How do you apply to jobs in the age of AI?

Collage by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

“The job market is hell,” a 2025 article in The Atlantic declared. “Young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired.”

As Chapman students dip their toes into the job pool for the first time, they are becoming increasingly aware of the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI).

Senior computer science major Haley Kothari said she had a screening with an AI agent for an entry-level software engineering position before a human recruiter followed with a formal interview.

“It was a little weird,” Kothari said. “(The AI agent) gave me prompts, asking what level of technical experience I had, just to get an idea of my initial skills.”

In addition to saving recruiters time, some researchers argue for other benefits of AI interviews. Economist Brian Jabarian told NPR that 78% of 70,000 candidates he surveyed would prefer to be interviewed by an AI agent than a human, and that candidates interviewed by AI agents were 12% more likely to secure an offer.

However, not everyone is on board with the idea of having an interview with an AI agent.

“I think it’s terrible and super impersonal that they do (AI) interviews,” said Jim Dusserre, assistant dean of career services for Argyros College. “But I don’t see them going away any time soon.”

Dusserre said that using referrals, or personal endorsements from employees to hiring managers, and honing skills are important ways to differentiate oneself from other candidates in the age of AI.

“AI is kind of like a gatekeeper, but having a good referral will get you past that gate,” he said. “Proving that you really want to work somewhere is most important (in an interview), and having those soft skills is what can get you promoted.”

Additionally, candidates must now navigate companies’ application tracking systems (ATS) software, which uses AI to automatically categorize and score resumes based on formatting and content. A 2025 Jobscan study found that 97.8% of Fortune 500 companies utilize an ATS.

Chapman’s Career and Professional Development team offered tips on how to optimize resumes for ATS.

“Employers are using AI to help streamline the hiring process, so it only makes sense to use some AI to help achieve an ATS-friendly resume,” the team stated in an article they posted to Handshake.

Much less is known about how the rating system analyzes a resume’s content, which has led to controversy.

Eightfold AI — one of many ATS — is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by job applicants who are seeking transparency on the scoring process. The plaintiffs argue that there is no feedback given to candidates on how they are scored and thus no way to correct potential flaws or biases in the algorithm.

Concerns about biases are not baseless. Chapman’s own AI page notes how ATS programs oftentimes favor certain candidates over others, namely male candidates over their female counterparts.

In addition to concerns regarding bias, assistant professor of history LL Hodges criticized the environmental impacts of the widespread usage of AI by employers.

“AI runs on huge data centers that require water systems to cool the machines and keep them from overheating,” Hodges said. “Let’s say an AI interview required the equivalent of a glass of water. Times that by the number of interviews, and you’d get just a part of the picture of the environmental impact.”

Hodges said that despite the drawbacks of AI, it is here to stay.

“I wonder less about if there is or isn’t a place for AI assistance, and more about why there’s a move towards this,” they said. “Who benefits? If not the students, then who?”

Ultimately, AI is ubiquitous. Dusserre said that the job market is uncharacteristically tough at the moment, but encouraged students to take advantage of Chapman’s resources early on and not treat career hunting as a black cloud looming over them.

“We can only live life moving forward, but it only makes sense looking backwards,” he said. “And as long as a student has a little lantern to see five feet in front of them, they’re going to be fine.”