🤖 The robots are our friends?

It’s you and me. Sure, our communication is largely one-way. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Let me know what you think of this newsletter by replying, it’s still super new for us. I gave myself a proper pep-talk in the mirror, so I can handle any and all criticism.

What are we even talking about here? Great question. Today, we’re working our way through the world’s problems. We determine once and for all whether robots are friend or foe. We predict the future. We call out the pointlessness of company fanfiction. We cover breaking news. We laugh. We cry. We fight racism in the workplace. We get angry about ghosting.

AI job tools: Wall-E or Terminator?

AI news is everywhere. Wow, what a great and novel insight, Stephen! As a self-professed job-search lover (there are dozens of us), my interest in the topic largely lies in how AI tools are helping and hurting job seekers.

My take on the issue is pretty simple: if you’re telling the truth, any tool that helps you apply to more jobs more effectively is fair game. The key word here is effectively. If you go to ChatGPT and type in “marketing resume,” you’ll get a generic resume that puts any would-be hiring manager to sleep.

If, however, you use ChatGPT to spice up a resume bullet point or refine your resume objective, I say have at it. Hiring managers are at red-alert for AI nonsense. “Increasing synergies by improving team communication and efficiencies” just won’t work like it used to. Use AI as an editor, not your copywriter.

Bad news for introverts. As a response to the increase in usage of AI tools by job seekers, employers are viewing applicants more critically (AKA, A-Eye) and depending more on networking in hiring decisions. Not sure where to start with networking? Find 5 people with the job title of your boss (or would-be boss) and ask them for career guidance on LinkedIn. There is no secret to networking, it requires putting yourself out there and building relationships over time.

Started from the bottom now we’re… slightly above the bottom?

According to a report by Deloitte, job openings in the US are still above pre-pandemic levels. That’s all fine and dandy, but they’re still down ~40% since January 2022. The smallest sliver of silver lining? We may be at the bottom of that curve.

My mom always said to celebrate the small victories, so I guess we’ll take it? If you’re going through a tough job search, keep pushing. Good news is just around the corner.

🎵 You’re so vain…. you probably think this cover letter’s about you 🎵

Cover letters are company fan-fiction. I’ve hired for roles, I’ve helped dozens of companies hire for roles, and BeamJobs has helped over 2 million job seekers apply for roles. One thing I’m certain of? No recruiter in the world is reading cover letters word for word. They just want to make sure you talk enough about their role requirements and company.

When we were hiring our last marketers (hi, Matt & India), we got more than 500 applications in about a week. If we required a cover letter (never), at an average word count of 300 words per cover letter I would have had to read 150,000 words. That’s about 1.5 average novels. And I’m a slow reader!

My thoughts?

That juice ain’t worth the squeeze. It can take upwards of 30-40 minutes to truly match your cover letter to the requirements of a job description. All that effort in the likelihood it will only get scanned. Writing a good cover letter is an insurance policy. You do it in the rare case where it actually gets read.

When I was applying for jobs in a pre-ChatGPT world, I used to just change the company name and job title and keep my cover letter the same for every job. Now, we built a tool to create a high quality cover letter for you for free—because I just hate cover letters that much.

Who ya gonna call?

Like I said before, I love all things job searching. Would childhood me be disappointed I’m not an astronaut? Yes. Have I made peace with it? Also yes.

Some stories on the job market that caught my eye this week:

👻 Ghosting on the rise. Job candidates who said they’ve been ghosted by at least one company after interviewing has increased from 30% in 2022 to 40% this year, according to Indeed. Nothing makes me angrier, and if I had the upper body strength, this statistic would make me punch a hole in the wall.

🛑 Don’t be racist. Look, if it took you reading this newsletter to realize being racist is evil, you should probably unsubscribe. I can’t believe in the year 2024, a company posted a job opening for “whites” only. They paid about $39K in fines, but I can only hope the revenue of their business took a much bigger hit.

⬇️ Fewer jobs have work experience requirements. Only 30% of job openings had an explicit requirement for the years of experience required to get the job. In my experience, job seekers tend to disqualify themselves way too easily for roles they’re excited about. Let this serve as a reminder to always shoot your shot and apply!

When you gotta go, you gotta go

Let’s end with an oldie but a goodie. Most people can’t just quit a job they hate with style. But Joey went for it, and we should all strive to be 1% more like Joey.

You got this,

Stephen Greet
Co-founder and CEO, BeamJobs