Why AI Won't Get You the Job

Originally published in The Journal.

How often have you decided that the best way to prepare for a job interview is to write yourself a tidy little script? And then tortured yourself trying to learn it off by heart, as if the panel had invited you to deliver a 45-minute TED Talk rather than have a conversation?

If that sounds familiar – or triggering – you’re not alone. Most people I work with do it too.
It feels helpful. It looks helpful. But it isn’t.

A script might look good in print, but it rarely sounds good. The way we write and the way we speak belong to different worlds. Writing is polished, deliberate. Speaking is reactive, unique to the speaker.

And interviews – by definition – are a two-way exchange.

Scripting answers for something that depends on interaction is illogical. It doesn’t prepare you to perform under pressure, for curveballs or to help you sound interesting, engaged and memorable

“Yeah, I get all that,” someone said to me recently, “but my vocabulary’s terrible. Can AI not sex it up a bit?”

There’s a long-held myth that the more polished our language, the smarter or more professional we sound. But interviews aren’t literary recitals. The goal isn’t to impress -it’s to persuade. To be understood.

Click here for Sarah's full article.