One job ad, 1000 applicants: How do you stand out in a world of AI job hunters?

Job hunters using AI to help with their applications are flooding listings, leaving some recruiters sifting through thousands of potential hires for each position advertised.

Squirrel chief executive David Cunningham said he had noticed a "tsunami" of job applications in response to advertised positions, most clearly generated using AI.

"We've had numerous roles where we have received hundreds of applications, and in one case, over 1000. AI is good at 'match my current CV to this job, update accordingly, and write a cover letter'."

He said Squirrel had to use an AI tool to filter them and look for people who were a fit.

"We tend to look more at their work experience, the cover letters are a waste of time now really, because you can write a cover letter to make it sound like you're a perfect fit for any job.

"We tend to use AI tools to analyse the job versus the work experience."

He said Squirrel would also usually give preference to people who were based in New Zealand, and run screening interviews to come up with a short list.

University of Otago associate professor and human resources expert Paula O'Kane said she had had a similar experience reviewing applications. "This is the problem, how do you actually get through all of those cover letters that are written relatively similarly and what can you do to stand out from the crowd from a candidate's point of view … I really think that's what candidates have to think about."

She said people should try to keep their cover letters "short and sweet".

"So what are the really key things that are important to the job, how do you bring your skills, your attributes and your personality into your cover letter?

"That's the thing that's going to make you stand out. For candidates there's still a role to use AI in that initial thinking about it and thinking how they write but they need to bring it back to themselves in the final iteration of their cover letter. I think that's what employers are going to look at more and more … bring your own voice into it and think about who you are and how you want to come across."

She said employers would be most worried about false negatives - people not making it through the screening process who would have been a good fit.

"Whereas when you have false positives you will probably catch them later. Yes, they're a waste of your time but you're going to move on to the next level of selection tools which are probably going to be more face-to-face and personal. So it's the people who miss that are the biggest risk rather than the people you put through that you shouldn't have put through."

Hayley Pickard, managing director of recruiter Fortitude Group, said she saw the problem particularly when advertising for technical and engineering positions.

"AI has made it incredibly easy for someone to produce a polished CV and cover letter and apply for a large number of vacancies very quickly. The problem is that it hasn't necessarily improved the relevance or quality of those applications. It has simply removed much of the effort that previously went into submitting one," she said.

"I regularly receive applications that use the exact terminology from the job advertisement but provide no real evidence behind it. Skills and responsibilities mentioned in the advert suddenly appear in the application, but the person provides no specific examples of when, where or how they gained that experience.

"When I ask the applicant for further details, it can become clear that the polished wording has overstated their actual level of experience - or, at the very least, made it extremely difficult to distinguish what the candidate genuinely knows from what AI has added.

"I don't think the answer is for applicants to avoid AI completely. It can be very useful for improving spelling, structure and presentation, particularly for people who don't naturally find writing easy or whose first language isn't English. However, it should be used as an editing tool, not as a substitute for the applicant's own experience, judgment or voice."

Recruiter Hayley Pickard says AI should be used as an editing tool when applying for jobs.

She said high application volumes created screening fatigue for recruiters. "When an employer is working through dozens or hundreds of similar-looking applications, they are not necessarily looking for the most beautifully written one. They are trying to quickly establish: Can this person do the job? Are they genuinely interested? Can I trust what they have told me?

"Ironically, a straightforward, specific and recognisably human application can now stand out more than an extremely polished one. Applicants shouldn't try to compete with AI-generated applications by producing even more generic AI content. They should compete through relevance, evidence and authenticity."

She said employers also had to be careful not to confuse polished writing with a strong application. "A capable person may not have the strongest writing skills, while someone with little relevant experience can now produce an impressive-looking application in seconds. Screening therefore needs to focus increasingly on verifiable examples and well-targeted follow-up questions."

Pickard's tips for jobhunters in an AI world

• Apply selectively. Ten carefully chosen and genuinely relevant applications are likely to be more effective than 100 generic ones.
• Replace broad claims with specific evidence. Rather than simply claiming to have a skill, explain where it was used, what the person was personally responsible for and what they achieved.
• Include context. Employers need to understand what the person personally did, how independently they worked and what the outcome was - not just read a list of industry terms.
• Write a short, genuine introduction explaining why that particular opportunity interests them. It doesn't need to be a long or overly formal cover letter.
• Follow the application instructions. If an advert asks for particular information or a recruiter sends screening questions, answer them fully rather than sending a generic response.
• Check every AI-generated statement for accuracy. If the candidate couldn't comfortably explain or defend it in an interview, it shouldn't be in the application.
• Keep the language natural. Excessively formal phrases, repeated buzzwords and generic statements about being "passionate", "dynamic" or "results-driven" don't help without evidence.
• Make sure the CV and cover letter agree with each other. AI-generated applications sometimes introduce skills, dates or responsibilities that aren't supported by the person's actual employment history.
• Respond when contacted. A relevant, prompt and thoughtful reply to a recruiter's questions can make someone stand out immediately.