How graduates can turn AI to their advantage in a job hunt

Both graduates and employers are now using AI during the job application process

Kate Byrne

Tue Nov 03 2026 - 06:01 • 5 MIN READ

For many recent graduates around the country, while the past few months may have been filled with music festivals, travelling or working hard to save money, it was also filled with hours spent on Indeed and LinkedIn, fine-tuning CVs and writing countless cover letters.

Applying for jobs can feel like a job in itself, and coupled with widespread media coverage of how AI is impacting the job market, it can feel like the system is working against you.

Angela Curran, guidance counsellor and founder of mycareerverse.ie, has seen first hand the inner-conflict that graduates can have towards AI. “They’re at such a vulnerable stage, because they can’t get their foot in the door, and they’re up against AI just to get in the door. Then it becomes a negative connotation to them. They’re frustrated. That frustration is real.”

She notes that graduates are engaging with AI on both sides of the hiring process: employers are using AI to select candidates for interviews, while applicants are increasingly using AI to generate CVs or cover letters. “There’s very little human contact at the first stage in their career plan,” she says.

[ The signs are AI prefers AI-written CVs, and one law firm’s experience is revealingOpens in new window ]

She points to the fact that some graduates are now being asked to complete interviews with an AI avatar before being granted an in-person interview.

While it’s certainly true that these factors pose a challenge to graduates, “it’s not all doom and gloom”, Curran says. “AI is there. You have to use it to your advantage.”

Rather than avoiding AI at all costs, Curran says those who take the time to understand how the technology works, and what it means within their sector, will stand out as applicants. “It definitely comes up as an interview question,” she says. “You don’t have to be an expert in it, you just have to know how it works. You have to be able to speak about it.”

She says employers are looking for someone who can “think and adapt and work alongside these machines, not competing against them”.

For those who want to learn more about AI systems, she says there are plenty of courses online that can help them to upskill, giving LinkedIn Learning and Coursera as examples. She reminds graduates that they also should be demonstrating their knowledge of AI to employers, such as through posting the completion of these courses on their LinkedIn page. “On LinkedIn, once you get a certificate, blast it up. As much as you might think that’s cringe ... you’re going to have to put on LinkedIn that you got this certificate, and then people start to notice it. It’s like a marketing strategy.”

From working with graduates, Curran has observed that one place where they can go wrong on the job hunt is over-relying on AI to complete their applications. Many employers now use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which can scan and extract text from your CV to categorise your experience and skills.

The system matches your application against the requirements listed in the job description, allowing recruiters to filter candidates who best fit the requirements of the job. This has led to many graduates using AI to curate a CV that mirrors the language of job vacancies they are applying for.

“I see on the ground that students are using AI tools to develop CVs, based on the job interview. They’re asking AI to produce an actual CV based on the job application, and they’re firing that in. They’re not actually using it to build a framework and then put their own information in and populate what they’ve done.”

Rather than completing generic CVs based on job descriptions, she recommends that graduates build off these templates, and consider how their skills match the role they’re applying for. She also reminds graduates to avoid typing all of their personal details into AI.

She says most recruiters can tell quite easily if a CV has been fully generated by AI. “You can see the poor formatting on them, and the language is so Americanised. So people know if they’re written by AI.”

[ Employers increasingly concerned about job candidates using AI to write CVsOpens in new window ]

Another place where she sees graduates fall down is applying to too many roles with these AI-generated CVs. “They’re firing off these CVs to everybody and anybody for selection,” she says. Graduates need to ask themselves “what kind of company do you want to work in?”

Curran recommends writing down all the companies you’re applying for in a journal, and reflecting on whether these are places you really want to work.

Graduates should have a “story bank” prepared for applications and interviews, which allows them to not only identify the relevant skills and expertise they have, but demonstrate where they picked up this experience.

Today’s graduates should have “emotional intelligence, critical thinking, all the things that a human person can only do”, she says. Employers want graduates who “realise that the information that we’re getting [from AI] is biased, that AI does hallucinate and gives you an answer regardless of what you think.”

Curran says that AI “amplifies good thinking”, but “doesn’t replace it”.

If you’re still failing to get past the application stage of a role, she says you should try to identify the gaps between the skills required for the role and the ones you possess. “Look at LinkedIn. Look at who’s working in the organisation: what skills have they got? What additional courses did they do?”

She also points to Springboard+ courses as a way for graduates to upskill, a government initiative that offers free and subsidised courses at certificate, degree and master’s level in areas such as engineering, green skills and ICT (information and communications technology).

For graduates considering applying for jobs outside of Ireland, she says AI can be a “great research tool”.

“This is now a global market to play with. It’s not just Ireland,” she says. “AI is helping me with graduates to look beyond Ireland. There’s a huge amount of employment elsewhere. I can pull up all the information around European job listings. I can look into different companies on a European level. The likes of the EU are recruiting huge amounts of graduates at the moment.”

[ Graduate job coaches offering access to the ‘unwritten rules’ of recruitmentOpens in new window ]

Another way graduates can utilise AI on their side is to use it to practise for job interviews. Curran says applicants can use tools that allow them to practice talking with an AI chat bot ahead of their interview. Listening back to yourself will allow you to improve “how you present yourself and, better your communication skills”, she says.

Finally, Curran reminds graduates that while it may feel like there’s only one way to complete job applications in an era of AI, traditional methods have not gone away.

“That whole idea of knowing someone in a place hasn’t gone completely,” she says.

Using online networks such as LinkedIn to see if you know someone working in a company, or chatting to friends and family members to see if their workplaces have openings is another way graduates can get a foot in the door.

“Start at smaller employers, local employers. Walk with your feet, print your CV out. I’ve seen graduates being really successful with that.”

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