Don’t Let ChatGPT Dehumanize Your Job Search Efforts

Please be human in your job search. Use artificial intelligence sparingly to help you be more effective, not more robotic.

Our work was centered on human dignity, authenticity, and meaningful impact - even when it's more challenging. This human-centered approach is exactly what makes us humanitarians.

That humanitarian ethos doesn’t generally agree with using artificial intelligence. In the job search, using AI doesn’t feel authentic. In fact, it can feel like cheating.

I know you might be surprised to hear this from me. I’ve gone deep into all forms of artificial intelligence and I was early into Generative AI. Personally, I still believe that you need to be using AI in your job search - if only because employers are using it against us every day.

I fight fire with fire. Their AI-powered ATS with my AI-infused job applications.

However, I’m not some blind proponent of ChatGPT. There are valid reasons to be hesitant about using AI tools in your job search. Please trust those instincts. It’s what makes us humans and humanitarians.

Here are 8 compelling reasons why avoiding AI can align with both your values and your career success, and how you can thoughtfully apply AI in a human-centric job search.

Skip Ahead to Key Sections

• 4 Technology-Centric Reasons to Say No

• 4 Job Search Specific Reasons to Say No

• An Alternative Human-Centered Approach

• Explore Human-Led AI-Assisted Job Searching

4 Technology-Centric Reasons to Say No

There are at least four uncomfortable issues about artificial intelligence as a technology reshaping our sector, including:

1. Voracious energy consumption that threatens every climate goal

2. Amplification of mis- dis- and mal-information at unprecedented scale

3. Appropriation of copyrighted works to train these models raises

4. Dependence that risks atrophying critical thinking skills that make us human.

You can choose not to use AI in your job search for any or all of these reasons alone.

1. Environmental Justice

Your work likely involved addressing climate change impacts and environmental degradation. AI's massive resource consumption directly contradicts these efforts.

Training large AI models requires enormous amounts of electricity and water—a single AI query can use ten times more energy than a traditional search. Data centers supporting AI operations consume vast quantities of water for cooling, exacerbating scarcity in vulnerable regions you may have worked to support.

Technology Review tried to calculate GenAI energy use. Its findings: emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries are small, until you add up the countries requests and realise the industry isn’t sharing any meaningful energy usage metrics.

How can we justify using tools that worsen the environmental challenges we face daily?

2. Spreading Misinformation

Our work requires building trust and sharing accurate information, especially during crises. AI tools can inadvertently (or purposely) generate and spread misinformation, creating the same problems we worked tirelessly to solve.

We are already seeing a rise in job advertisement scams, flooding the market with fraudulent opportunities. In addition, scammers are creating fake candidates to win jobs and steal company information, making it harder for genuine applicants to stand out.

Your commitment to truth and transparency shouldn't end when you're job searching.

3. Intellectual Property Theft

AI systems are trained on copyrighted content without permission, often including the work of journalists, researchers, and advocates from the Global South whose intellectual property rights are frequently overlooked.

Right now, output from Generative AI must have substantial human input to be copyrightable. In a laughable twist, the builders of AI systems now want all output of AI to be copyrightable. They want legal protections for their work, but not the work of those they built their models on.

Using Generative AI tools may inadvertently support practices that exploit the very communities we worked to protect.

4. Preserving Human Capabilities

The skills that make you effective in humanitarian work require constant practice, like critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, adaptive problem-solving, and emotional intelligence.

Over-relying on AI for application materials can atrophy these very capabilities that make you valuable in complex, human-centered environments.

New research shows that professionals who rely heavily on automated tools for communication show measurable declines in their ability to perform these tasks independently. The study warns that technological dependence can create a feedback loop where professionals become less capable of the very skills that made them valuable in the first place.

This skill erosion is particularly dangerous for us when we are transitioning to new sectors, where our ability to quickly assess complex situations and communicate nuanced ideas clearly represents our competitive advantage.

4 Job Search Specific Reasons to Say No

Artificial intelligence promises to streamline our job searches but it can fundamentally undermine what makes us effective candidates. AI-generated applications can

1. Deprioritize highly genuine human connections that are highly effective

2. Create soulless submissions that strip away authentic passion

3. Systematically screening out candidates based on flawed pattern recognition

4. Algorithmic recruitment systems perpetuate biases we detest

These are job-search-specific reasons not to use AI today or tomorrow.

1. Networking is Inherently Human

Perhaps the most significant drawback of AI-heavy job search strategies is their tendency to deprioritize networking with humans as the most effective job search strategy.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis demonstrates that approximately 85% of jobs are filled through networking rather than traditional applications. This statistic becomes even more important for career changers and professionals transitioning between sectors.

Real networking through authentic relationship building and connecting with people across cultural and professional boundaries is a core human competency. The relationships you build through informational interviews and industry events provide not just job leads but also the cultural intelligence that successful transitions require.

When you focus your job search energy on perfecting AI-generated applications instead of cultivating human relationships, you're optimizing for the wrong variable. The most sophisticated cover letter cannot substitute for a personal referral from someone who understands both your capabilities and the hiring organization's culture.

2. Generic Job Applications

AI-generated application materials often produce generic, error-riddled content that fails to capture our unique experiences working across cultures or in challenging environments.

You must always review AI output to make sure it is speaking in your voice.

Hiring managers can easily spot impersonal materials when you directly copy/paste AI output into applications. It’s personal stories that demonstrate your commitment to the work.

Your journey into humanitarian work likely began with a personal calling. Let that authentic voice shine through as you journey out of it.

3. Dehumanizing Recruitment Practices

Few companies still prioritize human-centered recruitment because they understand that technical qualifications alone don't predict success in complex, relationship-based work.

Sadly, almost all Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems that parse and score resumes against the job description based on content, format, skills, and writing style. These AI-driven hiring tools use impersonal screening processes that may signal misaligned values anyway.

If you want to work for a company that still values human-centric employment practices, you may need to focus on small and medium sized firms that either do not have the resources for an ATS or choose not to use them on ethical grounds.

4. Perpetuating Harmful Biases

AI systems are fundamentally limited by their training data and cannot replicate the rich and varied human experience.

By participating in ATS-driven recruitment, you may find that AI systems tend to sanitize and standardize experiences in ways that strip away cultural context and flatten the very diversity that makes you interesting and valuable.

AI recruitment systems consistently reproduce and amplify existing social biases and disadvantage professionals with non-traditional backgrounds or international experience - like us!

AI systems can struggle to appropriately weigh your humanitarian experiences within different professional contexts. A machine learning algorithm cannot understand why your experience managing a refugee camp makes you an exceptional candidate for a corporate crisis management role.

An Alternative Human-Centered Approach

You may be surprised to learn that I am a strong proponent of a human-centered approach to job searching. I believe that our humanity is our key differentiator - from each other and from chatbots.

I do not believe in copy/pasting from AI. Far from it. You must always be in control of the employment process - hiring, excelling, leaving. I think of Generative AI as an overeager graduate assistant.

Do not blindly rely on AI shortcuts. Instead, consider these approaches that align with humanitarian values. You can use AI to help you - or not - for each one:

• Research deeply: Use your analytical skills to thoroughly research organizations, their programming, and their culture. This demonstrates the same attention to context that makes humanitarian programming effective.

• Network authentically: Leverage your existing relationships and build new ones through informational interviews, sector events, and professional associations. The humanitarian community values relationship-building.

• Tell your story personally: Craft application materials that showcase your unique experiences, cultural competency, and commitment to the work. These narratives are your greatest asset.

• Prepare thoughtfully: Use your program management skills to systematically prepare for interviews, researching the organization's challenges and thinking through how your experience addresses their needs.

Explore Human-Led AI-Assisted Job Searching

Are ready to job search with AI, where you are in control, and your authentic voice is heard?

Then join Laura Wigglesworth and I for a free webinar on Tuesday, June 3 at Noon EST to explore how responsible use of AI can accelerate every step of the process.

We’ll go over the 7 Steps to Job Search Success, focusing on using AI as an assistant - not replacement - to make every step easier for you.