Looking for a job? This strategy turns NotebookLM into your personal hiring coach

Early on May 31, the word went out. The University of the Arts was closing…in a week. With a blink, alongside a thousand students left to figure out their education future, nearly 700 faculty and staff were on the streets.

I was one of the lucky ones: I’d exited the Philadelphia school in 2020 with the advent of COVID-19. Many still teaching there were unprepared. Some had become something like tamed zoo animals. They’d learned to live comfortably in their cages. Fed by keepers and admired by visitors, they’d forgotten how to roam in the wilds, forage for food and protect themselves from apex predators.

I started to get calls. Could I help? I realized as I looked that the job market had changed since I was on the hunt back in 2001. In those days, I’d ask my friends or look at job postings, update my resume, perhaps tweak it to fit the job, wait for calls, show up for interviews and pick the best offer. 

But that was then.

Now the job search requires precision bombing and strategic thinking, since hiring committees get more than 250 resumes for each posting. (I read that one posting attracted 1,200 applications in two days.) 

What are your odds of getting an interview? About one in 200. Landing a new job takes an average of about 247 days, according to HR tech firm Pathrise. That’s the length of time between New Year’s Day and Labor Day!

Why it’s so hard now

The reason for this flood of job hunters? It’s not only that institutions like UArts are collapsing — with more likely to come. There’s a growing discontent in the workforce. 

Nearly two thirds of employed people (65%) wish they had a different job, per a Zippia survey. Want to get out in front of the crowd? Per PathRise, you’ll need to send out more than 20 applications a week.

So many applications for HR to read. How to make the job manageable? Hiring managers turn to AI to identify likely candidates. They use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to pick out which resumes have the keywords (i.e. skills and experience) they’re looking for and reject those that don’t.

 If your resume or cover letter doesn’t have the right words, you’re out of the running before a human eye takes a look. 

What’s to be done?

There’s help. Learn to use AI yourself. 

The different steps in the job search each require a different tool.

1) Identifying a possible job. Each of us has our favorites based on the industry we’re in. Here are a few: Indeed, SimplyHired, Glassdoor, It’s Nice That, Dribbble, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Jobs.Chronicle, HigherEd.Jobs.

2) Tailoring your resume to the position. Software developer David Mostoller recently wrote an app to analyze the language of a resume to fit it to the language of the company.  

3) The rest. Too often, those first two steps are all job seekers think about. But there’s quite a bit more. 

Are we a good fit for the company, its culture, its goals? What weaknesses do we have that we need to address? And then, when we get called in for an interview, what questions do we need to be prepared to answer — or to ask?

Your new (free) personal job coach

Enter AI. Smart use of NotebookLM, a free tool from Google, can help you beat the odds. 

This strategy could be a game-changer — or just another experiment. There are several options out there. Careerflow, LinkedIn, Microsoft Copilot and JobRight all sell themselves as job search solutions. But NotebookLM makes it pretty simple. 

It can help you present yourself to a potential employer, help define your strengths and assist you in addressing your weaknesses. 

It reads company info fast. It shows you what matters most and lets you know how well you match the job and the company. Then, you can use it to draft a cover letter that’s just right.

One of its nifty features turns all the info you give into a podcast. You’ll hear two “hosts” talk about your strengths and weaknesses, the challenges you’d face working at the target company and how to develop the skills you’ll need to look good. 

This conversational element is a happy addition. Looking for a job is a lonely, frustrating, depressing business.  When tweaked with your questions, your hosts can be the voice in the room that inspires you to keep going.

4-step plan to stand out

STEP 1: Load your info

Go to NotebookLM. Sign in with your Google account (or make a new one for this purpose). Create a new notebook and add:

• Your resume
• The job post you’re interested in
• Any additional info about the company

STEP 2: Check your match

Ask: “Do my skills fit this job?” The AI will tell you:

• Which skills fit best
• Where you fall short
• How well you fit the company culture

STEP 3: Find your edge

Ask two key questions:

• What are my top 3 skills for this job
• What skills am I missing?

STEP 4: Make your application stronger

Now for the best part. Ask NotebookLM:

• How How can I show my best skills?
• What job stories work best here?
• How can I talk about my experience in a way that matches their style?

Why this works better than regular job hunting

As your job coach, NotebookLM:

• Spots your best-selling points
• Finds gaps you need to fix
• Helps you speak the company’s language

Quick tips:

• Keep questions short and use simple, clear words
• Ask for specific examples
• Update your strategy based on what works

We’re in this together. Share your experiences with NotebookLM. Have you tried using AI to boost your job search? Did it work? Did it fail? Share your wins, your challenges, your weird AI moments with neil.kleinman0@gmail.com. Together, we’ll figure out how to make AI our job-hunting teammate. Let’s learn from each other.

And if you’re curious:
Here’s a link to a notebook based on this article. You’ll enjoy the podcast, but there’s a lot more to it: an overview of this process, a discussion of the impact of AI on the job market, ethical questions raised by AI and other AI tools that might be useful in a job hunt. Remember, you’ll need a Google account to access NotebookLM.