Stephanie O’Neill struggles to stay positive as her job search drags on with no end in sight. The 54-year-old Los Angeles communications veteran has spent most of her 30-plus year career in technology. She was laid off in October 2024 and is still looking for a job, 13 months later.
So is Pittsburgh marketing executive Holly Teegarden, 52, who has been applying for 50 jobs a week since she closed her cannabis business after her customer base dried up in February. So far she has had little success.
And for Charlsie Niemiec, 37, a content marketing manager in Atlanta, it’s the same radio silence. She applied for 280 different positions in the year following her layoff before landing a new job in January. But just seven months later, she was laid off again – and has already applied for 263 jobs in the three months since she was fired.
An equally trying struggle is shared by 7.4 million Americans unemployed which all have one thing in common: it takes them more time to find work. In August, Americans were unemployed and on average 24.5 weeksaccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s an increase from 21 weeks a year ago.
This longer timeline is also reflected in sector studies. The median time to submit a first offer from the start of the search was 68.5 days in June, up 22% from 56 days in April, according to Huntr Job Search Trends Report for Q2 2025. The study analyzed 461,000 applications and 285,000 job offers entered by 17,733 users on the platform’s job offer tracker during the quarter. It found that the richest 10% of active job seekers send out 19 applications per week.
And with the widespread adoption of AI – by candidates and hiring companies – experts and job seekers say the gap in the process is widening. In fact, 93% of job seekers use tools like ChatGPT to help them with their resumes and cover letters, Huntr reported. But when faced with one-way interviews via AI, seven out of ten job seekers say they reject them.
The irony of it all? The very technology that promises to streamline the job search seems to be making it harder than ever for candidates to stand out.
Job seekers find themselves in an “ocean of sameness”
AI tools are being hailed for helping job seekers scale and optimize their search for a new role. But as competition gets fiercer, this strategy hurts more than it helps, career experts say.
“AI kind of creates an ocean of sameness,” said Eliana Goldstein, a New York-based career coach. “It automates everything, and everyone sounds the same – and it sounds robotic.”
Sofia Mishina, director of talent acquisition at AI Digital, agrees. “I see resumes that are perfectly formatted and perfectly forgettable — the same buzzwords, the same tone, no proof of work,” she said.
Adam Karpiak, co-founder of Karpiak Consulting, a national career services and recruiting company, sees the problem from the hiring side. With so many almost identical resumes flooding in, companies are having a harder time finding the right person because “everything seems to be AI-generated,” he said.
“AI doesn’t understand context,” Karpiak said. “It doesn’t know how you got results or what made your impact unique. Without it, your resume might check all the boxes for keyword searches, but it won’t connect with a human reader.”
The volume became overwhelming on both sides equally. It’s no surprise that more and more businesses are also relying on AI tools to help them sift through large numbers of applications.
“When a position receives 1,000 applications in 10 minutes — half from people who are clearly not qualified — hiring teams have to sort through it,” Karpiak said. “This means good candidates are being missed out.
“AI can support the process, but it cannot replace judgment. The danger is when companies start treating recruiting as a data problem rather than a people problem.”
But this is the stage where many candidates report being ghosted by companies, even when they check all the boxes in the job description. Without feedback in the process, job seekers say they don’t know what it will take to bypass the automated applicant tracking systems that many companies use.
“I also see the same job postings over and over again, and I think they’re trying to find people who don’t do it. […] exist: unicorns,” Teegarden said. “It’s like playing the lottery. The only way to try to find a job right now is the old school way: just connect with people.
Bad Ways to Use AI in Job Search
The biggest mistake job seekers make? Outsource their critical thinking to AI rather than using it as an assistant.
“One of the most common mistakes I see is candidates relying too much on AI-generated content without personalizing it to reflect their unique value,” said Kimberly Brown, career and leadership expert and founder of Brown Leadership.
“When someone submits a resume or cover letter that looks like a generic template, it becomes obvious and this lack of authenticity can be a deal breaker.”
Karpiak notes that AI is not going to improve a bad resume. He adds that job seekers think they’re “tailoring” their resume when in reality they’re just rewording the same content and adding job description keywords.
Using AI to spread applications across hundreds of job postings is another counterproductive use of these tools, Goldstein said.
“If you look at the statistics, you might get an interview with 2 to 3 percent of the places you apply to,” Goldstein said. “If you use a spray-and-pray mentality instead, it will probably drop to around 0.5% or 1%. That will never succeed.”
Bbalancing the use of AI in job searching
So how should job seekers use AI to get a realistic picture of their CV presented to the hiring manager? Experts recommend treating him like an editor or opinion consultant rather than a writer.
“Think of it as a starting point, not a finish line,” Brown advised. “Use it to generate bullet points, identify keywords in job descriptions, or reformat your resume for clarity, then go back and infuse it with your accomplishments and your voice.”
Karpiak agrees. “The smartest way to use AI is to be an editor, not a ghostwriter,” he said. “Let it help you tighten up your language or check for clarity, but make sure the content, the how and why of what you’re doing, comes from your own experience and doesn’t regurgitate the job posting.”
Mishina recommends spending a minimum of time fine-tuning the AI.
“Spend 15 minutes cleaning up your resume,” she said. “Spend the next seven hours and 45 minutes doing real work: research the company and the hiring manager, map out the team, and create something they’ll be interested in: a short teardown, a pitch, an ideas page. That gets you to a decision maker; a polished resume doesn’t.”
Huntr’s analysis of more than 1.39 million applications since the end of 2024 shows that tailored CVs generate around six interview opportunities per 100 applications, compared to fewer than three for generic applications.
So what works to get noticed in this job market?
In a market saturated with “AI slop,” as many call it, authenticity and specificity stand out.
“Humans connect to details,” Karpiak said. “Instead of ‘leading a team,’ say what type of team, what you’ve accomplished, and what’s changed as a result of your work. This is what recruiters remember. »
Brown emphasizes that networking always beats any system.
“Put your materials in the hands of real people through informational interviews, referrals, or direct outreach. AI can open the door, but relationships get you in the room,” Brown advised.
The data confirms this. Goldstein notes that “when you receive a reference, you go from a 2 to 3 percent chance of getting an interview to a 40 percent chance of getting an interview.”
Even if you do all of these things, your resume still risks being overlooked — something Niemiec, Teegarden, and O’Neill say they’ve all experienced themselves.
“I’ve had a successful career spanning over 30 years; I think the longest it ever took to find a job was six months,” O’Neill said. “Never in a million years did I think it would take this long. I’m pretty confident at this point that my career in corporate America is over. I was forced to retire at 54 and need to find something else to do.”
Niemiec sees another harmful trend in which candidates are asked to complete unpaid assignments, then quickly deleted or rejected after turning in their work.
“It particularly disgusts me,” she said, adding that it had happened to her before. “It’s basically sending them free spec work… but they’re also just cultivating ideas, because a lot of these jobs that do that are the ones that then put the job description back up a week later.”
Staying Resilient in a Brutal Market
For millions of unemployed job seekers, the uncertainty and financial pressure of not knowing when they will land their next role takes a toll on their mental health and self-confidence.
“The job search can feel like you’re on an emotional roller coaster,” Brown said. “You must separate rejection from your self-esteem. Every ‘no’ is a reorientation and not a reflection of your worth.”
Goldstein recommends focusing on “micro-wins” – that is, celebrating small victories like clarifying target roles, scheduling networking calls, or improving application materials. “The best way to build momentum is not to just focus on a specific win or a goal like, ‘I’ll be successful when I get a job,'” she said.
The job seekers we met found it more difficult to draw on their reserves of resilience. They each post openly on LinkedIn about their job search struggles, using storytelling to build a personal brand. It’s another approach that helps you stand out and can potentially attract hiring managers to your inbox, Niemiec pointed out.
Yet for those who find their savings dwindling, bills piling up, and hopes dashed by rejection after rejection, following this advice is easier said than done. But in this job market, Niemiec has a simple message for others in his shoes.
“It’s not you, it’s the system, and the system is broken,” Niemiec said. “Until there’s a broader discussion about how this is resolved, we’re just in this weird, horrible, awkward, painful in-between period.”
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