Using AI effectively and responsibly in your career development
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in workplaces and is impacting how some employers recruit. It can be a useful tool for career planning, applications and interview preparation, but it also has limitations and risks.
If using AI for career purposes, we encourage you to use it critically and responsibly. AI should support your career development, not replace your own thinking, experience and judgement. Employers ultimately want to understand your skills, motivations and potential, so your applications and interview responses should always reflect your authentic experiences and views.
How AI Can Help With Career Development
AI can be a useful starting point for:
- Exploring career ideas and possible career pathways
- Researching sectors, occupations and employers
- Identifying skills gained from your experiences
- Generating interview practice questions
- Improving your understanding of recruitment and selection methods
- Reviewing CVs, cover letters and application answers
- Helping structure written content
AI works best when used as a tool to support your thinking rather than do the work for you. Always check information from reliable sources and adapt any suggestions to reflect your own experiences, circumstances and opinions.
Using AI in applications and interviews
AI can help you brainstorm ideas, improve structure and identify areas for development. However, employer expectations about AI use vary.
Some employers provide guidance on how applicants can use AI during recruitment, while others discourage or prohibit its use in all, or certain, assessment stages.
Through our conversations with employers, a common theme is that AI can be useful for researching opportunities, reflecting on experiences, obtaining feedback on draft applications and practising interviews. However, many employers are concerned about applicants using AI to generate application responses or interview answers, particularly where this obscures a candidate's own abilities, experiences or communication style. One employer at a recent event commented on how obvious it can be when candidates rely on AI-generated answers during interviews.
Before using AI, always check any guidance provided by the employer you are applying to. The examples below illustrate how some different organisations have communicated their expectations regarding AI use during recruitment.
- Civil Service applicant guidance
- AO Sherman applicant guidance
- National Museums of Scotland applicant guidance
- Accenture applicant guidance (see "Can I use AI in my assessments?")
Applications created primarily by AI often sound generic and may fail to demonstrate your individual experiences, motivation and communication style. Employers are interested in understanding your judgement, skills and potential, not simply your ability to generate content.
Use AI to support your application, not write it or generate answers for you. Any application, assessment or interview response should ultimately represent your own work, experiences and views. Misrepresenting your skills, qualifications or abilities during a recruitment process may have serious consequences, which could include an offer being withdrawn or disciplinary action if concerns emerge after employment begins.
AI and Recruitment: What Students Should Know
Many people assume that AI is now making most recruitment decisions. In reality, AI use in recruitment is generally less widespread.
Some large organisations use AI-enabled tools during some stages of high-volume recruitment. However, for many vacancies, particularly in small and medium-sized organisations, the public sector and the third sector, applications are still primarily reviewed by people.
It is also important to understand the difference between AI and automation. For example, an employer may automatically reject applications that do not meet specific eligibility requirements such as qualifications or other essential criteria. This is often automated screening rather than AI making decisions about candidates.
If employers use automated decision-making or AI in recruitment, applicants may have rights relating to transparency, access to information about decisions and the ability to request human review. Legislation and guidance vary by country, so it is important to understand the rules that apply to your circumstances.
See, for example;
- ICO Guidance on Automated Decision Making in Recruitment (UK)
- EU AI Act (EU) as it relates to job seekers' rights
Do Employers Expect AI Skills?
Increasingly, employers expect graduates to be comfortable working alongside AI tools in the workplace.
For most roles, employers are not looking for AI specialists. Instead, they value AI literacy: understanding what AI can and cannot do, using it ethically and responsibly, evaluating outputs critically and being able to explain how you have used AI to support your work.
Developing AI literacy can help you demonstrate adaptability, critical thinking and digital confidence, all of which are valued by employers.
Important Considerations
When using AI, remember:
- AI can provide inaccurate, outdated or misleading information.
- AI-generated content may reflect bias present in training data.
- Avoid sharing personal, confidential or sensitive information with AI tools.
- Copyright, ownership and attribution issues continue to evolve.
- AI technologies can have significant environmental impacts through energy and resource consumption.
Using AI responsibly means understanding both its benefits and its limitations.
Further resources
- Explore AI-related courses and learning pathways on Coursera - many of which you can access through the University of Glasgow's Coursera partnership.
- Claude AI Fluency Framework - is a useful course to develop your AI literacy. With the disclaimer that this was co-developed by Anthropic in partnership with Academics.
- You can access videos, resources and guides on AI, practise online tests and video interviews, and more, via our subscription to Graduates First