3 Ways AI Can Help You Switch Careers

As seen on Forbes.

Career pivots are more common than you think. In fact, it’s rare to see people make a lifelong career out of the one they started with, much less the one that directly matches their university degree.

One of the most common reasons behind career changes is market changes, especially those driven by technological advancements. Sometimes, technology can develop so much to the point of rendering certain jobs obsolete. 

As we’ve seen recently, this has been the case with generative artificial intelligence (AI), which has already driven layoffs in 2023, and continues to do so this year. Instead of fearing the new tech though, I believe it’s much more productive to use it to your advantage. Here are three ways AI can help you switch careers.

Ask AI for Career Options

Before switching careers, you want to ensure that you really know what you want to do. You want to avoid the specific thing that made you want to switch, but ideally, you don’t want to start from scratch either. Instead, you may succeed in a career where you can still use some, if not most of your existing skills. 

This is where AI can help. Ask it to research some roles, industries, and even companies for you, and see which ones spark your interest. It can look something like this: 

I’m a blog writer for an SEO agency, and I’m looking to switch careers to something more analytical. Recommend career options where I can still use my journalistic skills but without having to deal with the grind of the daily news cycle. 

I know it can seem dystopian to ask AI for career advice but AI is good at seeing associations between seemingly unrelated careers. So don’t be afraid to give it a try, and look for the role that sparks the most interest.

Leverage Past Skills

This is also a good time to determine which transferable skills you still need to acquire, and which ones you already have. The prompt into ChatGPT or another AI tool can look like this: 

I’m an accountant and I’m looking to pursue a career in data science. What transferable skills do I have that can help me do a job in data science? Which skills do I still need to develop?

After this, you can begin learning the new skills recommended to you, while also highlighting and enhancing the ones you already have. The next step is to find resources out there to develop these crucial skills. To be clear, you can do this on your own. But having AI on your side can drastically cut back on research time, which is more time you can spend upskilling. 

Optimize Your Resume

Once you have figured out your next landing spot, now it’s off to your career toolkit and working on your resume. As you may have heard before, 6 seconds is all you get to make a first impression with your resume so you have to make sure you have everything you need to stand out. Especially if you are making a career pivot, you want to write a resume that proves you have the right skills and experiences for the new role. And AI can come in to assist with that. 

Get started by first selecting the job description (JD)  you have your eyes set on and then tailoring your resume accordingly. You can do this by copying and pasting the JD into your preferred AI tool and getting its help to highlight the key skills, experiences, and requirements.

From there, infuse these keywords into your resume to ensure that your application passes the initial eye test of the recruiters. You want to include a healthy amount of industry-specific jargons, technical skills, and action verbs associated with your field. Afterwards, you can copy and paste your resume into your AI tool and ask the prompt:

What are other bullet points I can add to my resume to showcase my skills in XYZ?

Remember not to copy these bullet points verbatim but to be inspired by the content. You still want to be original and showcase your stories! Don’t focus too much on the skills you lack and instead emphasize the right transferable skills that showcase you are a great fit for the role. To get started on your own resume, you can download our ATS-friendly resume templates on our Workhap website. Good luck out there!