To Be An Expert, You Need To Be Generous With Your Thoughts And Ideas.

I had a conversation with a great candidate recently who said something that really stuck with me: 

“To be an expert, you need to be generous with your thoughts and ideas.” 

It got us talking about AI, and more specifically, how much we’re using AI to support our thinking, and how often we’re starting to let it do the thinking for us. Scarily, there doesn't seem to be any boundaries with it, though it is painfully obvious when it has completely replaced any human thinking under the disguise of being more efficient. 

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve fallen into the trap of overusing it too. There are times when I’ve used AI not because it was necessarily the best way to approach something, but because it was 'seemed' to be the easiest the easiest.  

It gives you an answer quickly. Maybe too quickly. It cleans something up. It can turn a few rough thoughts into something that looks finished in seconds. Incredibly useful...But convenience doesn’t always create the best outcome and in the job hunt or recruitment, the way you use AI can leave an impression on the person receiving what you’ve written. 

Not always a good impression. 

We’re seeing more CVs, cover letters and emails where it’s fairly obvious AI has played a big part. It might be certain phrases that keep appearing. Lots of highlighted or bold text. Double dashes. Language that feels far more polished or formal than the person’s natural communication style. 

None of those things are a problem on their own. Well, maybe the double dash (it's a killer). The bigger giveaway is when it feels like something has been generated, copied, pasted and sent without much thought afterwards. Because the person reading it notices. And rightly or wrongly, they form an impression. 

Did this person take the time to think about what they wanted to say? Will they be able to think and communicate on the spot in the role?  

That matters when you’re applying for a job. 

If you’re applying for a role where you’ll be writing emails, communicating with customers, creating briefs, developing ideas or making decisions, your application is already giving someone an insight into how you work. If you haven’t been able to write or properly edit an email introducing yourself, it can naturally raise the question: what happens when you need to do that as part of the job? 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use AI? I certainly do! And I have not intention of stopping. 

Use it to make your writing clearer. 

Use it to challenge an idea. 

Ask it what you’ve missed. 

Use it to structure your thoughts when they’re all over the place. 

Ask it to critique something you’ve written rather than immediately asking it to write the whole thing for you. 

But then... 

Read it! 

Question it! 

Change it! 

Put your own thoughts back into it. 

If there’s a word you would never say, remove it. If a sentence doesn’t sound like you, rewrite it. If it has turned something simple into three paragraphs of corporate language, simplify it again. Because there is something valuable about being able to communicate an imperfect thought in your own words. 

Particularly in the industries we recruit across, employers are looking for people with ideas, judgement, opinions and an understanding of people and brands. They don’t necessarily want the person who can create the most perfectly polished paragraph. 

They want to know what you think. 

That brings me back to that original conversation. 

“To be an expert, you need to be generous with your thoughts and ideas.” 

There is something incredibly valuable, and genuinely special, about our ability to think for ourselves, question ideas, form opinions and come up with something new. AND to be able to share that with other people. We shouldn’t let convenience slowly chip away at that. There probably won’t be someone sitting beside you telling you when you’ve used AI too much. That boundary is yours to set.  

So before you hit send, ask yourself: is AI helping me communicate my thinking, or has it started doing the thinking for me?  

Be generous and keep sharing your thoughts and ideas. They’re what make your perspective valuable. .

If you’d like to connect with Mikaela, please email Mikaela@thetalentmill.com.au today.

By Mikaela Young // Edited By Shannon Parsons