Hey Reader,

​(Listen to the podcast version here)​

Let’s talk about a trend that is quietly killing your odds of getting hired right now.

Every single day, I see people bragging about how they used AI to auto-apply to 400 jobs in ten minutes, or how they used it to generate hundreds of generic cover letters with a single click.

They think they found a cheat code. They think it's a numbers game.

It's not. It’s actually walking into a trap.

When you send out 400 identical, AI-generated applications, you look exactly like the 10,000 other people doing the same thing. Hiring managers can spot that bland, robotic boilerplate from a mile away, and it goes straight into the trash.

If you are using AI to spam the market instead of using it as a tool to stand out, that is the exact reason you aren’t getting callbacks.

Here is how the smartest candidates are actually using AI to win interviews right now.

The Resume Roast

Stop asking AI to write your resume. Instead, use it as a brutal hiring manager.

Find a job description you actually want. Copy the whole thing. Then, paste your resume and the job description into your AI tool of choice.

Give it this exact prompt: "Act as a cynical, tired tech hiring manager who has looked at 500 resumes today. Roast my resume based on this job description. Tell me exactly why you would throw my application in the trash."

It will point out your fluff, missing keywords, and moments when you sound like a robot. Fix those specific things yourself, using your own voice.

The Mock Tech Screen

The absolute worst time to find out you don't actually understand your own project is during a live technical interview.

Before you step into the room, hand your project code or architecture notes to the AI.

Tell it: "You are a Senior Principal Engineer interviewing me for a mid-level role. Ask me five tough, annoying technical questions about the trade-offs I made in this project. Ask them one at a time, and critique my answers."

This will expose the gaps in your knowledge before a real human does.

The Bottom Line

AI is an incredible bicycle for your mind, but you still have to pedal.

If you let it think for you, you’ll sound like every other generic applicant in the pile. But if you use it to challenge you, sharpen your skills, and stress-test your knowledge?

You become dangerous.

Pick one job description you love today. Put your resume through the "roast prompt." See what it tells you.

Go get 'em.