Tom fired off 200 job applications in a few months, and honestly? I don’t blame him. The 22-year-old from Maidstone graduated with a geography degree and spent what sounds like an absolute nightmare of a year trying to land something – anything – before finally snagging a restaurant manager gig last month. And yeah, he used AI to do it.

When the System Forces Your Hand

Here’s the thing that gets me about this whole debate: we’re acting shocked that graduates are using ChatGPT to write cover letters when they’re applying to 10, 20, sometimes 30 jobs a day. Tom called the process “exhausting” and “demoralising,” which feels like an understatement. Employers ghosted him constantly. No responses, no feedback, just silence.

So what did he do? He used AI to help with cover letters, polish his CV, figure out the right “buzz words” that would get past the initial screening. And before anyone clutches their pearls about ethics – he didn’t use it during assessments or interviews. He just used it to survive a system that’s already stacked against him.

Because let’s be real: employers want you to pour your heart and soul into every single application. They want customized cover letters that prove you’ve researched the company’s mission statement and can recite their core values in your sleep. But they’re sending your resume through an AI screener that’s looking for keywords. They might not even read what you wrote.

The Hypocrisy Is Pretty Stunning

Tom actually nailed this part. He pointed out that it feels “hypocritical” for companies to tell candidates not to use AI when they’re using it themselves to filter through applications. And he’s right. That’s exactly what it is.

Companies have been using automated systems to screen resumes for years now. They’ve made the hiring process more impersonal, more algorithmic, more… robotic. And now they’re surprised when job seekers fight back with the same tools? The automation is getting weirder than anyone expected: Scientists Found Rogue AI in the Wild – And It Talked Back, operating outside any company's control.

The Spray and Pray Problem

But here’s where it gets messy (and where I actually think there’s a problem). The ease of using AI means people are applying to way more jobs than they probably should. Tom applied to 200 positions. Two hundred. That’s not targeted job hunting – that’s throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks.

And I get why it happens. When you’re desperate, when you’ve been searching for months, when every application feels like it disappears into a black hole, you start playing a numbers game. If companies aren’t going to treat your application seriously, why should you treat each one like it’s special?

The problem is this creates a vicious cycle. More applications mean recruiters are more overwhelmed. So they rely more heavily on AI screening. Which means candidates have to game the system even harder with keywords and AI-generated content. Which means more applications. Which means more automation. Round and round we go. The backlash is already starting – Accenture Slashes AI Budgets: $1K to $29 Overnight as companies realize the AI arms race might not be sustainable.

“Employers want you to put your absolute best into the application, but if I’m applying for 10 to 20 jobs in a day, the reality is you can’t do that.”

Where’s the Line, Really?

Look, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I don’t think the line is as clear as people want it to be. Using AI to help structure a cover letter or catch typos? That seems pretty harmless to me. It’s basically a more advanced spell-checker. Using it to generate fake experience or lie about your skills? Obviously not okay.

The gray area is everything in between. Is it cheating to have AI rewrite your accomplishments to sound more impressive? What about using it to tailor your resume for each job posting? Or to practice interview questions?

Some recruiters and employers apparently don’t mind AI assistance within reason. The key phrase there is “within reason,” which is frustratingly vague. One person’s reasonable help is another person’s unfair advantage.

What This Actually Means

The truth is, we’ve created a hiring system that’s broken on both sides. Companies can’t handle the volume of applications they receive, so they automate everything. Job seekers can’t get through those automated systems without gaming them, so they use AI. Nobody’s happy, nobody trusts anyone, and people like Tom spend months applying to hundreds of jobs just to land something.

And honestly? I don’t think this is really about AI at all. It’s about the fact that the hiring process has become so impersonal and transactional that both sides are just trying to survive it. AI is just the latest tool in an arms race that’s been going on for years.

Maybe instead of wringing our hands about whether it’s ethical for a desperate graduate to use ChatGPT to polish a cover letter, we should be asking why someone needs to apply to 200 jobs in the first place. That’s the real problem here.