How to use ChatGPT to find a job: prompt guide
- The free version of ChatGPT can now search for job listings.
- Job seekers can use the AI assistant to act as a personal recruiter.
ChatGPT just might be a job seeker's best friend.
Job seekers have already praised the bot for its convincing cover letters and ability to spruce up a CV — but a new update means the AI assistant can also do your job hunting for you.
Equipped with GPT-4o, the free version of the bot can now access the internet and trawl through job listings.
I decided to ask ChatGPT to look for jobs for me, and it came back with some pretty good results. The bot found six roles that matched my experience and location, even offering me tips on who to connect with at each company.
Here's how to get ChatGPT to act as your personal recruiter.
1. Be exact and give ChatGPT a persona
Telling ChatGPT what persona to take on has been shown to improve results.
Jason Gulya, an AI council chair at Berkeley College, previously told Business Insider that the bot works best when you assign it a persona, such as a specific job role.
Experts have suggested that beginning prompts with instructions such as "act as a professor" or "act as a marketing professional" followed by a description of the desired outcome improves its responses.
In this case, I told the bot to act as my "personal recruiter and go job hunting for me."
I also specifically asked it to search online for journalist jobs in London that I could apply for.
I also cautioned the bot to ensure the listings were still open and asked it to provide full links to its referenced roles to check the results.
2. Share your CV
It's important to share your qualifications with the bot so it can cross-reference your experience with the job requirements.
I included my CV in my first prompt, highlighting my most relevant experience. I also specified that ChatGPT should only send job roles I was qualified for.
3. Ask for clarification
Like any product that uses AI, ChatGPT can still hallucinate.
Hallucinations happen when AI-powered bots convincingly present factual errors as truth. Experts warn that this phenomenon could spread misinformation.
While most of the jobs ChatGPT provided were correct, it still made a few errors. In the case of one job, it misstated the salary, while in an earlier test, it invented a job entirely.
If you notice something amiss, it's worth asking the bot to check its own answers. I also asked it to share links to easily check my details.
4. Advice for next steps
After finding a job, ChatGPT can also help job seekers through the application process.
Not only can the bot help with cover letters and tailoring a CV, it can also identify relevant people to contact about the role and draft a message.
The chatbot can also help manage expectations by analyzing job seekers' qualifications for various roles.
ChatGPT provided me with a 600-word analysis of how strong a candidate I was for one role. It cross-referenced my experience with the job requirements, offering me a clear conclusion about the likelihood of landing an interview and sharing three tips to increase my chances.
And just in case you're wondering, I didn't actually apply for any of these jobs.