Do you hate writing cover letters?
Or coming up with the perfect resume bullet?
Or just figuring out what to do with your life???
Good news: ChatGPT is here to help!
And while it can’t find you a job completely on its own (Robo Career Coaches are still a little ways off… ;), it can absolutely help at every step of the way.
Step 1: Find Your Career Path Using ChatGPT
Let’s start at the very beginning. Say you just graduated with a degree in Sociology and you’re looking to find a way to pay off all the debt you just accumulated.
Or maybe you took a high-paying job only to discover that you’d rather do something that involves your love for animals.
Either way, don’t just sit there and wonder what you could do - get a list of possible paths to start exploring:
Even if every single path that ChatGPT generates isn’t perfect, it’s better to at least understand the possibilities than to feel trapped and hopeless.
Generate 10 specific job titles that could be a good fit for me based on:
My Favorite Skills:
My Interests:
My Major:
My Resume:
Step 2: Test Your Job Fit with ChatGPT
OK, so you’ve got a list of 5+ paths that might be good for you. But how to figure out which ones will actually play to your superpowers - and which will just be your kryptonite???
Once again, ChatGPT is here to help, giving you a series of action steps that this former career coach highly approves of. Whether it’s networking with professionals in these spaces or getting the experience you need to get the job later, you’ll be in great shape with these smart techniques:
What are three specific ways I can test my fit with each of the following roles: INSERT ROLES
Step 3: Build Your Skills with ChatGPT
So let’s say you reach out to a bunch of professionals in your prospective new space - e.g., veterinary sociology. And there’s good news and bad news:
The good news is that you’d absolutely love the role - it would be a perfect fit for the kinds of things that energize you.
The bad news is that you’re not quite qualified yet. While you love the kind of work it entails, there’s still a skills gap between where you are today and where you need to be to land a job.
Rather than spend years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuing another degree, ChatGPT will help you pinpoint the exact skills you need to learn:
What are the specific fastest and cheapest ways to learn SKILL?
And that way, you can take just the right free course on Khan Academy or LinkedIn Learning (pro tip - you can almost always get free access via your public library) and close that gap ASAP!
Step 4: Create a Company List with ChatGPT
You’re really off to the races now - you’ve found a role that fits your unique gifts and passions, you’ve built up your skills to earn those roles, and now the only question left is, “Where to apply?”
Well, even if you’re exploring a relatively obscure space like veterinary sociology, ChatGPT won’t be stumped. Just ask for some job leads and it will produce a great ecosystem map of your desired space, laying out all the key categories you should consider:
Generate a list of the 100 top employers of X job title in Y industry and Z location.
Step 5: Review Your Resume with ChatGPT
So far, so good. But I know what you’re thinking: “Couldn’t I have figured out all of the above on my own?”
And you’re absolutely right - these are the kinds of questions savvy job-seekers have been conquering for generations. Or at least since the advent of LinkedIn and Google!
But now get ready for the real ChatGPT magic trick: Not only can it answer just about any question but it can also review just about any document.
Note that I said: REVIEW. Not WRITE - at least as long as you don’t want to sound like a robot… 🤖
So rather than ask it to generate a resume from scratch (which will also be full of hallucinations in addition to the robo-voice), feed it your existing resume and ask it to review the resume for a specific job (and accompanying keywords). You’ll be blown away by what it can do!
Please rate the following resume bullets based on the impressiveness of their accomplishments and their inclusion of important keywords for X ROLE. And suggest specific ideas to improve them, if possible: BULLET POINTS
Just to be clear: No matter which path you take, don’t assume that your resume is now 100% ready for primetime. As we all know ChatGPT can get a bit… ahem… creative sometimes. So make sure you review and edit everything before submitting, lest you get asked in your interview about ChatGPT’s unbelievable accomplishments… ;)
Step 6: Revise Your Cover Letter with ChatGPT
If you think writing a great resume is hard, imagine writing a couple dozen great cover letters. You can see why so many job-seekers either do copy-and-paste jobs (often listing the wrong company name) or skip them altogether.
And while there are plenty of good reasons to write a cover letter, you’ll find that having your own personal AI ghostwriter makes it so much less painful!
So just like with your resume, start with your existing version. And then feed ChatGPT your cover letter and desired job description to get feedback that will take it to the next level:
Please rate the following cover letter for an X role based on how clearly my skills and passion align with the role. And suggest specific ideas to improve it, if possible:
INSERT COVER LETTER
Step 7: Prepare for Your Interview with ChatGPT
Now your rockstar resume and cover letter have won you an interview. But there’s just one problem: There’s no way an AI can help you with that, right?
Wrong.
It turns out that ChatGPT has been trained on some of the best interview advice in the biz because it not only can give you a cheatsheet on the most likely questions, it can even give you sample answers to learn from:
Generate a list of the 10 most likely interview questions I’ll face based on the following job description. And for each question, generate an answer in Challenge - Action - Result format, drawing only from the following resume.
Job description: PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION
Resume: PASTE RESUME
And I’ve got to tell you, ChatGPT’s answers are a lot better than the ones I used to hear in mock interviews. They’re crisp, focused, and on-point - so definitely great models for you to build your prep around.
Step 8: Write a Thank You Message with ChatGPT
So the interview was a big success, thanks to your AI coach. But there’s just one last task to check off before you can rest on your laurels: The perfect thank you email.
And if you’ve been paying attention at all, you know that this is the exact kind of message that ChatGPT was born to write, provided you feed it critical details:
Generate a short thank you email to my interviewer, focusing on what I learned from the conversation, including: INSIGHT + APPRECIATION
Step 9: Negotiate Your Salary with ChatGPT
One of the biggest mistakes job-seekers make is that they’re so elated to win a new job that they don’t pause to negotiate their salary. And, of course, this mistake compounds upon itself because your starting salary is the base for your bonus, for raises, and for negotiating your next job offer.
So even if you’re conflict-averse, be sure to ask ChatGPT for a little guidance in drafting the perfect counterproposal:
Generate a short, conversational email to my recruiter, thanking them for their kind job offer (INSERT OFFER), and letting them know that I’d like to explore what’s possible based on the following facts:
-Current Salary
-Other Offers
-Pay Research for Role/Location
Step 10: Nail the First 90 Days with ChatGPT
Just like your starting salary sets the tone for your financial future, so do your first 90 days establish your overall trajectory in your new job. So rather than dive in head-first, come back to your old friend ChatGPT one last time for a little advice:
1) What are the 5 biggest challenges and opportunities facing X COMPANY?
2) What’s a 90-day action plan to tackle the job described in this job description: PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION
So there you have it: 10 steps to land your dream job. And while this journey has traditionally been a long and lonely one, it’s one that you no longer have to travel alone.
So whether you leverage several of these techniques or just a few, know that you need never be stuck on your professional trek. Especially with your handy AI guide by your side!