LinkedIn launched last year with AI-powered tools for job seekers on its platform. Now the company has added a bunch For premium subscribers with #OpentoWork, including personalized resumes, AI-powered cover letters and more conversational job searches.
The changes are designed to speed up some of the most tedious aspects of looking for a new role. For example, the updated job search function now lets you search for roles with queries like “find me a marketing job that’s completely remote and pays at least $100,000 a year” or “find business development roles in biotech.” These are all relatively simple descriptions, but anyone who has searched for jobs on LinkedIn (without the help of AI) knows that narrowing down job listings with keywords can often be difficult.
Once you’ve found a role you’re interested in, an in-house assistant can give you feedback on your qualifications and help you with your application. You can upload a copy of your current resume, and LinkedIn’s AI will advise on what to update based on the job description. This may include suggestions for specific practices to highlight or rewrite entire sections of the document. Likewise, LinkedIn can create cover letters based on your experience and the job you’re applying for.
The company gave me a preview of these tools, and I thought they did a surprisingly decent job on a cover letter for a first attempt. It captured the specific details in my profile, and the tone wasn’t as robotic as much of the AI-written text I encountered. Of course, as a journalist, I still like to believe I can write a better cover letter than an AI. But I can see how the tool could be useful for people applying for dozens of jobs at the same time, especially since many companies use AI software to whittle down applications anyway.
These tools are all meant to be a jumping-off point for users rather than a solution, says LinkedIn product manager Rohan Rajiv. “What we want to do is make it easier for people who have a hard time telling their story, who have a hard time staring at a blank screen trying to put something together, at least to begin with,” he told Engadget.
But he also notes that the company is still in the relatively early stages of its AI push, which could ultimately automate more of the job application process. “The next horizon will be … can you do it for me,” he says. “You can almost imagine people thinking about it from an agent perspective and helping to get things done.”
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