On an internet increasingly filled with “AI slop,” former federal workers are facing a new array of obstacles as they search for work. Job postings generated by artificial intelligence, automated screening tools that reject applications before they’ve been seen by a human — it all makes finding a new gig even harder in a tough job market.

The Banner asked experts for tips on how to outmaneuver AI in your job search. Here’s what they said.

AI is everywhere — but it’s not everywhere

First things first: AI is all over the internet, but there isn’t data to suggest all employers are using AI screening tools, said Sam Wright, head of operations and partnerships at Huntr, an AI platform that helps job seekers create tailored applications.

The bigger problem right now is coming from fake job postings, which have become much easier to make with the explosion of artificial intelligence. Wright said 30% of job seekers surveyed by Huntr have been ghosted, which is when the “employer” behind a fake job listing abruptly ends all communication, wasting the prospective employee’s time and energy.

The best way to avoid fake postings and job scams is to go straight to the company’s website and find the original job listing. Wright recommended looking for niche job boards that focus on the types of work you’re looking for, rather than bigger sites like LinkedIn.

Tailor your résumé (and maybe ask AI for help)

Wright said the biggest tip he can offer job seekers is to adapt their résumés to the specific job they’re applying for by identifying keywords in the job posting, such as responsibilities and qualifications that match their skill set, and highlighting those.

“That’s what we found to be the most helpful, most impactful thing that people could do in their search,” he said, adding it’s one of the common-sense ways to use AI in the job hunt.

“Whether it’s an AI that’s reading your résumé or it’s a human, you’re trying to get it to connect as well as possible to the job that you’re applying for while, obviously, not lying or embellishing.”

Kathryn Troutman, who coaches federal workers on how to write and adapt résumés, suggests turning to your preferred AI system with something like the following prompt: “I am a job seeker seeking a career in physical security. Please review and analyze the below job announcement and provide 10 core capabilities that I would perform and keywords that I would add to my résumé. When you generate the answer, explain the reasoning and assumptions behind your answer.”

Then use those phrases as guideposts for cutting down your résumé and tailoring it to that specific job. That way you can spend less time coming up with these key phrases while still developing an application that’s unique to the job.

Many federal employees have lengthy, detailed résumés that are too extensive for the private sector. It can be tempting to just put the whole thing into an AI system like ChatGPT and ask for a slimmed-down résumé, Troutman said, but that’s likely to be caught by an AI detection system and lead to rejection.

“It will also strip out numbers, acronyms and specifics that need to be in there to demonstrate your specific experience,” she said. “So just don’t do it.”

Wright agreed AI can be helpful if it’s used in the right way. Because large language models like ChatGPT are trained on vast amounts of preexisting text, they tend to pick up on buzzwords found in résumés across the internet.

“All of a sudden, all the résumés in the world start with ‘results-driven,’ or ‘seasoned,’” Wright said. Human job screeners will pick up on that, so it’s important to keep a human touch in your job application, even if you ask AI for help.