Using AI-Powered Job Search Automation is Just Plain Lazy: 7 Reasons Why

I've been a proponent of using AI in the job search for certain situations, such as researching companies, developing interview questions, and helping to enhance resumes and cover letters, always stipulating that one must carefully edit and check for accuracy in the documents.

Conversely, I've warned against letting AI do all the work for job seekers, i.e., writing resumes from scratch and submitting them without revisions and edits. That’s not a strategy—it’s a shortcut and recipe for disaster.

There is one use of AI I find abhorrent—allowing it to send your application to hundreds of companies while you sit back and wait for calls to flood in. (This is the claim these products make.)

Here's what one such product promises to do for you: "With JobHire.AI, you can apply to hundreds of job listings every week without lifting a finger. Simply fill out your information in the “Account Info” and “Resume” sections, and we’ll handle the rest. Prefer a hands-on approach? You can pre-approve the job listings we apply to on your behalf."

Seems like a great way to apply for jobs, right? WRONG.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀:

• You give up complete control of your job search. Instead of making thoughtful decisions about where and how to apply, you’re outsourcing that strategy to a machine that doesn’t know your goals, preferences, or values. The job search becomes a black box—and not in a good way.
• You end up applying to companies you’d never want to work for. The AI doesn't know that you’d rather work for a mission-driven nonprofit than a high-pressure sales firm. It doesn’t get nuance, which means you’re wasting time (yours and theirs) applying to jobs that are a poor fit from the jump.
• You apply to companies you would want to work for—badly. When you apply to a great company with a generic resume that hasn’t been tailored to the role, you blow your chance to stand out. First impressions matter, and AI mass-applying just gave you a lousy one.
• You get caught off guard by unexpected recruiter calls. Imagine getting a phone interview request for a role you’ve never heard of at a company you don't remember applying to. Awkward. Not only are you unprepared—you risk sounding uninterested or scattered, which won’t help your cause.
• You frustrate recruiters with irrelevant applications. A recruiter sees your resume in their inbox, gets hopeful... and then realizes your experience has nothing to do with the role. Now they're annoyed. Enough of this and your name gets associated with noise, not value.
• You get bombarded with calls from the wrong recruiters. These systems cast a wide net without discernment, so you end up fielding calls for jobs that don’t align with your background or goals. It's noisy, exhausting, and demoralizing—and it makes it harder to recognize a real opportunity when it does appear.
• You start relying on the tool and disengage from your search. You feel like you’re job hunting, but you’re really just watching a bot spray your resume into the void. Over time, you become passive, discouraged, and less prepared for real conversations—because you're not actively practicing the skills that land jobs.

We get it; sending out hundreds of resumes without lifting a finger (figuratively speaking) is a luxury that hasn't been afforded until recently. However, history has shown that anything in the job search that takes little to no effort leads to undesirable results.

What's more, recruiters who receive a resume that isn't remotely applicable to the jobs they're filling only see this as a waste of their time. And some of them have long memories and will reject you when you send them a resume that is a close match for the next role they're filling.

If you have a counterargument to my outrage, I'd love to hear it.

#DontBeLazy #JobSearchTips #JobSearch #LinkedInUnleashed