About 80% of new graduates in Japan use AI in their job search. One job seeker from a “mid-tier national” university got job offers from 5 major media companies after using AI in the applications.

I mean who doesn’t nowadays?

My question was “what does ‘use’ mean here?”

He used it for “self analysis” – a preparation step – and preparing scripts and likely questions for interviews.  Both of those seem innocuous to me, and not especially likely to mislead employers.

But he says he also had it “flesh out” his essays from around 300 characters of his own writing to a full essay under the 1000 character limits.  That seems problematic.

Still, even if I didn’t think asking students to write essays for job applications was both stupid and very open to cheating, in 2026 a company that doesn’t expect applicants to use AI for a task like that is a company led by out-of-touch dummies.

(In the past, privileged kids would hire a consultant or pay someone else to write it.  The change here is that high-level cheating has been democratized.)

In content and tone, the article feels like the Japanese media marveling at the amazingly clever *basic, straightforward use of AI* by a student in the job application process.

Kewl