I use AI every day — about two dozen applications, multiple times throughout my day. So when I tell you to be very careful about using AI for your executive job search, I mean it. Here's the fundamental error most AI job search tools make.
I want to preface this with something important: I am not an AI skeptic. I use artificial intelligence — not just ChatGPT, but about two dozen different applications — on a daily basis, many times throughout my day. Those of us who adopt AI early and use it routinely will be far ahead of the 80% who will adopt it in the next 12 to 18 months, and the last 10% who don't want to adopt it at all.
That said, I am very wary of the AI applications I'm seeing pop up to help job seekers find their next role. Here's why.
The Fundamental Error
In general, these applications are using AI to help you build a "perfect" resume for each job you apply for. They ask you to upload the job description and requirements, and then they either spit out a resume that is a 100% match to what the posting asks for, or they allow you to select the job descriptors and write a paragraph for each one.
There is a big fundamental error in that approach.
It is still looking at only posted positions — which represent 5% at most of available opportunities, and which have enormous competition. Not only that, but if you have ever hired people yourself, you know there are certain things you are looking for in a perfect candidate that are not on the job posting. You don't see them as a requirement, and you may not even want to list them publicly. But they are the deciding factor.
If I as a candidate make my resume look exactly like the job posting, I am not giving the hiring manager insight into what makes me different, special, or what facets I bring to the role that no one else will.
The Differentiation Problem
In other words, AI resume tools eliminate all key differentiation between you and your competition. And since your competition will also be using AI, all of the applications and resumes a hiring manager receives will look exactly like the job posting.
How are you going to choose who to interview? Now turn the tables back to you as the job seeker: all of these AI platforms are attempting to conform you even more to the posted job description. This makes you attractive, supposedly, to the 5% of jobs that are publicly posted. And it's what your competition will be doing too.
What AI Cannot Replace (Yet)
I've been working on ways that AI can help in a job search for a professional position, but it has to come from the basic premise that you are approaching the person who would be your boss in companies you want to work for — in a way that compels them to want to talk with you.
So far, I haven't seen any AI application that is good enough to replace a skilled executive resume writer or editor. At least not yet. When I see what AI gives me as its version of a compelling resume, it's more like a block of cheese with a lot of holes in it.
My Recommendation
Hold off on using AI to build resume or email content if your goal is to have a personal conversation with the decision maker. Until the entire process is automated, there's really no reason to significantly insert artificial intelligence into the creation of your marketing materials — your resume and LinkedIn profile.
The executive job search is fundamentally a relationship business. It always has been. AI can assist with research, market mapping, and preparation. But the materials that open doors at the $200K+ level need to reflect your unique voice, your specific achievements, and your individual positioning — not a template that looks like everyone else's.
That is a distinction that still requires human expertise. And it is one that Career Resume Consulting has been delivering for over 18 years.
Tammy has been considered a global expert in executive career searching since 2003. After spending five years at the largest executive career firm in the United States, she founded Career Resume Consulting in 2008. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Fox News, and MSN, and works one-on-one exclusively with senior executives navigating high-stakes career transitions.
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I used an AI resume tool last month and got exactly zero responses from 15 applications. Then I had a professional rewrite my resume the old-fashioned way — with a real conversation about my actual achievements — and got three interviews in two weeks. The difference was night and day. Your 'block of cheese with holes' description is exactly right.
Marcus, that's a perfect real-world test — and the results speak for themselves. The AI tool optimized you for the job description. The professional rewrite optimized you for the conversation. Those are fundamentally different goals. I'm glad you got the interviews. And for anyone reading this who's been getting silence from AI-generated applications: Marcus's experience is not unusual. The tool is solving the wrong problem.