{"id":8594,"date":"2025-12-12T11:10:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8594"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:10:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:10:38","slug":"3-top-tips-to-get-ahead-using-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8594","title":{"rendered":"3 top tips to get ahead using AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AI-and-laptop-Canva-pro-Dec-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8597 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AI-and-laptop-Canva-pro-Dec-25.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a laptop and a computer-generated brain representing AI.\" width=\"349\" height=\"239\" \/><\/a>Many of you will likely have heard of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the effect it is having on the world, including career planning and job-seeking. Our practical online workshops\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityhub.open.ac.uk\/students\/events\/detail\/4634113\">GenAI: level up your career<\/a>\u00a0will take you through\u00a0how you can harness its power in planning your future.<\/p>\n<p>Here are three top tips in using\u00a0GenAI\u00a0to the max\u00a0in order to\u00a0improve your careers and employability\u00a0skills:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Think outside the box<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When people think of AI and careers, they may think about using ChatGPT,\u00a0Gemini,\u00a0Copilot\u00a0or similar tools to create a CV\u00a0or write an application. However, their use goes far beyond this.<\/p>\n<p>Try using it to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Help you decide what career to pursue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Find out more about a career you are interested in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Pinpoint local organisations to contact with a speculative approach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Review your\u00a0applications\u00a0whilst adopting the persona of a career coach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepare for an upcoming interview<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong>Prompt precisely<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Many people are dissatisfied with the results AI provides but often this is due to the prompts used;\u00a0to use a popular phrase amongst\u00a0computer programmers, \u201cGarbage in, garbage out\u201d.\u00a0Consider the example\u00a0of an OU student\u00a0who is studying Computer Science and wants to target\u00a0SMEs\u00a0(small and medium-sized enterprises)\u00a0in\u00a0Edinburgh or Glasgow. A basic\u00a0prompt might be \u201cfind me graduate training schemes\u201d\u00a0whereas\u00a0a more effective one would be \u201cI am in the final year of an OU Degree in Computer Science and would like to find SMEs in Edinburgh or Glasgow who recruit graduates\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Prompting precisely\u00a0will\u00a0give you a far more\u00a0accurate\u00a0answer although\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also\u00a0useful to check\u00a0AI job market research\u00a0results\u00a0against\u00a0your own research\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/research-labour-market\/labour-market-information\">using\u00a0labour market information<\/a>\u00a0(LMI).<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong>Be your authentic self<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you do use AI\u00a0in the process of finding\u00a0or applying for jobs,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really important\u00a0to check is that the application you\u00a0submit\u00a0is authentically you\u00a0\u2013 reflecting your\u00a0own unique\u00a0interests,\u00a0values\u00a0and\u00a0strengths.\u00a0One way to do this is to ask AI for suggestions then make the\u00a0changes yourself. Another is to get the AI to perform\u00a0an initial\u00a0sweep but review and change manually before\u00a0submitting\u00a0an application.<\/p>\n<p>Data from Institute of Student Employers tells us that 46%\u00a0of graduate employers\u00a0are reviewing\u00a0their\u00a0recruitment\u00a0practices\u00a0in response to GenAI.\u00a0Always check what the employer\u2019s policy is on AI as some are more open to this than others \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not a one size fits all.<\/p>\n<p>For a general overview of ethical use of AI, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/libraryservices\/beingdigital\/pathways\/13\/17\">this OU Being Digital resource<\/a>\u00a0gives some solid guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Andrew-Hadden-Photo-Day-1-curve.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-8595\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Andrew-Hadden-Photo-Day-1-curve.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Andrew Hadden\" width=\"89\" height=\"118\" \/><\/a>Andrew Hadden is an OU Careers and Employability Consultant\u00a0based in Edinburgh. He helps students achieve their ambitions and fulfil their potential through one-to-one appointments and\u00a0by designing events and resources for the OU. Explore the rest of our blog for more articles from the Careers and Employability Services team.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many of you will likely have heard of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the effect it is having on the world, including career planning and job-seeking. Our practical online workshops\u00a0GenAI: level up your career\u00a0will take you through\u00a0how you can harness its power in planning your future. Here are three top tips in using\u00a0GenAI\u00a0to the max\u00a0in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,108,61,78],"tags":[103,106,94,104,86,107,105,99,62],"class_list":["post-8594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-planning","category-cv","category-genai","category-jobs","category-lmi","tag-ai","tag-applications","tag-career-confidence","tag-career-development","tag-career-planning","tag-cv","tag-genai","tag-job-searching","tag-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8594"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8600,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594\/revisions\/8600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}