Hi Reader,

On Tuesday morning I was back at my old high school presenting 3 x 40 minute sessions to Year 12 students.

The theme: AI + Applications: How to Stand Out

THE SHORTCUT ILLUSION

AI is a reality for anyone job hunting or recruiting right now.

Last week, the BBC reported about a law firm, Mishcon De Reya using AI to screen early stage applications. They had over 5,000 for 35 roles in its last round of hiring, so you might be able to see why from a time perspective. They also hoped that using AI would help to make better choices. Recruitment carries risk and costs so they want to increase their chances of getting it right. Whether it does, remains to be seen.

On the flip side, a student was talking about her experience of being interviewed by AI. Within two minutes of the interview ending, she’d received an email to say she’d not been successful.

Rejection by robot. Brutal.

Closer to home, I’ve spoken to clients and friends about their experience receiving AI applications. Many have been clearly AI generated with no customisation.

It can be easy to see why someone would.

• They might not feel confident about their writing
• They might feel like it’s a strategic approach - copy the company website against the application to get tailored answers. Smart if you’re the first to do it, but not so much if you’re the 20th
• Or if they have been unsuccessful before and having to apply for lots, automation feels like a productivity tool and a time saver.

But is it really a time saver, or is it just an illusion?

Because if everyone has access to the same tools, what makes you stand out?

How you use them

And - this is the biggie - your experience.

This is what I was emphasising to the students.

AI is a tool. It CAN’T get the experience for you, but it CAN help you find it.

I developed some prompts which the Year 12 students could customise depending on their career ambitions.

1 prompt was for students who had a clear idea for what they wanted to do.

It would give them:

• The kinds of real-life experience that would typically strengthen applications in this field
• What specifically admissions teams or employers look for
• Ideas around what they could realistically do in the next 6-12 months to build that experience (including things that don’t cost money or need connections)
• A simple action plan with rough timelines

Then, showed examples of the prompt for medicine, law, marketing, with screenshots of the output. (Only a snapshot as I wasn’t able to do a live demo).

The 2nd prompt I shared was for students who, like me at that age, didn’t know what they wanted to do.

Instead, it used their interests as a starting point to give them career ideas, with some follow up prompts to dig deeper.

(I’ve included them below, in case you have a young person in your life who’s not sure about what to do next. With a bit of tweaking, you can use it to explore your own career options.)

This is the amazing thing about AI. Within seconds, you get a personalised action plan. You can explore possibilities.

But if you leave it there, the shortcut is an illusion.

The real experience comes from actually putting it into action.

And that’s what gives us our edge.

Best,

Charlotte

Next week: Borrowed vs Built

P.S. The Shortcut Illusion applies to presentations too. AI can help you draft slides or structure your talk. But it can’t give you the stories, the experience, the presence that makes you memorable. That’s what we work on in Conference Prep VIP. April bookings open. Hit reply.

PROMPT TO TRY THIS WEEK

If you have a young person in your life and they want to explore career ideas. (With some tweaking it can work for you too).

Step 1 — The Exploratory Prompt

“I’m a Year 12 student and I don’t have a clear career idea yet. I want to use my interests and hobbies to help me figure out what might suit me.

Here are some things I genuinely enjoy or am good at: [List 3-5 things — e.g. ‘I love music, I’m good at organising things, I like being around people, I enjoy creative writing, I’m into fitness’]

Can you:

1. Suggest 5-8 careers or fields that could connect to these interests — including some I might not have thought of?

2. For each one, explain in plain English what the job actually involves day-to-day?

3. Flag which ones tend to suit people who like [e.g. working with others / working independently / practical hands-on work / creative problem-solving]?

I’m not making any decisions yet — I just want to see what’s possible.”

Step 2 — The Follow-Up Prompt

Once you have a shortlist from Step 1, use this to go deeper:

“Based on that list, I’m most interested in [pick 1-2 options]. Can you now help me:

1. Understand what experience would help me explore these — not to commit, but to find out if it’s really for me?
2. Suggest low-pressure ways to test the water in the next few months?
3. Build a simple action plan that treats this as an exploration, not a decision?”

Why this works:

The two-prompt approach mirrors how good careers conversations work. Explore without pressure first, then take one small step.

AI is useful for thinking out loud - not just getting a final answer.

HOW THE COVER WAS CREATED

After my frustrations with ChatGPT over the last few weeks (too much smoothing, too much repetition), I tried working with Copilot for a change.

I had to input the saved Charl Ex M canon as training, but since it doesn’t have any memories of past covers, it offered a fresh perspective. We could discuss different styles and variations without it trying to maintain consistency.

Cover creation became fun again.

Look out for some style clashes in the coming weeks - and that’s intentional. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what you need.