How To Use ChatGPT in Your Job Search

 

Technology changes how job seekers search, prepare and find jobs—and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will accelerate those changes. One of the latest advances in AI is ChatGPT, a large-language model from OpenAI, an AI research laboratory. In simple terms, it’s a very advanced chatbot, a computer program designed to simulate human conversation. ChatGPT is some of the most advanced software of its kind, drawing from millions of texts to predict the next words in a sequence.

 Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022 the site has gone viral. In fact, if you’ve tried to access the software in the past several weeks you’ve probably been met with a screen stating that “the site is at capacity,” and some people online claim they’ve been stuck in ChatGPT’s waiting room for several days. There are, of course, ways around this roadblock. Like refreshing your browser until you’re granted admittance, which can take upwards of an hour in some cases.

 But depending on what your intention is with the software the wait may very well be worth it—reducing hours of work into one (or several) well-worded queries. There are the obvious and, some might argue, problematic uses for ChatGPT, like writing articles or academic essays, but the software has the potential to offer help in more ways, all it takes is learning how ChatGPT works.

 To that end, we wanted to test ChatGPT to see how it might be a valuable tool in the job search. We specifically looked into how it could be used to do research on a company, write a resume and cover letter or prepare for an interview. Keep reading to learn what we discovered.

 The program has access to texts from 2021 and earlier, so anything more recent is beyond its reach. It’s not actively searching the internet like other popular AI. It’s also prone to generalization, so the more information you can give it, the better.

 After OpenAI’s easy signup process—you just provide an email, password and phone number—you’ll be greeted with a chat window through which you can ask ChatGPT just about anything. According to a report from NPR, educators have been grappling with the fact that it can write many students’ assignments for them. And writers at Vanity Fair have found that ChatGPT can very accurately write in their voice.

 1. ChatGPT for researching a company

Whether you’re just beginning your job search, or looking into a company you have an interview with, researching is a critical part of the job search. Here we explore how to use ChatGPT to look up information about a specific career field and a specific company.

 ChatGPT can be much more useful for research than Google due to its iterative ability. Currently, if you want to find something specific on Google, you have to enter a random collection of search engine-optimized words. If you Google, “Web designer job Portland,” you’ll get a link to open jobs. ChatGPT can’t access specific job openings—but what it can do is tell you how to find them. In this case, it refers you to a local institute where other members of the profession take classes and attend networking events. Search engines tell you what—but ChatGPT tells you how—and that can be very powerful.

 But even its version of what can be superior to search engines. This is a great way to do research and learn more about any companies you might be applying to. One major caveat: as mentioned, ChatGPT does not have access to any information post-2021, so it’s worth checking anything you learn against other sources. If and when the program gains internet-search functionality, it could become a threat to traditional search engines.

 2. ChatGPT for resume and cover letter writing

In addition to research, ChatGPT can also assist you with cover letters and resume writing. Giving it as much information as possible, you can use it as guidance to craft a cover letter or resume. Reporters and writers at various outlets have tested ChatGPT-penned cover letters against real-life recruiters. It lacks the personal touch where we learn about a candidate's human experiences, anecdotal evidence to back up their skills, and passion for the role.

 In other words, ChatGPT can give you an amazing template that shows you exactly what to put where, but it can’t speak to the visceral experience of your past employment. Still, there are some ways to make this limitation work for you. Expand this into a full cover letter paragraph” or something similar, and the results were exactly what he needed

 3. ChatGPT to prepare for job interviewing

Last but not least is interviewing. Though this is perhaps the most talked-about feature in relation to ChatGPT job search assistance, it’s also the most difficult to master.

 You can ask ChatGPT, “What are some tips for preparing for a job interview?” It will respond by telling you to research the company, review the job description and prepare to answer common questions. You might follow up by asking it for some examples. It will respond, “Tell me about yourself. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?” All pretty general stuff.

 You can ask it for sample responses to any of those questions, but if you want to get the most use out of ChatGPT, it’s best to iterate. Iteration is key.

 Meaning, ask increasingly specific versions of the same question. So, instead of just asking it how to prepare for any job interview, give it details such as the job title and company you’re interviewing for and your level of experience. Typing in, “Interview questions for a senior software engineer” gets you questions like “Can you describe your experience with code review and testing processes? How do you ensure the code you write is high quality?” You could even go beyond that, asking it to question you about certain programming languages and more.

 Ultimately, however, these responses are going to be more useful for your own preparation than to give you functional answers. If you respond to the questions, ChatGPT will likely rate your response as “satisfactory,” and move on to the next question. Again, it’s just a text generator. It has no idea if your answer was good or not; it can only generate what it finds is the most likely follow-up response, which is more or less “Thanks! Next question…”

 Similarly, if you ask ChatGPT to answer the questions itself, your results will vary. For example, when asked the previous question about coding, it will tell you “As an Artificial Intelligence, I do not have personal experience with code review and testing processes.” It will then go on to explain the process of code review.

 So it’s best used as a generator of questions, not as a mock interview partner. But soon, you may find yourself in a situation where ChatGPT-or a chatbot like it-is the one conducting the interview.