Can ChatGPT help you land your next dream job?

Work places

from Perry Ormont Bloomberg

May 14, 2023 | 7:55 in the morning

Remember when “having mail” felt like cutting edge technology?

Now a little thing called ChatGPT is ready to change the way we work.

If you’re not familiar, in a nutshell: ChatGPT uses artificial intelligence via a downloadable app from OpenAI.

It’s free or $20 per month for premium and uses machine learning to understand natural language processing.

This makes it possible for the chatbot to compose human prose.

Lest you think this is a temporary craze, Cliff Jurkiewicz, vice president of global strategy at Phenom, a global HR technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, emphasized that in 2023, we’ll see businesses looking to generative AI’s ability to perform tasks on -better and faster and with increasing levels of precision.

“Its reception will be unlike anything we’ve seen before and it’s already started to prove that,” he said. “ChatGPT is a real example of generative AI and gained one million users in just five days in December 2022.”

In comparison, Netflix took more than 3 years to reach one million subscribers.

When Jurkiewicz first joined ChatGPT, he asked him to write him a song, a job description and a script, but “he really had to be prompted and fed examples to learn my style,” he recalls.

That’s why Jurkiewicz recommends that people using ChatGPT share 10 writing examples with the program and prompt it to “analyze my tone” so that it becomes more personal.

In HR, ChatGPT “can change the future of recruiting by using it to reach candidates, write job descriptions and generate interview questions,” said Mitch Chailand, president of Canal HR in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, job seekers can use the tool to help prepare for interviews, enhance resumes, match cover letters to job descriptions, and enhance LinkedIn profiles, among other things.

Ahead, what to expect from ChatGPT in the job application landscape, from HR professionals.

Improve your job application

Yes, experts say it’s kosher: Jurkiewicz equates using ChatGPT in a job search to using an automatic spelling and grammar checker.

Generative AI can also help candidates identify skills, competencies and even important keywords that are often missed by job applicants.

“If used responsibly, these tools can act as a powerful agent, helping a candidate present themselves in ways they may not have thought possible,” Jurkiewicz said.

Chailland also thinks using ChatGPT when applying for a job is fine, but cautioned that you’ll still want to make sure your text is personable, makes sense, and emphasizes your personality.

“To make the most of ChatGPT, have it proofread your work or help optimize for a particular keyword, rather than asking it to draft a cover letter or answer an application question,” he said.

Consider it your job search assistant

ChatGPT can help with overcoming writer’s block, researching alternative positions, uncovering similar jobs in a new industry, creating a list of target companies, and asking future interview questions. But the way you’ll find that dream job hasn’t changed.

“You still have to do your homework to get ahead,” said Maurice Isaacson in Montebello, N.Y., executive vice president of sales at HR platform Empeon.

But “for motivated job seekers, ChatGPT can be a valuable information tool that makes the process easier. They can ask ChatGPT to research the role and identify key talking points for an interview or request a keyword analysis. They could even ask ChatGPT to rate their resume and suggest improvements.”

Whatever ChatGPT gives you, proceed with caution.

“Remember that AI-generated information is drawn from a data set that is far from perfect or even complete. Don’t assume it’s 100 percent accurate,” Isaacson said.

Use it to draft work emails

Bots to the rescue again.

“ChatGPT can be used to remove the routine and repetitive elements of drafting templated or scripted emails and cover letters,” said Isaacson. “However, it’s always important to consider ChatGPT output as a ‘first pass’ that will require a human to review before sending.”

Not all email communications can or should be handled by ChatGPT.

“Many business emails are of a specific nature and require information that cannot be discovered through ChatGPT’s dataset,” he said. “And with some subjects, sensitivity and the human touch are a must.”

Chailland also advised caution.

“If you put in some confidential information about the employer, the AI ​​can learn from that and it can create legal problems,” he said.

Never use ChatGPT for this one thing

Firing employees via AI is a no-no.

So if you have the dire task of giving the ax to someone on your team, stick to your own lower-tech, albeit humane devices.

“Not only would this not be best practice (for many reasons, including liability and wrong answers), this scenario represents a general misunderstanding of what AI is designed to do,” Isaacson said. “The employee who is fired is a person who deserves the respect of being communicated with by another person, not through a text message or an AI bot.”