

Last month, The New York Times reported about an instance of a human resource consultant in Utah that saw a soar in applications — 600 within 24 hours. There were over 1,200 after a few days. By the time the article was published, three months later, the consultant was still reviewing applications.

And this is only one part of the problem.

As more people use the same AI tools, concerns about uniformity in applications arise. Martinic recognizes that using AI might not make her stand out anymore, but it provides her comfort knowing she’s not alone.

“It helps me to know that at least I’m doing it the right way,” Martinic said.

Jones believes interviews will be the differentiating factor.

AI for interviews?

Despite the growing concern about AI tools capable of feeding answers to applicants live during interviews, Jones thinks interviews will remain the backbone of the hiring process.

In the meantime, companies are becoming more vigilant about these “teleprompter” apps. Business Insider recently reported that Amazon is prohibiting applicants from using AI, with the company giving recruiters guidelines that might indicate noncompliant applicants.

Applicants can speak freely of how they have used AI to “achieve efficiencies,” but using AI during their Amazon application could cost them the job, the article read.

Beyond the ethical implications, Jones said using AI during job interviews was a misuse of these tools, and was detrimental to applicants because “they are not doing their own thinking.”

“By the time you’re getting a final interview, it really is about, ‘Do you fit with our culture? Do you fit with what we’re trying to do?’” Jones said.

From a job seeker’s perspective, Martinic agreed with Jones. Although she was unaware of such teleprompter apps, she did not consider them a good idea.

“When you get to the interview, you’re trying to get a human connection,” Martinic said.

Back to the basics

When AI is becoming the norm, employers will want to see the people behind the pristine resumes.

“And so what you have to do is get comfortable enough with the product that you are selling, that you can speak about it in a way that is both authentic (and) convincing,” Jones said.

In an article in Inside Higher Ed, Jeremy Schifeling, the founder of Job Insiders, a web platform that trains students and career advisers on how to leverage LinkedIn and AI in the job search, said that applicants have to go back to the basics.

“Employers are always going to pick someone who’s a friend of a friend or is recommended by a current employee over the random stranger, no matter how good their AI-generated résumé is,” Schifeling is quoted in the article.

What it comes down to

Despite the ability to submit more applications, so far Martinic has only gotten an interview through networking.

Using AI is about streamlining the application process so job seekers have more time for building those connections, Jones explained.

“The most effective way is to get out and be talking to people, whether they have a job for you or not,” Jones said. " It’s building that network and that social capital with those individuals so that when a job does come up, they think of you."

That is something that AI can’t do. So, the question people should be asking themselves, Jones said, is, “Can I use technology to get me closer to those people?”

The key is “gonna be people, not more applications,” Jones concluded.