How ChatGPT Can Help Your Job Search
Episode 397 | Author: Emilie Aries
Companies have been using AI to screen applicants for years - here’s how job-seekers can use it, too.
Today I want to break down how to leverage emerging AI technology - specifically ChatGPT - if you’re currently on the job search.
First - What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 families of large language models and has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. (Wikipedia)
AI technologies like ChatGPT have been used by applicant tracking systems (ATS) for years to screen applications. So odds are if you’ve ever had to upload your resume to a job site, you’ve already encountered AI systems on the job search.
Episode 361: Top Tips to Get Your Resume Past Applicant Tracking Systems
Prompt engineering is a concept in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in natural language processing (NLP). In prompt engineering, the description of the task is embedded in the input, e.g., as a question instead of it being implicitly given.
Your job is this case is to engineer - or craft your questions - for the AI robots we’re now interfacing with as thoughtfully as possible. So today I’m going to break down specific language and prompts I’ve used to get the best possible support from ChatGPT.
There are 3 primary ways that ChatGPT can help your job search:
Resume Keyword-Matching
We know it’s important for getting past ATS systems to have the right key words present in your resume, which should relate directly to the key skills and qualifications that each job description specifies.
It’s important that we match those keyword exactly. And to be honest, there are already some great tools out there for tackling this, one of which is called JobScan. You can upload your resume, the job description you’re applying to, and get insights into how well your resume aligns with the key words in that job description.
That said, I think we can also take this whole concept a little too far, so don’t over-do it. We don’t need to aim for a 100% match. Just know that it can be a helpful way to a robot’s take on what another robot screener is going to make of your resume.
To use ChatGPT in testing your application materials for the job search, here’s the prompt I recommend using:
"I want you to act as an expert in the field of career services and job-searching and tell me what key words I need to include in my resume and cover letter for this job description I'm applying to: [insert job description].”
It’s helpful to call ChatGPT an expert or consultant, so they’ll provide the best insights.
Values-Aligned Cover Letter Writing
The second prompt that can be helpful is for making sure your cover letter is values-aligned with the organization you’re applying to.
Here’s the prompt I recommend using:
"I want you to act as an expert in the field of career services and job-searching and tell me what kinds of stories or values I should illustrate in a cover letter for a job I'm applying to based on the company's mission, vision and values statements below: [paste the company’s “About Us” page from their website.]”
This can help give you a sense of the themes you might want to include in your cover letter or application materials overall.
Interview Question Prep
Now this third prompt is for when you’re already through the initial stages of the application process and are preparing for an interview. You can have ChatGPT help you develop the kinds of questions you’ll want to be prepared to be asked in an interview. Here’s the prompt:
"I want you to act as an expert in the field of career services and job-searching and tell me what interview questions I should prepare to answer based on this job description I'm applying to: [paste job description].”
What’s interesting is, if you just ask generically what kinds of questions you should prepare for in an interview, ChatGPT can still give you some decent ideas for preparation. But when you paste in the specific job description, you’ll get even more nuanced, customized ideas that speak directly to the key competencies associated with the role.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
All of this said, please keep in mind that robots are still just robots. They’re getting pretty good at imitating humans, no doubt, but they’re not the contextual, well-rounded processors that we humans are.
So use ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner, but don’t overly rely on AI. The limitations do become obvious when you begin working with the AI software for a while. It’s especially important to never copy and paste directly from AI into your application materials. You’re going to have to personalize and customize those materials to make them your own.
But if you need help getting the words flowing, this can be a great tool for breaking past writer’s block and getting your first drafts started.
If you’re looking for more support, check out our Job Seekers Resource Hub here or explore HIRED, our job search accelerator.
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Check out HIRED, our job search accelerator:
