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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Column: For job seekers, AI can be a helpful tool and a barrier, south suburban career counselors say
For job seekers, the use of artificial intelligence has become a double-edged sword. AI can be a barrier for many job seekers. It has led to more competition for jobs, made it more difficult for job seekers to meet face-to-face with hiring decision-makers and has been found to exhibit racial bias. But it can be a helpful tool when job seekers use it wisely, say career and job search counselors. 'Employers are using it to screen resumes and, in some cases, conduct initial interviews with people,' said Andrew Challenger. He is senior vice president and labor expert at Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which provides outplacement and career services. 'An employer with AI can have 1,000 people do a 15-minute interview to get to one candidate as opposed to before AI you could only do 25 to 30,' he said. 'That means there's more competition from other people around the country.' Meanwhile, a University of Washington study released last year found that AI-based resume screening tools often favor white and male candidates, over Black candidates and women. The study found that: The study used a collection of more than 500 resumes and more than 500 job descriptions across nine occupations and used more than three million comparisons between resumes. 'AI is trained and built on what humans do, and we know that there's a real amount of prejudice and bias that human beings have,' said Challenger. 'That has been in many ways pushed into AI as well.' But that can be fixed by training the bias out of AI algorithms, he said. AI poses challenges for job seekers who lack strong digital skills, said Alejandra Sinecio, chief program officer at National Able Network. The nonprofit provides career coaching and job search training at the American Job Center at Chicago Heights-based Prairie State College. 'A lot of our job centers are serving some of the most disenfranchised individuals who have very basic digital literacy skills,' and for them AI is an added complication, she said. Many job seekers don't know or understand how AI is being used, said Awilda Gonzalez, the director of Chicagoland Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Programs for National Able Network. 'We counsel them as job seekers, so they understand this is something that's out there, and it's better to utilize it,' Greg Hirn, career coach for National Able Network at the American Job Center at Prairie State College, said. 'It's something we should be adapting to and learning from as opposed to just ignoring and hoping it's going away.' Job seekers can use AI to help compile their resumes, saving time, said Challenger. They can use it to put together very specific and unique cover letters for individual employers and get much more customized and personal, he said. 'You can upload the job description and it helps pull out key words and buzzwords to highlight,' said Cydney Boyd, career counselor at University Park-based Governors State University. 'It can give strategies on how to stand out in your resume and cover letter. It can give you job search strategies and help you research career fairs or industry information and data. It can also automate job searching tasks. AI algorithms can identify relevant job openings that job seekers might miss through traditional job search methods, Boyd noted. It can provide feedback on one's interview performance, help with career exploration, spotlight skill gaps and recommend personalized learning paths to help one acquire in-demand skills, she said. But there are pitfalls jobseekers should avoid. 'We often see resumes being sent to companies and recruiters that are fully written with AI, and a discerning eye can really tell,' said Challenger. 'It's very clear to me when I'm looking at a resume written by AI, and that's not appealing. I talk to recruiters that say they get tons of resumes and cover letters that are so obviously written by AI, and they just toss them out immediately.' He said employers can also run resumes through AI and ask if they were written by AI. 'Really smart job seekers use AI to say, 'Ask me questions necessary to build a great resume. Give me some suggestions,'' said Challenger. 'But you have to do it in your own language.' AI should be used as 'a tool and not a crutch,' Hirn advised. 'Resumes and cover letters generated by AI should be considered a rough draft, a great start-off point,' and personalized from there, he said. Job seekers should also be aware that AI-generated resumes and cover letters can contain errors. AI is trained to draft resumes and cover letters to be the most optimal and include quantifiable information, explained Boyd. 'But sometimes it throws in fake information,' she said. So, proofreading remains important. To help mitigate potential bias from AI screening technology, Boyd said she has recommended to students concerned they have names that easily identify their race or ethnicity use an initial in place of that name on their resumes and cover letters. Job seekers also should be mindful of privacy issues when using AI, said Boyd and Hirn. A good rule of thumb is don't put in information you're not comfortable with the world learning, said Boyd. But job seekers should recognize AI in the hiring environment is here to stay. The adoption of generative AI, which creates new content based on patterns learned from large datasets, is rapidly increasing in human resource settings. The share of human resources leaders who are actively planning or already deploying GenAI has spiked from 19% in June 2023 to 61% in January 2025, according to Gartner, a research and advisory company. But for jobseekers, longstanding tried and true job search strategies remain important and should be a priority, career and job search experts advise. They note many jobs continue to be filled by referrals. 'You can use AI to decrease time that you are doing writing to every single person and sending emails,' said Challenger. 'Use it for that so you can use time to try to meet people,' said Challenger. 'It really comes down to the human touch, the human element,' said Hirn. 'It's not just about what we do with AI. We still very much have to be boots on ground, networking and making those personal connections with people.'
Chicago Tribune
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Perseverance pays off for Prairie State College photography students
Two young photographers from vastly different backgrounds had a chance to share the spotlight at Prairie State College as the spring semester wrapped up. Jamel Conner, of Chicago Heights, who won the school's Photographer of the Year award for his commercial art, and Huynh Vinh Duc Le, who has won various awards and scholarships for his serene portraits and other images, both share a love of the camera and what it can portray. Neither could afford a good camera when they came to the community college in Chicago Heights, but their work was featured in the school's Christopher Gallery in April and May. Both students are working on associates degrees in photography. Conner's featured photos were of a wedding dress, pages from magazines, glassware, jewelry and a percolator, all in calm, artsy settings. The images, he said, were the results of his efforts to bring objects to life. 'The idea of it being almost like a painting but it's real life,' he said. 'The ability to capture a moment to stop in time is something I wanted to be able to do myself.' He started toying with the idea of assembling a still life photo, but it morphed into something more commercial. 'It's almost editorial in a way,' he said. Conner's teacher, Rebecca Slagle, a professor of visual communications and multimedia arts, said there was much to like about Conner's work. 'It's very clean, he put a lot of thought into it,' she said. 'I like that it's quirky and fun and not boring still-life.' Duc, whose photos also were on display, said he'd loved taking pictures of landscapes and people ever since he was a middle schooler in Hue, the city where he grew up in Vietnam. Photography, drawing and journalism were required courses. But cameras were pricey, so he had to borrow one from a friend at school. 'I loved it and decided to get into it,' said Duc, who continued photography at the University of Education in Vietnam. He immigrated here with his mother in 2022, both sponsored by his grandmother, who has lived in Oak Lawn for 15 years. He's working toward his work visa. 'My mother wanted a new life,' he said. 'She's helped me a lot. She pays the rent and everything so I can focus on my studies.' He started helping out at a nail salon where his mom worked to help pay bills. 'When I came to the United States, I felt like I didn't belong here,' said Duc. But he persevered and made a home for himself at the college and started doing wedding photo gigs with another photographer. These days, one of his favorite subjects for pictures is his friend Ngoc, who he met at Tinley Park Community Church. 'She really liked the way I took her picture,' he said. Many other people have shared her enthusiasm for his work and he has received a number of scholarships and awards, including the Arts Unleashed Scholarships from the Prairie State College Foundation's Nicholas & Jacqueline Rinaldi and John B. Abate' Prize in the Arts recently. He has a full ride scholarship to Columbia College, which he'll attend in the fall. For Duc, the beauty of an image is in the details. 'I want to express my personality through the color grading,' said Duc. 'You can see my color is not that bright,' he said, pointing to his portrait shots displayed in Prairie State's gallery. Slagle, his photography professor, is one of his biggest supporters. 'Duc is an amazing photographer,' she said. 'Just the artistry and the connection I see with him and all the people he photographs. He has a way of making people comfortable.' Photography is making Duc more comfortable, too. 'When I take a photo, it makes my life happier — better. I'm improving myself,' he said. 'I want to tell people a boy from Vietnam came here to improve himself and to do things to gain experience and achieve a better life,' he explained. That sentiment isn't lost on fellow photographer Connor. Though always a hard worker, Conner said he was taken aback when he discovered he'd won the Photographer of the Year award, which includes a $1,500 scholarship to PSC. 'I felt like the other competitors were more talented than me, me being my own worst critic,' he said. But then he just felt grateful, not only for the award but for his own perseverance. 'Never assume you're not good at anything,' Conner said. 'After taking photos more and more, I gained more confidence and skill. It was that willingness to experiment and take risks.' He aims to use that confidence, skill and perseverance to do more commercial work, perhaps within a company's marketing department. Slagle, who also is coordinator of photography and graphic communications at Prairie State, said she was proud of the students' accomplishments as she 'watched them grow and the confidence they gain through the two-year program.' 'They're like your kids,' she said.
Hindustan Times
12-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Who is Boyce Kametra Lee, Prairie State College nurse viral for ‘white patients' post
Boyce Kametra Lee, a registered nurse and former student at Prairie State College in Chicago, has gone viral for her alleged Facebook post about 'white patients'. She allegedly claims to have harmed white patients, saying: 'I randomly off your kind regularly in the hospital." Screenshots of her Facebook post are going viral on social media. Neither the authorities nor Lee has reacted to the criticism yet. In one screenshot, Lee allegedly compared white patients to 'clear specimens'. A social media post, with the screenshot of her profile, has been viewed over 1.5 million times. Several X users accused her of racism and demanded investigations by Prairie State College. Reacting to Boyce Kametra Lee's post, one person tweeted: 'This is the product of one of your graduates: Boyce Kametra Lee. Still proud of her? Does your facility train people to skip over Whites, too? Filth' 'Is someone who says—jokingly or not—that she murders White patients under her care truly fit to practice as a nurse? @NCSBN, do you tolerate this behaviour of Boyce Kametra Lee? Think you have some work to do,' another one added on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. Prairie State College issued a statement this week, saying it is aware of the claims posted by an alumnus. However, the institute did not name Lee. The campus police has initiated an investigation. 'Prairie State College has been made aware of recent comments and claims posted on social media by an alumnus of the institution. In response, our Campus Police have initiated an investigation and have escalated the matter to the Chicago Heights Police Department for further review. While we sincerely hope that these allegations are unfounded, we want to assure our community that we take all such matters very seriously,' the college said in a Facebook post. 'We appreciate those members of our community who have brought this issue to our attention,' it added.
