Quick game for my career services friends... 🎯
I've been surveying recruiters about AI. And before I show you what they said, I want YOUR guesses on four questions. Because here's the thing: almost every career center I work with is writing AI guidance for students right now - but very few of us have actually asked recruiters what they think about AI in hiring.
That matters more than ever this year. In my own Job Seeker Pulse, 81% of job seekers said they used AI on their last application. So your students aren't deciding whether to use AI. They're deciding how - and they're mostly guessing.
So let's stop guessing together! I've organized the four questions around the four moments where AI shows up in a hiring process, from the first resume screen all the way to the recruiter's own desk.
Moment 1: The Resume Screen
Your guess: What % of recruiters reject an obviously AI-written resume?
This is the fear I hear from students the most. And coaches are seeing it too - in my Career Center Pulse, 47% of coaches said more than a quarter of the resumes they review are clearly AI-written.
But "clearly AI-written" and "rejected" aren't the same thing. That's exactly why we asked recruiters on a scale - rejected, ranked lower, no difference, or ranked higher - so we can see the whole spread instead of a scary headline.
In the meantime, here's a prompt your students can use right now to make sure AI is polishing their story instead of replacing it:
Here's my resume and the job description. Don't rewrite my bullets. Instead, point out where my wording sounds generic or robotic, and ask me one question per bullet that would help me add a specific number, tool, or result only I would know.
Moment 2: The Hiring Decision
Your guess: All else being equal, what % of recruiters would hire the candidate who uses AI over the one who never touches it?
Here's where it gets interesting. In my Job Seeker Pulse, the people who used AI for some or about half of their applications had an offer rate of 12%. The folks who used no AI at all? Just 7%. And the ones who let AI do most or all of the work were also at 7%.
So the AI purists didn't win. But neither did the people who handed everything over to the robots. There's a Goldilocks zone - and I wrote about it in more detail in this breakdown of the Goldilocks zone.
The big question for the webinar: do recruiters see it the same way? Or do they still treat AI use as a red flag, even while they keep adding AI to the job requirements?
Moment 3: The Live Interview
Your guess: What % of recruiters have caught a candidate using AI LIVE in an interview?
This is the one that keeps career coaches up at night. And for good reason - 12% of coaches in my Career Center Pulse said they've seen a student lose an offer over AI.
But here's the twist. Only 4% of job seekers told me they'd ever been called out by an employer for using AI. (I dug into that gap in this post on getting caught using AI.) So is live-interview AI use rare? Or are recruiters catching it quietly and just never saying a word?
That's the difference between preparation and performance - and it's one of the most important lines we can help students see. Using AI to practice for an interview is one thing. Using it during the interview is something else entirely.
Moment 4: The Recruiter's Own Desk
Your guess: What % of recruiters used AI in their own work last month?
This might be my favorite question of the bunch. 😮
Because if recruiters are using AI to write job descriptions, screen applications, and draft outreach, that changes how we should coach students. It means the person reading your student's resume may be running a very similar playbook on the other side of the table. (It's the same AI arms race I talked about with The New York Times.)
And it might explain why so many students feel like they have to hide what they're doing. In my Job Seeker Pulse, 22% admitted hiding their AI use from an advisor. If recruiters are open about their own AI use, maybe it's time we brought AI out of the shadows for students too. (More on that in this post on students hiding AI from their coaches.)
What Recruiters Think About AI: The Big Reveal
Here's where you come in! 🙌
On Thursday, Nov 19 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, I'm teaming up with the fab Rhys Dowbiggin from Jobscan for Inside the Recruiter Mind: What Employers Really Think of AI (and What It Means for Your Students).
We'll put your guesses right next to what recruiters actually said. Then we'll line up recruiters, coaches, and job seekers side by side, so you can see exactly where the three groups agree - and where they're miles apart.
And then we'll get super practical:
What to teach students THIS term
How to set your career center's AI stance for next year
How to talk with students about the line between preparing with AI and performing with AI
It's a data session, not a sales pitch. It's totally free. And every registrant gets the full recording and stats, even if you can't make it live!
So drop your four guesses in the Comments - and then save your seat here. 👇
Can't wait to see how close you get! ⚡