[Edaily Shin Yeong-bin Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] Job seekers’ focus is shifting from how well they can utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to what they have actually accomplished using AI. Companies are also trending toward evaluating not only traditional qualifications—such as GPA, certifications, and language test scores—but also what problems candidates solved and what decisions they made in real-world projects.

Mr. B, a job seeker aspiring to become an AI engineer, completed several projects with the help of generative AI but realized he did not fully understand the code implementation and deployment processes, so he is now revisiting the fundamentals. Meanwhile, Ms. C, who is preparing for a career in content marketing, is considering how to incorporate her award-winning entry in an AI video advertising contest and her experience managing a short-form video channel with 10,000 followers into her portfolio. This illustrates that even with the same experience using AI, evaluations can vary depending on whether the candidate merely produced an output or can explain their own judgment and capabilities.

This shift in young people’s interests is also reflected in data from “Itda,” a mentoring platform for working professionals. An analysis of 56,030 questions from young people—accumulated over 13 years by the youth mentoring platform Itda—showed that the proportion of questions related to resumes and portfolios rose from 8.9% in 2022 to 14.7% in 2025–2026. AI-related questions also increased from 0.4% to 9.1% during the same period.

Approximately 3,500 mentors, including employees from major domestic conglomerates such as Samsung and SK as well as global Big Tech companies, participate on Itda. According to Itda, while questions about how to pass recruitment procedures—such as application submissions and interviews—dominated from 2017 to 2021, interest has shifted since 2022 toward how to showcase one’s experiences through cover letters, portfolios, and projects. Recently, concerns about career choices and how to utilize AI have also become prominent. Itda analyzed that young people’s focus is shifting from “how to get a job” to “what to showcase.”

The criteria companies use are also changing. Kim Seong-su, a professor at Seoul National University’s Business School, categorized traditional qualifications—such as GPA, certifications, and language test scores—as “input,” while projects, portfolios, and actual work experience are “output.” He explained that while traditional qualifications serve as basic requirements, projects and work experience provide evidence of one’s ability to actually get the job done. He advised that if securing an internship is difficult, one could start with small projects—such as planning a service or product with friends and handling the marketing and sales themselves.

AI is also lowering the barrier to gaining this kind of experience. Kim Jun-soo, HR Group Leader at FastFive, said, “In the past, job-specific expertise could only be gained through an internship, but now individuals can use AI to experience it firsthand.” For example, if you’re preparing for a marketing role, you can post content on your personal social media accounts and analyze the response, or run ads yourself to test hypotheses.

However, simply using AI is not enough to be recognized as competitive. Lee Chan, a professor in the Department of Industrial and Human Resource Development at Seoul National University, said, “What companies want to know is not whether you’ve used AI, but which of the answers generated by AI you discarded and which you kept.” Yoon Dong-yeol, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Konkuk University, also emphasized that one’s contributions and thought process are more important than the appearance of a portfolio. He explained that candidates must be able to describe what problems they solved, what data they utilized, how they identified and corrected AI errors, and what actual improvements the results brought about.

As experience becomes established as a new hiring criterion, the question of who is given the opportunity to gain that experience also becomes increasingly important. Jeong Ji-woon, Director of the Data Analysis and Performance Dissemination Center at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, said, “If experience becomes the new ‘spec,’ then who gets the opportunity to gain that experience will create a new divide,” adding, “We must create pathways that allow young people to build on short-term job experiences through projects and internships and connect them to their next career steps.”

In the AI era, competitiveness in the job market depends not on how many tools one has used, but on what problems one has solved using them and how one has verified and improved the results. If companies regard practical experience as a key evaluation criterion, they should not stop at simply requiring young people to gain experience. They must also expand opportunities for young people to demonstrate their capabilities through projects and on-the-job experience.