Let's be honest: job hunting right now kind of sucks.
And on top of that - AI is changing the rules mid-game.
Everything is happening at once
- Layoffs + a tight market
- AI everywhere (companies AND candidates using it)
- A flood of applications for every role
- Resumes optimized for machines, not humans
- AI "match scores" deciding who gets seen
- AI interview screening coming soon (we all know it)
It's confusing. It's frustrating. And it's not going back.
Which jobs are actually shifting
There is a lot of talk of AI taking jobs. What are the numbers? How much is this really happening? Honestly, I don't know. And it's hard to tell how big the impact is, but what I'm hearing:
More directly impacted right now:
- Clerical and administrative roles
- Customer support and basic ops
- Routine content production
- Entry-level consulting and analyst work
- Junior finance tasks (reporting, reconciliation)
Not replaced, but expectations raised:
- Engineering
- Product management
- Advanced analytics and data science
In my world, in PM specifically: I'm seeing fewer "learn on the job" roles, higher expectations earlier, more pressure to show real outputs instead of just frameworks.
The bar didn't disappear. It moved.
What applying actually looks like now
It's not just "submit resume" anymore. You have to use AI tools to fix your resume.
You're editing and customizing per role. Adjusting language to hit ATS patterns. Getting scored before a human ever looks. Some sites scan your resume in real time and quietly decide how strong of a match you are.
Parts of this are helpful. Parts feel completely arbitrary. And honestly there are so many tools right now claiming to help with this, it is very hard to sort through the noise and find ones that actually work. And the bigger players like Linkedin are working to add features too, but they still need work. Dear Linkedin- I got a lot of feedback for you - please reach out!
When AI gets the wrong signal
I've noticed something: I sometimes get lower match scores on company websites because I have more experience than the role asks for.
Not missing skills. Not misaligned background. Just outside the expected range.
That tells you how these systems work. They're good at pattern matching. They're bad at context. They don't reason about intent or motivation. They mostly check boxes.
Adding to the noise
At the same time, some candidates are using AI to inflate experience. Others are using it to apply at massive scale.
That increases volume, not signal. And now you have to pay to get Linkedin Premium to match you to the right roles and the roles you have the best chance of hearing back on. And you have to apply fast, companies are closing roles quickly because they are getting big volumes of applicants.
What's clearly coming next
AI-screened interviews aren't a prediction. They're a direction.
Recorded responses. Automated scoring. Pattern analysis across candidates. It's already being built.
The part nobody talks about enough
Despite all of this... I love AI.
I use it constantly—not to replace thinking, but to accelerate it.
AI has helped me break down job descriptions, prep for interviews more thoughtfully, pressure-test my product instincts, and build real products. Because of AI, I'm not just talking about being a better PM. I'm learning by building. By shipping. By thinking more deeply, faster.
AI didn't make me less skilled. It made me sharper. But it's hard to translate that back to the AI systems reading my resume.
Where this is heading
Overall, I'm excited for the future of work. Less time on blank-page work, busywork, and overhead. More time on thinking, deciding, building, shipping.
But we need a new system for finding the work. Until that emerges, I'll be here building and learning.
How's your job search going? What are you noticing out there?