Tech & AI

“Thank you for your interest.” “We received a high volume of applications for this position.” “After careful review, we have decided to move forward with other candidates.” “Your qualifications are impressive. Unfortunately, we will be pursuing applicants whose skills do align more closely with our current needs.” “We encourage you to apply for future opportunities.” “We appreciate your time and wish you all the best in your job search.” “We’ll keep your resume on file for future consideration.” After six months of applying for industry roles, I had received every single variation of a rejection letter.  All these industry employers…

“I was hearing back from employers, Isaiah, but now I’m not.” This is a confession I hear with alarming frequency from PhDs who are trying to navigate this contracting job market.  One highly qualified candidate after another tells me they were receiving responses early in their job search.  At first, they found themselves facing a wall of automated rejections with a few hopeful phone screens. But at least that was something. What followed after a few months of Thanks-but-no-thanks is the most anxiety-inducing sound, one that job seekers in this market are too familiar with: silence.  The question this PhD…

When it comes to artificial intelligence, there seem to be two types of people: those who are curious about new tech and want to learn how to use it, and those with a healthy skepticism about how much power we give to machines.  I was in the second camp.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate progress.  I’m a PhD, after all.  But sometimes I feel like the tech that makes it to the mass market is dumbing down things that shouldn’t necessarily be easy. That’s why, in silent protest, I tried to do everything in my job search the old-fashioned…