... ChatGPT and its job-application ability

A story of reluctant acceptance; even slight admiration. Guaranteed 100% human-crafted content.

Image credit: Taylah Cunningham, for Bent Shed Produce

Note: I wrote this article originally in December 2023. My understanding of AI has increased enormously since then. I wanted this article up partly because the basic technique for finessing job applications still applies, and partly because it reminds me how I thought AI worked at the time, vs what I know now.

Late last year, I couldn’t find a job. I was between contracts and the gap was getting longer and longer. After a Facebook whinge, a friend suggested I run my CV and job applications through AI.

After resisting for a few hours, I was persuaded that “if you can’t beat them, join them”, and set myself to learn and play what I could.

I used the free version of ChatGPT because that’s what everyone was talking about at the time.

Conclusion

It takes the drudge work out of job applications. It really does. I hate that it works so well but on the other hand, applying for jobs is so utterly soul-destroying, especially as I’m lucky to get a response to 1 in 10 of my applications, that anything to reduce that stress has got to be good.

So if ChatGPT can increase my hit rate without any extra effort on my part, and without adding to my stress … I would be a fool not to use it.

Overview

These days, it really seems to be “have my robots talk to your robot” when it comes to applying for jobs. I doubt recruiters are putting human eyeballs on CVs until and unless their databases spit them out in response to new job search.

And their databases are just cross-matching terms between ads and CVs. That’s all.

As a technical writer, I hate it. I’m meant to be employed to write content; how is using AI to write the applications demonstrating my ability to write?? But it’s really not about that any more. It’s just about matching words and phrases to get an actual human reading my CV.

So I had to first acknowledge that I know this is threat to the sort of work I do. And then get over myself. It’s here, others are using it, so I might as well get to grips with the bloody thing.

Having done that, I could put myself into a “here’s a new bit of software that I need to learn about” mindset - which is a key skill I mention a lot, and which I actually enjoy doing. I’m good at it. Ironically.

Once acknowledged as “play”, it was surprisingly fun and mildly disconcerting to muck about with.

I spent a couple of hours playing with it, spooling information back and forth until I got something I wanted to work with.

Things to keep in mind

• It will do what you ask it to do, using either the words it already has, or the words you give it.

• If you want your words to be part of the response it gives back, you have to provides those words to it first.

• It stores content it’s given and will probably use it for someone else. Don’t provide anything you don’t want regurgitated.

• Don’t trust it to provide correct information. Always, always cross-check content.

Job applications are a good narrow scope to work with, because you’re feeding it the job ads and your CV and telling it to spit out content using basically just those things. It won’t invent new roles you’ve done; but it will probably reword the way you said you did those jobs, and it might emphasise things that you hadn’t considered important.

So with job stuff, the trick is to feed it enough information that it can then spit out relevant stuff.

Want to know more about how AI works under the hood? (Sort of). Have a look at my longer post:

... a token of mAI appreciation ...

Process

Here’s the steps I followed that produced a result I was willing to submit to recruiters or HR managers.

1. Log into ChatGPT at https://chat.openai.com/. Note: you can use any AI system. But that’s what I knew about at the time.
   
   You do need to create an account. I invented a new name and used a throwaway email address. Remember that this is public information, and anything you feed it goes to feed its own algorithms and capabilities.
   
   Note that the free version (3.5) is slightly less capable than version 4. You have to pay $US20/month to access v4, however. (Price correct as at December 2023).
   
   For job applications, which is more about style than creating accurate content or debugging software or writing blogposts, 3.5 seems to be adequate.

2. Give it a command like “Re-write my CV for a technical writer using Australian English”. You MUST specify Australian English if you don’t want “z” and “our” all over the place. It will respond with something like “provide your CV”.

3. Copy your CV from the Word file and paste it in. Remove your name, email address, phone number, and any other personal details.

4. Watch it do its thing.

5. When it’s complete, copy-and-paste the results back into a Word file and read/edit it carefully. Cross-check it against your original CV.
   
   While the AI version should be more more a stylistic tweak than changing actual information, it can still get repetitive, make layout errors, or even get a bit inventive.

6. Go back to ChatGPT and try multiple variations on your role to see if it creates different CVs.
   
   I tried this with a few variations (technical writer, knowledge manager, librarian, content creator) and to my surprise, did get results that were different enough to be significant. So don’t limit yourself to your “primary” role. You’ve got time; bung in every industry you think you might find jobs in.
   
   I saved all the different versions and compared them. It was educational seeing how it thought different industries would prefer CV content to be presented.

7. Rinse and repeat until you get result/s you’re happy to put your name to. Re-add your personal details to the CV/s and save them.

8. Find an ad for a job you want to apply to.

9. Go back to ChatGPT and tell it “Create a cover letter for this job using Australian English”.

10. Copy and paste in the entire job ad, including name of workplace and description and requirements and all.
    
    That was, I found, key to getting a halfway decent cover letter.
    
    I normally just respond to the requirements, keeping the job description in mind but responding in dot point format to the specific “you must” section.
    
    But this is AI, and feeding AI everything means it’ll match its output more closely to what the job ad is asking for.

11. Take the supplied output and, again, tweak and edit in Word. Check for repetition, invented roles - it can do that - or truly cringe-worthy content that you wouldn’t want to admit to.

12. If it’s too long, go back and say “write a cover letter in 500 words” or even try “that’s too long; make it shorter”.
    
    I changed styles again here, telling it to “write like a technical writer” or “knowledge manager” or “editor” and so on.

13. Not finished yet! Now you get it to tweak your CV to match the job and cover letter!
    
    I generally don’t do this in job applications. When I’m applying for multiple new contracts every day, I don’t have the time to re-write my CV multiple times.
    
    But AI has the time and ability.
    

14. So tell it to “update my CV to match this job”. You may need to feed your preferred (AI-tweaked) CV back in, or it might use the one it’s already created and which is currently stored in its memory.

15. Now you’re at the playing stage. Keep feeding stuff in, and playing with output, until you’ve got something you’re willing to put your name to.

16. Take a deep breath and submit the AI-tweaked content for the job.

17. DONE!

Aftermath

The first time I did this, I played for about 45mins. Just getting a feel for how things worked, comparing results, feeding information in and tweaking it and feeding the tweaked content back in again, until I was comfortable with the results.

Then I applied for three jobs in under 10mins by repeating steps 7-10. And that included the time spent finding jobs to apply for in the first place.

It left me feeling vaguely … discombobulated … by the ease of the whole process. Normally that would take hours.

To my irritated astonishment, I got callbacks for all three. One of them I didn’t even remember what I’d applied FOR.

See, I’d spent so little time on the process that the job hadn’t burnt itself indelibly into my brain. It felt like eating fast food - chew, swallow, done.

I didn’t like the way it made me feel but at the same time, it was easy and calm and I know that recruiters are spending precisely that amount of time thinking about me. And the lack of stress really did make up for everything else.

Suddenly, applying for jobs became practically a game.

I was equal parts relieved and irritated when one of the AI-tweaked applications and CV actually landed me a job I really wanted to do. Yes, it worked. It really did. Dammit.

Got thoughts? Has AI helped or hindered you? Let’s discuss it!

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