In a job market buoyed by a surge in hiring, Gen Z job-seekers like Reece Bandemer and Jason Olofsen are turning to an unconventional ally: artificial intelligence (AI).
Against the backdrop of an economy that added 353,000 new jobs in January, shattering expectations, these young adults just entering the workforce are embracing AI, leveraging the tech to speed up the process of what some would call a daunting and sometimes expensive task—creating a resume.
Bandemer, an 18-year-old student, was scrolling on the X app, formerly known as Twitter, and stumbled upon an AI startup called XYZ AI, Inc, which promised to do two things: Create a personalized and professional resume with its Rapid Resume product, and generate undetectable AI content with its StealthGPT.
Busy with school work while preparing to apply for internships, Bandemer tested the product and found that the "resumes came off surprisingly human," and even tricked his parents into believing the resume was written by him, not the AI.
"I liked the experience of the tool, mainly because I was able to get a resume done very quickly," Bandemer told Newsweek via email on Wednesday. "My parents thought I made the resume myself."
Similarly, Olofsen, another young adult embracing the AI-driven job search, discovered the resume writing tech through a simple Google search, telling Newsweek that he was testing it out to see if he "could use AI to help" him.
Apparently, it worked. "I used it to get a job during winter break but now I'm back at school," Olofsen told Newsweek via email. "I'm going to use it again to help me get a summer job."
Understanding that resume creation is an important piece of the job-hunting process, the Gen Z student told Newsweek that the AI tool was "able to infer what I did from my job with a simple job title," and used keywords and phrases for that specific role to generate the resume.
"I liked that I didn't have to write everything out," Olofsen said. "I rewrote it a little bit to put my personal touch but for the most part it was near perfect for me."
AI Adoption Is Coming, and Startups Are Vying for a Spot
AI technology has seen swift adoption over the course of the last 12 months, echoing the transformative zeal of the dot.com era in 1999. However, unlike the speculative bubble that characterized the late '90s, today's AI-driven surge is underpinned by tangible advancements and real profits, Quincy Krosby, Chief Global Strategist for LPL Financial, told Newsweek via email.
Tech leaders are unanimous in their prediction that by the end of this year, AI will be a staple in most daily lives and will revolutionize fields from education to health care, enhancing productivity and fostering innovation across the board.
The initial fascination with generative AI tools like XYZ AI Inc has quickly evolved into concrete business outcomes, promising a future where AI assistants become as commonplace as smartphones. And the adoption of AI tools like Rapid Resume by Gen Z job-seekers like Bandemer and Olofsen signals a shift in how the newest entrants to the workforce are leveraging technology to gain an edge in job hunting.
XYZ Inc founder Jozef Gherman, 29, knew that was coming, and that's why he founded the company.
Inspired by a conversation with a VP of a major AI company during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gherman, a 29-year-old from Miami, Florida, founded XYZ AI Inc to harness the potential of AI for the greater good after experiencing what he described to Newsweek as his "Larry Page-Elon Musk moment."
For the uninitiated, the "Larry Page-Elon Musk'' moment refers to a disagreement between Tesla's Musk and Google's Page at Musk's birthday in 2015. Musk has said that Page accused him of being a "speciesist," for prioritizing humans over potential AI beings, pointing to their divergent views on AI's future impact.
That dialogue, which dismissed the moral and ethical concerns associated with AI, was a wake-up call for Gherman, he said, adding that it revealed to him the need for AI technologies developed with a commitment to positive impact.
With that philosophy at its core, Gherman founded XYZ AI, raising $310,000 from a family office and angel investors in a pre-seed round. The startup quickly shipped its first product, Rapid Resume. "The [No. 1] fear of AI, minus a terminator style catastrophe, is that AI will replace people's jobs," Gherman shared. "So I went to work building Rapid Resume."
"The same philosophy that led to Rapid Resume also led to StealthGPT," he said.
The Rapid Resume founder told Newsweek that its AI-powered resume builder stands out in its field for its ease of use and speed, promising to generate a professional resume in under a minute.
"We're the only resume tool that will allow you to create a resume in a minute or less," he said, adding that he's "tried out many different AI resume tools" and was "completely unimpressed."
How Does It Work?
Rapid Resume uses Large Language Models (LLMs) through their APIs, including platforms like OpenAI, Bard and other open source LLM platforms to produce the AI-generated content.
The approach, like many AI startups who use the APIs of other LLMs, enables Rapid Resume to offer users a straightforward interface, inputting basic job-related information, and the AI does the heavy lifting, generating a resume that feels both human-written and highly tailored to specific job applications.
"Much fuss is made regarding AI's possibility of being a net bad for society, we are fighting back to showcase that AI can and will be the most powerful tool humanity could ever ask for," the young founder told Newsweek.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aj Fabino is a Newsweek reporter based in Chicago. His focus is reporting on Economy & Finance. Aj joined Newsweek ... Read more
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