How to Stand Out as a Candidate When Everyone Uses AI

0:02Welcome back to Retail in America and I'm going to get right into it. I'm Ron Thurston recording from Miami and here's what we're going to do today. I'm going to show you how to stand out in this job market without sounding like everyone else. This is part four of my six episode arc that I've called the human edge in the job market. By the end of this episode, you'll have three moves that you can use immediately in your application, in your interview, and in your follow-up to make hiring teams remember you. And if you're new here, a genuine welcome and you picked the right episode. As always, the stats I reference are in the show notes.

0:43And if you want the full series sent to you, you can subscribe at ronthurston.com. And if you're actively searching for a new role right now, listen closely. Because if you're applying and then getting ghosted and getting auto-rejected or leaving interviews thinking, what am I missing? What am I doing wrong? You are not alone. But you do need a different approach because the market is really loud right now. And here's the question that I keep getting is how do I stand out? You're asking it because the market is crowded and automated and because a lot of applications read like they were written by the same invisible person.

1:24They have the same keywords, same safe language, same optimized tone. So here's the standard if you want to get hired. Stop trying to sound perfect and start trying to sound real. Because in this market, more polish doesn't automatically mean more compelling. Sometimes it actually means more forgettable. Because the edge isn't more formatting and more buzzwords or a smarter template. The edge is what polish can't manufacture, which is your voice and your specifics and your lived human experience. And today I'm going to give you three places to put that voice to work. Three moments where humans beat being polished.

2:10And I'm going to name the edge inside each one so you can stop guessing and just start executing. And now I'm going to start this by giving one number that should change your thought process. There's a recent AI and hiring report from Insight Global. They surveyed, there's a recent AI hiring report from Insight Global where they surveyed 1 ,005 US hiring managers in partnership with a research firm called Atomic Research. In that report, 88 % of hiring managers said they can tell when a candidate, in that report, 88 % of hiring managers said they can tell when a candidate's using AI to help with applications, cover letters, or resumes.

2:5888%. But now in that same data, about half of them said they wouldn't actually care if you used it. So this isn't never use AI. It's how to use it wisely. But here's the part that should land, that on a separate survey by top resume, 600 US hiring managers found that about one in five recruiters would reject a candidate outright if their resume or cover letter appeared fully AI generated. That's one in five. And while exact adoption rates are hard to pin down, it's clear that AI assistance is now just commonplace in job search, which means a lot of what's landing in inboxes is starting to sound the same.

3:42So think about what that means. The thing that was supposed to give you the edge, the polish, the optimization, the perfectly worded cover letter is the same thing that's tagging you as forgettable. The rules of standing out have been inverted because it used to be the more polished, the better, the more keywords, the better, tiger formatting, cleaner language. Now, the more polished becomes more invisible because everyone is polished. Polish is the new generic. And you know what? That's good news for you because standing out isn't about being louder, it's about being truer. And what still breaks through, what hiring managers say they're actually looking for, is the human voice underneath, the specific story, the detail no AI could have written, the line that sounds like you, that doesn't sound like a template.

4:41So let me put some real numbers on this for a second. Right now, the average corporate role is pulling somewhere between two and 500 applications on the low end for one single job. Now, ask yourself what the person on the other side of that pile of resumes is doing. They're definitely not reading carefully because they can't. There isn't time. They're scanning. They're looking for the one that doesn't blur into the rest. And in that pile of two to 500 resumes, the top portions are all going to look identical. Same headlines, same bullet structure, same buzzwords, same career summary, just in slightly different fonts.

5:24So when a hiring manager finally hits the application that sounds like a real person, that's specific and grounded and written in a voice they recognize as human, it stops them. That's the whole shift. They're drowning in polish and they're starving for real human voice. Because every leader I talk to right now is saying some version of the same thing. The bar isn't best resume anymore. The bar is, did somebody real actually apply for this job? So I'm going to show you three places to put that voice back into your search and three edges that live inside each one. And so as we get started, I want you to do a quick exercise with me.

6:10Grab a note on your phone and finish this sentence. I am the person who. Don't write your title. Don't write results driven. Write what you're known for when the stakes are real. I'm the person who calms the room when the store is melting down. I'm the person who can see why the numbers are slipping before anyone else notices. or I'm the person who turns a messy rollout into a clean process. That line about I'm the person who is your voice. That line becomes the spine of your cover letter, your interview stories, and your follow-up. So keep that closed as we go through these places. So place one is the application.

6:56And the first edge is being specific. So when you apply for a role, your resume and cover letter are doing two very different jobs. The resume is supposed to get you past the screen. The cover letter is supposed to get you remembered. And most people today are using a template for both. And the result is that they pass the screening, whether that's human or AI, and then get forgotten in a stack of 300 other resumes that all sound exactly the same. So here's what I want you to do instead. Write your cover letter or your LinkedIn message or your email to the hiring manager, whatever the introduction is, like a human, not like an applicant.

7:41So here's what I mean. So an applicant may say, I'm writing to express my interest in the position. A human would say, hey, I noticed you opened a store in Austin. I live the same expansion at my last company, and I remember exactly what week three felt like. An applicant might say, I have 10 years of experience in operations. But a human would say, for the last decade, I've been the person who walks in on a broken process and gets it working again. Last year, that was a 30 % reduction in onboarding time. And two years ago, it was a stockroom redesign that saved four hours of labor a day. They're specific and real and the kind of detail no AI could have generated because they don't know about it.

8:30And that's the edge, being specific. The exact stores, the exact week, the exact hours saved, the proof that you were actually in the room. That's the job of a cover letter now. Not to summarize your resume, to prove you're a real person who has lived a real career. So I'm going to give you a structure for your cover letter. So number one, one specific observation about them, about the company. Two, one specific example of you doing something similar. And step three, one sentence that links it to the role that you want. Three sentences that beats three paragraphs of polish every single time. So we go on to place two, to use your human voice.

9:20That's in the conversation because the second edge is presence. So if you've made it to an interview or a phone screen or a video call or even an in-person meeting, you've already won part of the battle. But this is also where most candidates lose the offer because they walk into the conversation with these great rehearsed answers. Sometimes they're very AI assisted. Sometimes they're perfect interview prep answers, the kind that are technically fine, but emotionally flat. And here's what hiring managers tell me they actually remember. They remember candidates who told a story, the candidates who paused before answering because they were actually thinking about the question instead of running a script in their head.

10:06The candidate who admitted, you know what, I don't know that, but then said, but you know what? Here's how I would figure it out. The candidate who asked a question that came from genuine curiosity during the conversation, not from an interview prep checklist. And all of these things have one thing in common. They're unrehearsed and they're present and they're human. And they are exactly what AI cannot replicate because AI doesn't pause, AI doesn't admit uncertainty, and AI doesn't get curious in real time. So here's my advice for the conversation. Stop preparing your answers and start preparing stories.

10:49Pick three to five real moments from your career. Moments where something hard happened or something unexpected, something that taught you who you actually are as a professional. Don't memorize the words, but memorize how it felt. Then when you're asked a question, you just reach for that story that fits, like they're already in your heart. And a real story told in your real voice with real specifics will land harder than any framework that you've practiced. For example, if they ask, tell me about a time you led through change, don't reach for the cleanest story. Reach for the truest one. Name the moment.

11:29Name what was at risk. Name the person you had to win over. And then tell them what you did next. And let yourself be a little uncertain in the room. Let yourself say, you know what, that's a great question. Give me a second. Let yourself be a person. Because this isn't a performance. Because the hiring manager is also a person. And they're exhausted by perfect answers. And what they want and what they're trying to find is somebody real. somebody who is actually in the room with them and not just narrating from a script because that's presence and that's the second edge and it's the one that turns an interview into a conversation and the kind that people say yes to so the third and last place to use your human voice is in the follow-up and the third edge I would call generosity and this is the place that almost no one thinks about, and it's exactly why it still works.

12:29A strong follow-up isn't doing the most. It's leadership behavior. It shows how you think. It's how you listen. It's how you communicate when the meeting is over. In an interview, most candidates send a thank you note with 24-hour notice, very polished, very polite, but forgettable. Thank you for your time today. I enjoyed learning about the role, and I look forward to next steps. That sentence says nothing. Could have been written by a bot, and it actually probably was. And so here's what I want you to do instead. After the interview, give yourself a beat, 30 minutes, an hour, and write down exactly what happened while it's still fresh.

13:10Then write a follow-up that does three specific things. First, reference one specific thing the hiring manager said that stuck with you. Not the company's hiring mission, something they personally said. something that only the two of you could have talked about. Second, add one thing you wished you'd said in the conversation, maybe a clarification, a second thought, a piece of relevant experience that didn't come up. And third, close with something forward-looking, not a polite send-off, a real one. If there's anything else that would help you make a decision, I'm happy to come back in, share more, or talk to anyone else on the team.

13:52That follow-up that's specific and additive and generous is unforgettable because almost nobody else is sending one like that. And here's the part that surprises most people because I've watched candidates win offers because of great follow-up in cases where the interview itself was just okay because the follow-up showed the hiring manager something the interview couldn't. It showed them how this person communicates when nobody is watching. It showed them care. It showed them intention. And it showed them generosity, the willingness to give a little more than was asked. And that's rare. And that's your third edge.

14:34And in a market full of polish, that's the rarest thing of all. Let me bring this home for you. Three places where humanity beats polish and three edges that live inside them. Number one, the application. Number one, the application, where being specific beats three paragraphs of optimized language. Number two, the conversation, where presence beats a rehearsed answer. And third, the follow-up. And third, the follow-up, where generosity beats a polite template. All three of these have the same thing in common. They require you to show up as yourself, not as the candidate you think they want, not as the AI polished version of who you are, the actual human being that has lived an actual career.

15:26And here's what I want you to take from this, especially if you've been at it for a while and you're exhausted. If your resume looks like everyone else's, stop tweaking the font and the synonyms. You don't have a resume problem. You probably have a voice problem. If your interviews are blending together, don't just memorize better answers. You don't have an interview problem. You have a story problem. And if your follow-ups are getting no response, don't send checking in emails. You don't have a follow-up problem. You have a connection problem. So here's the standard. Show up like a real person with real proof.

16:06Be a person deliberately. Use your name, your numbers, your moments. Say what you did and why it mattered. That's the edge an algorithm can't fake. And it's the edge the next Polish candidate can't out-template because it's yours. And you have to use it. And nobody can do that part for you. So this is exactly what my book, Human Pride, is built around. The idea that the most valuable thing you bring to any room is the version of you that hasn't been edited down to fit. The first four chapters of the book speak directly to the person standing in this exact moment. It's in the show notes if you want to spend more time with it.

16:49I'm Ron Thurston. This is Retail in America. And if this episode helped or you think someone else could get something out of this, send it to someone you care about. The one who's applying and doubting themselves and starting to shrink. Tell them, stop polishing and start sounding like you. Until next time, know your worth, own your story, and don't let a restructure write your ending. Thank you.