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Many Hillsdale students wonder if there will be a place for them in today’s job market. What good is it nowadays to be able to translate “The Aeneid” when ChatGPT could just do it for you?
But the advancement of artificial intelligence should not cause students to worry that they’ll be out of a job. While AI is taking certain jobs off the market, the only ones it’s taking are ones that we are overqualified to do anyway. Just as the teenage boys who scraped manure off the streets began working at gas stations during the boom of the automobile industry, technological innovation will not necessarily result in a shortage of jobs.
However, AI is changing the job market, as the ability to perform busywork tasks is no longer marketable. If you don’t present your skills to employers correctly, you’ll be viewed as only talented enough for the jobs that AI has consumed.
Fortunately, there are three things you can do to make you stand out in job application pools.
First, present yourself professionally. If you are requesting a letter of recommendation from your professor, do it in person and then follow up with an email. Double-check spelling and grammar on everything.
Employers spend on average 6 to 7 seconds looking at an applicant’s resume, so make it clean, concise, and easy to read. When interviewing, arrive 15 minutes early. And finally, always overdress for your interviews. There’s nothing that conveys “lazy and uninterested” like walking into an interview in jeans.
“Show, don’t tell” in interviews and resumes. Include concrete, specific details: i.e. “worked on a team of nine people to host monthly events for 1200+ students,” not “collaboration skills.” This makes it easier for the employer to see how you’ll meet and exceed expectations.
At the end of every interview your employer will ask you: “Do you have any questions?” Always ask a question. Interviewers use this moment to gauge your enthusiasm and knowledge about the position. This is the best opportunity to make a lasting impression on an interviewer, as your enthusiasm can set you apart from other candidates.
It may seem counterintuitive to return a question, but doing so actually makes the interviewer perceive you as more thoughtful, genuine, and trustworthy. A couple of my go-to post-interview questions are: “What skills do people have that allow them to succeed in this role?” “What are some challenges people face in this role, and how have you seen them overcome them?” If the interview went well, ask them this: “Let’s entertain a hypothetical. Let’s say this interview went well, and you hired me, and we’re sitting together a year from now. What would I have to have done to convince you that hiring me was a good decision?”
These are just a few tips that will significantly improve your job-hunting outcomes. Implement them well, and translating “The Aeneid” isn’t the only skill you’ll have when you walk out of this small town.
Hershey Hackberry is a junior studying politics.
