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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Ive been curious lately: How might AI help my former studentsand so many others looking for new jobsin a challenging and complicated market? My conclusion: AI tools can serve as patient assistants. They can help you organize your search, reflect on career goals, and convey your strengths persuasively. Whether you’re pivoting careers or moving up in your field, here’s how to leverage AI to stand out and land a great opportunity. 1. Explore career directions Recommended tool: Googles Career Dreamer What it is: A career visualization tool. See a map of professional fields related to your interests. (See video demo below.) How to use it: Start by typing in a current or previous role, or a type of job that interests you, using up to five words. Then optionally add the name of an organization or industry. The free service then confirms job activities of interest and shows you a variety of related career paths. Pick one at a time to explore. You can then browse current job openings, refining the search based on location, company size, or other factors you care about. Example: Im not job hunting, but I tested out the service by typing in journalist, writer, and educator as roles and then journalism and education as my industries of interest. See my quick video demo below to see the result. Why its useful: I appreciate that Career Dreamer not only suggests a range of relevant fields, but also summarizes what a typical day in those jobs might be like. It also suggests skills youll develop and other jobs that might follow on that career path. Next step: After exploring potential career paths and looking at available jobs, you can jump into GeminiGoogles equivalent of ChatGPTfor further career planning. Career Dreamer helpfully enables you to copy your career interests and skillsas a summary prompt to your clipboard. You can then jump to Gemini to paste that into a chat about your career plans. 2. Clarify your career priorities Recommended tool: Gemini GemCareer Guide What it is: Gemini Gems are customized AI assistants. They are AI models tailored to be helpful in a specific context. One of the template Gems that Google created is a career guide. You can copy the Career Guide gem and edit it with your own professional interests. How to use it: Start by conducting a thorough “soul-searching” reverse interview with Gemini. Rather than Gemini answering your questions, task it to ask you the questions. Have it consistently nudge you to dig deeper into your own preferences, attitudes, objectives, and needs. Then have it summarize what youve said. Youll get better at understanding and articulating your own career perspectives. Try this career self-interview prompt: Give this prompt to Gemini or another AI tool of your choice to conduct a reverse interview. As Geminior another AI assistantinterviews you, youll develop a richer understanding of your own job preferences. Next steps: Use your Gemini Gem AI assistant throughout your job search to help clarify your own objectives and strengths, and to support you in developing your job search strategy. 3. Research target companies Recommended tool: ChatGPT Deep Research What its useful for: Unlike typical AI chat queries, Deep Research requests enable an AI model to autonomously develop an exhaustive report after searching the Web, examining hundreds of sites and other research resources, and completing a detailed, multistep analysis. You can use these personalized reports to learn more about industries of interest and specific aspects of companies that intrigue you. How to use it: Toggle on the Deep Research button in the ChatGPT box. Type a detailed query with your specific interests, skills, and the types of organizations you’re curious about. Request a comprehensive table of relevant companies with detailed information about culture, growth trajectories, or whatever else. Benefits: Learn valuable context about companies you may apply toand discover new organizations you werent aware of. Use this research to tailor your applications and to prepare for interviews by understanding industry trends. Pricing note: You get five free Deep Research queries a month on ChatGPTs free plan, as of May 2025, or more on a paid plan. Gemini offers a good free Deep Research alternative. Perplexity also offers free Deep Research reports, though theyre not as thorough. Alternative tools: Exas Websets is a powerfuland priceynew pro AI search tool that organizes results into a detailed table. It can draw on datasets like these, helping you identify great companies to target based on your own criteria. 4. Organize your search Recommended tool: ChatGPT Projects What it does: Lets you set up a dedicated AI folder for your career search. You can provide instructions and resource files so that every chat you have in this project takes into account the relevant context of your job search. How to use it: Provide detailed instructions for how youd like the AI assistant to help. Try having it guide you in building a realistic timeline for preparing applications, sending follow-ups, and reaching out for informational interviews. Ask it to assist you in designing a structured daily job search agenda. If youre applying to many different positions and have lots of tasks to juggle, it can help to organize your plans. Advanced tactic: You can upload examples of your past outreach messages or other writings as project resources. That will enable the AI assistant to help you draft new emails in your own style, whether youre letting people know youre open to new opportunities or reaching out to new contacts. Organize our job search tasks: ChatGPTs Scheduled Tasks” feature can help by sending you custom reminders. That could include an automated daily reminder of specific tasks to complete to maintain momentum. You can even ask it to periodically send encouraging messages to keep you inspired throughout what can be a lengthy, stressful process. Free alternative: ChatGPTs Projects require a paid plan, which starts at $20 per month. For a free alternative, create a Gemini Gem with similar functionality. 5. Polish your job application materials Recommended Tool: Claude Projects What it does: Gives you personalized AI assistance to help polish any materials youre creating. Give it specific instructions and upload background documents to ensure that it understands your preferences, strengths, and style. I have Claude Projects set up to assist with most of the things I work on, from new classes Im developing to volunteering projects. Heres why I recommend this. How to use it: Upload past cover letters, résumés, lists of accomplishments, awards, vision statements, or anything else youve created that you might want to build on for a new application. In your project instructions, guide the AI to maintain your authentic voice as represented in your prior writings. Ask for feedback on writing youre submitting, with prompts that specify the kinds of input that will be most usefulfrom grammar, spelling, and syntax suggestions to warnings about exaggerations, clichés, jargon, or redundancy. Request suggestions for additional information to include, based on the job descriptions you’re targeting. Using the personalized AI assistant for feedback allows you to highlight your unique human value, avoiding generic AI-generated content. Alternatives ChatGPTs Projects and Custom GPTs have similar functionality. You can add resource files and instructions to adjust how the AI assistants support you. Perplexity Spaces also allow you to organize prompt threads and add custom documents and instructions. Gemini Gems, noted above, offer a free alternative. I prefer the quality of Claudes responses and some of its features, like a custom editing style Ive trained it to use. 6. Practice for interviews Recommended tool: ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode How to use it: Brainstorm interview questions specific to your target role, industry, and even the particular company you’re applying to. Then practice answering these questions using voice mode for a realistic simulation. Build your confidence by practicing how youll answer various questions. Read more about seven ways to use Advanced Voice Mode. Ask for detailed feedback on your responses. Prompt your voice assistant to highlight strong points and suggest areas for improvement. Ask it to be as specific as possible and to help you practice strengthening your responses. Ask it to help you prepare for whatever interview context you expect to encounter, from technical questions and case studies to fact-based questions or casual, open-ended lunch conversations. Pricing: Full access to ChatGPTs Advanced Voice Mode requires a paid plan, but free users can access a daily preview of advanced voice mode powered by a model slightly less advanced than the top paid models. Alternatives Microsoft Copilot Voice is now completely free. Choose from eight voices. You can even adjust the voice speed. I like Wave, with his British-sounding accent, at 1.25 speed. Gemini Live from Google is also an excellent voice AI assistant. Like ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode, it can even use computer vision to comment on something you show it. Initiate a conversation while pointing your phone camera at a companys leadership org chart, for example, or public balance sheet, or a list of questions youve handwritten. Bonus tip: If your job search involves speaking or understanding multiple languages, you can use these voice models to practice speaking or listening in any number of tongues. Its a great way to practice live language skills. 7. Negotiate your salary Recommended tool: Deep Research (from Perplexity, Gemini, or ChatGPT) How to use it: Research average salaries for similar positions in your industry, accounting for variables like location, company size, and experience level. Generate comprehensive salary data in table format so youre ready to offer a data-backed rationale for your negotiating points. You can also research relevant benefits, company culture, and other factors. Im not actually looking for a job, but I generated these reports so you could compare real Deep Research results. Compare the Deep Research salary reports: Perplexity Report + original Perplexity thread ChatGPT Report Gemini Report Practice negotiating: Use the aforementioned voice AI tools to role-play negotiations or to prepare for difficult benefits conversations. Practice responding to everything from a surprise dream offer to one thats below your market value. More ways to use AI in your job search Put together a video reel: Eddie AI can streamline how you create a highlight reel where you need visuals showing how you stand out. Heres why I like it. Make a great deck: Gamma, Beautiful.ai, Pitch, and the brand-new Chronicle are great tools for turning talking points into polished slide presentations. Others Im learning about: Check out Aakash Guptas list of AI job search tools, including Poised (interview feedback). This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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E-Commerce
Liquid Death isnt just water, its a master class in disruptive branding. In this explainer, we break down how the company built a reputation by launching bizarre, unforgettable collabs. Learn how it became the king of viral marketing one stunt at a time.
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E-Commerce
When powerful storms hit your city, which neighborhoods are most likely to flood? In many cities, theyre typically low-income areas. They may have poor drainage, or they lack protections such as seawalls. New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, where hundreds of people died when Hurricane Katrina broke a levee in 2005, and Houstons Kashmere Gardens, flooded by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, are just two among many examples. With those disasters in mind, the Federal Emergency Management Agency made a big change to its Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide in 2023. The agency began encouraging cities, towns and counties to address equity in their hazard mitigation plans, which outline how they will reduce disaster risk. Local governments have an incentive to follow those federal guidelines: Those that want to receive FEMA hazard mitigation assistance money which can be used to repair aging infrastructure like roads, bridges and flood barriers or funding from other programs such as dam rehabilitation have to develop local mitigation plans and update them every five years. The new guidance required cities to both consider social vulnerability among neighborhoods in their disaster mitigation planning and involve socially vulnerable communities in those discussions in ways they hadnt before. However, as the U.S. heads into what forecasters predict will be an active 2025 hurricane season, June 1 through Nov. 30, that guidance has changed again. The Trump administrations new FEMA Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide 2025 talks about public involvement in planning but strips any mention of equity, income or social vulnerability. It mentions using projections for the future to plan but removes references to climate change. Who is most at risk in hurricanes, and why Hurricanes and other storms that cause flooding dont affect everyone in the same way. A legacy of redlining and discrimination in many U.S. cities left poor and minority families living in often risky areas. These neighborhoods also tend to have poorer infrastructure. In the past, local mitigation plans just focused on fixing roads or protecting property in general from storm damage, without recognizing that socially vulnerable groups, such as low-income or elderly populations, were more likely to be hardest hit and take much longer to recover. Low-income neighborhoods in Puerto Rico have been slow to recover from 2017s Hurricane Maria. [Photo: Ivis Garcia] The FEMA 2023 guidance encouraged communities to consider both the highest risks and which neighborhoods would be least able to respond in a disaster and address their needs. The equity requirement was designed to ensure that local plans didnt just protect those with the most wealth or political influence but considered who needs the help most. That might mean providing information in multiple languages in emergency alerts or investing in flood prevention in neighborhoods with aging infrastructure like roads, bridges and flood barriers. How New York Citys 2024 plan helped New York Citys 2024 Hazard Mitigation Plan, for example, included a thorough social vulnerability assessment to identify neighborhoods with high percentages of people who were living in poverty or were older, disabled or werent fluent in English. Knowing where disaster risk and social vulnerability overlapped allowed the city to boost investments in flood protection, emergency communication and cooling centers during summer heat in neighborhoods such as the South Bronx and East Harlem. These neighborhoods historically faced some of the greatest risks from disasters but saw little investment. The NYC Mayors Office of Climate and Environmental Justice mapped the risk of storm surge flooding in the 2020s (purple) and 2080s (dark blue), and neighborhoods that fall under the citys disadvantaged communities criteria. A 1% risk means a 1% of chance of flooding in any given year, also referred to as a 100-year flood risk. [Image: NYC Mayors Office of Climate and Environmental Justice] Further, New Yorks plan calls for expanding outreach and eary warning systems in multiple languages and enhancing infrastructure in areas with high concentrations of Spanish speakers. These kinds of changes help ensure that vulnerable residents are more likely to be better protected when disaster strikes. Why is FEMA dropping that emphasis now? FEMAs reasoning for the guidance change in 2025: make it quicker and easier to get plans approved and unlock federal funding for projects like flood barriers, storm shelters and buyouts in areas at high risk of damage. Its a pragmatic move, but one that raises big questions about whether residents who are least able to help themselves will be overlooked again when the next disaster strikes. And FEMA isnt alone other agencies, like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program, have made similar changes to their own disaster planning rules. Community Development Block Grant funds for disaster recovery are flexible and can be used for things like rebuilding homes and businesses, restoring infrastructure and helping local economies recover. What this means for low-income areas Some experts worry that the changes might mean low-income and other at-risk communities will be ignored again when cities develop their next five-year mitigation plans. Research from the Government Accountability Office shows that when something is required by law, it gets done. When its just a suggestion, its easy to skip, especially in places with fewer resources or less political will to help. But the short-lived rules may have already helped in one important way: They made cities and states pay attention to social vulnerability, climate change and the needs of all their residents. Many local leaders have learned the value of using data to understand where socially vulnerable residents face high disaster risks. And they have a model now for involving communities in decision-making. Even if those steps are no longer required, the hope is that these good habits will stick. Where and how communities invest in disaster protection affects who stays safe and who faces higher risks from flooding, hurricanes and other disasters. When government policy shifts, its not just about paperwork its about real people. Ivis García is an associate professor of landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M University. Shannon Van Zandt is a professor of landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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