AI in Career Development

Benefits: 

• Saves time and improves efficiency – helps you move faster through time consuming tasks and source and organize large amounts of information quickly
• Brainstorming and idea generation – helps you move beyond a blank page and provides helpful starting points
• Personalization – helps tailor recommendations based on your specific needs, interests, and situations

Limitations: 

• Hallucinations and accuracy – can produce outdated, incomplete or incorrect information
• Loss of authenticity – can provide generic output that lacks human elements 
• Bias – might reflect biases that are present in model training data 
• Over reliance on AI can hinder skill development

Do: 

• Use AI as a starting point, and not a final answer
• Personalize prompts and outputs so they reflect your authentic voice and experiences 
• Stay curious and think critically about about what AI produces 
• Follow employer, academic, or institutional guidelines on AI use 

Don’t: 

• Copy and paste output without verifying and adding your own voice
• Assume AI is always correct or unbiased 
• Share personal, confidential, or sensitive information 
• Use AI in ways that misrepresent your skills or experiences 

Responsible AI use includes thinking about privacy, authenticity, bias and transparency. Be honest about your experiences, protect sensitive data and information, and make sure your use of AI aligns with employer or institutional expectations. 

AI also has environmental impacts. To reduce unnecessary use: 

• Ask smarter, not more – combine questions into fewer, clearer prompts
• Use the right tool – AI is not always necessary for every task 
• Edit instead of regenerating – refine output yourself rather than repeatedly rerunning prompts