Using AI well, and honestly, in your job search

Before sharing your CV with an AI assistant, remove what you do not need to share, such as your home address, personal contact details and confidential employer or client information, and check the tool's current privacy and data settings. Then share the job advert and your CV, and ask for analysis rather than a rewrite. You stay in control of what is true.

• Prompt: "Here is a job description and my CV. List the five requirements the employer seems to care about most. For each one, show which line of my CV is the best evidence, or say that I have no evidence. Do not invent anything."
• Prompt: "Rewrite this bullet in the form action + metric + result. Keep every fact exactly as I have stated it, and mark with [?] anywhere you would need a number from me."
• Prompt: "Which keywords from the job description are missing from my CV? Only suggest ones that match experience I have described."

Then say the answer out loud in your own words. Memorised AI phrasing tends to sound scripted in a real interview.

• Prompt: "Ask me questions, one at a time, to help me turn this experience into a STAR answer: [short description]. Then draft a 90-second answer using only what I told you."
• Prompt: "Here is my STAR answer. Where is the result vague? What would an interviewer probably ask next?"

Voice mode, if your assistant has one, is useful practice for video interviews.

• Prompt: "Act as an interviewer for a [role] at a large [sector] employer. Ask me one competency question at a time, wait for my answer, then give me brief feedback on structure and evidence before the next question."
• Prompt: "Ask me five likely motivation questions for this role, based on this job description."

AI tools can be out of date or wrong about specific companies. Check facts against the employer's own website and recent news before you repeat them.

• Prompt: "Summarise this company's latest annual report or strategy page [paste text] in ten bullet points, and suggest three informed questions I could ask at interview."
• Prompt: "What are the main challenges facing the [sector] industry this year? List your sources so I can check them."

• Do not fabricate. Never let AI add skills, results, job titles or qualifications you do not have. Background checks, references and interviews are designed to catch exactly that, and a discovered fabrication can cost you the offer or the job later.
• Do not use AI during assessments unless the employer explicitly allows it. Many employers prohibit outside help in online tests and say so in the instructions. Some tests are proctored or monitored, and results are often checked again later, for example by a supervised retest or by questions at interview. Read each employer's policy and follow it.
• Do not paste confidential information, such as a current employer's data or someone else's personal details, into AI tools.
• Do not send AI-written applications unread. Generic text is easy to spot and does not show why you want this role.

AI can help you write about your ability. During a real assessment, follow the employer's rules on outside help and AI tools; unless assistance is explicitly permitted, complete it on your own. When the clock starts, what counts is whether you recognise the format, how quickly you work and whether you stay calm.

That only comes from practice. This is where ACE-Test fits: original practice questions with a clock, hints and worked explanations, so the real test is not the first time you see the format.