Recruitment in the Age of AI: Key Skills to Stand Out

The Impact of AI on the Recruitment of Young Graduates

In the current context, artificial intelligence is profoundly changing the job market, and young graduates are feeling the effects. Although job postings for junior positions are still present, candidates feel as though their applications are disappearing into a void. According to a report from Anthropic, there is a statistically significant decline in hiring rates for young people aged 22 to 25 in professions exposed to AI. This trend does not necessarily indicate an increase in layoffs but rather a decrease in new hires, particularly in software development.

Over the past year, I have personally interviewed more than 500 candidates for DareData. In parallel, I have recommended numerous candidates to companies looking to hire Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and Product Managers. Through this article, I want to share the strategies that have allowed some to succeed in this challenging context. These tips are not just about working harder or mastering specific technical skills, but about developing qualities often overlooked by candidates.

Taking Initiative: A Valuable Skill

The ability to take initiative is one of the most underestimated skills in the modern job market, and it is the first thing I look for during interviews for junior positions. I am particularly interested in situations where candidates have taken on responsibilities without being prompted. I have often discussed this topic on my leadership blog. "Taking care of things" may seem vague, but it means that when something is on your desk, everyone knows you will find the necessary resources to move it forward. This does not mean you already possess those resources, but that you are capable of obtaining them.

If you have ever worked in a team, you know the type of person I am talking about, and you also know how rare they are. This skill is valuable because AI handles the task layer well, but it cannot possess an end-to-end workflow across humans, systems, and ambiguity. It is this gap that is becoming increasingly valuable. If you become known for closing loops, you become hireable in a way that does not depend on current trends.

You can practice this skill anywhere: at school, in volunteering, even at home. Take on the task that seems too big and succeed at it. This will set you apart from other candidates who merely follow instructions.

The Art of Constructive Disagreement

The cliché version of teamwork advice is "be a team player," which is too vague. What I am really looking for during interviews is whether someone can constructively disagree with me during a 45-minute conversation. I will put forward an opinion that is deliberately a bit off-center, regarding an architectural choice, a process question, or how to define a project. I want to see how candidates think and whether they can exchange ideas and opinions without becoming defensive. The wrong answers are obvious: simply agreeing with me or arguing aggressively.

Well-disagreed is a skill that strengthens with experience, but you can get ahead simply by observing how poorly most young people do it. This ability to exchange opinions respectfully and constructively is rare among youth, but it can be developed through experience and observation.

Volunteering: A Lever for Networking

Volunteering is often underestimated by young candidates, but it represents a valuable opportunity to get noticed. My first real position with DareData came from a volunteering organization. I was not applying for jobs at that time; I was simply helping to manage things in a nonprofit context where I met people who later thought of me when a leadership position opened up. Volunteering in spaces related to the work you want to do is the way to expose yourself to luck.

The mistake juniors make is treating volunteering as a line on a resume. The resume line is the byproduct, while the real value lies in the time spent around action-oriented people, and those people remember you. Six months later, when someone says, "we need someone for X," your name is at the top of the list, especially if you follow tip number one.

If you are at the beginning of your career, find a student club, an NGO, an open-source project, or a meetup group. Be helpful in a place where useful people are paying attention.

The Importance of an Online Portfolio

In a world where AI-generated resumes are common, an online portfolio becomes essential for technical candidates. A well-stocked GitHub account or a personal website can concretely demonstrate a candidate's skills. When I review a junior application, the resume tells me what you claim, but the portfolio tells me what is actually true. As I primarily hire AI engineers, I can tell in 30 seconds by looking at someone's GitHub whether they understand what they are doing, the quality of commit messages, the quality of the README, the structure of projects, and whether the repositories are abandoned shells or actually functional things. Yes, and I can also spot AI-generated repositories!

You do not need impressive projects; you just need real projects related to something you love. Size does not matter, but the passion you put into it does. If you are not technical: the same logic applies, just in a different format. A portfolio site with case studies, a few well-written analyses on Medium, a presentation of a real project you completed. Anything that allows someone to evaluate the work, not just the claim.

Writing in Public to Stand Out

Most young people think they have nothing valuable to say until they have more experience, and that is false. I have read articles from students so full of curiosity that I would be happy to read a long essay from them. Choose a topic that matters to you and start writing about it publicly. Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, your own blog, it doesn’t matter. The platform is less important than consistency. The reason this works is simple: most juniors are invisible to recruiters until they apply. If you write publicly about your field for six months, you arrive at the interview already somewhat known. The recruiter may have read your writings or noticed you.

The trick is to write about what you are learning, not what you have mastered. It’s a win-win: you might get noticed, but you also improve your understanding of the topics you want to explore. Oh, and never let AI define your writing style. Everyone can spot AI-generated prose from miles away, so don’t cut that corner.

Mastering AI as a Collaborative Tool

Finally, the ability to work effectively with AI tools has become crucial. Every junior I interview now, I discreetly assess one thing: can they work with an AI tool intelligently? Today, working with AI intelligently is not about copy-pasting code or paragraphs from AI tools. I mean more: do they know when to trust the output, when to challenge it, when to verify, when to discard? Do they treat the model as a teammate they supervise, or as an oracle?

Juniors who are being hired right now treat AI as a multiplier of their judgment. Those who are not, see it as a substitute for their judgment. Do real work with these tools, frequently, and pay attention to where they help you and where they hinder you.

If you are a student or recent graduate reading this, I don’t want to mislead you: the market is tougher than it used to be, and the anxiety you feel is rational. Pretending otherwise would be erroneous. But the things that get you hired right now are not those that AI automates. AI is effective for tasks, but it cannot possess a workflow through humans and ambiguity, constructive disagreement in a room full of opinions, noticing what has not been assigned, being the trusted person for colleagues. That remains you.

Humans are not task executors. We are the layer that maps how tasks connect, who needs what, when something goes off the rails, and what is truly worth doing in the first place. This layer is becoming increasingly valuable, as there are more outcomes circulating that require someone with judgment to make sense of them.

Present yourself as the type of candidate who already seems to be doing the job, and the door will open. When you establish yourself as a reliable professional, your reputation does the networking work for you, with no application required.