Using AI to find your next role
How to help everyone looking for a job use AI better....
TL;DR - to skip my POV and see the steps scroll to: “Here’s how to use ChatGPT effectively as the assistant”
Over the last year, I’ve heard story after story from people I know who are highly qualified that they’ve applied for over 200 roles and still haven’t gotten an offer.
I’ve spoken to some well-experienced career coaches who vary in their precise expertise - but one theme is common - they say many well experienced people they know aren’t even getting interviews because their CVs aren’t being seen. On one hand the explosion of AI tools has led to employers being bombarded with thousands of CVs. There are many tools that automatically submit CVs with virtually no effort from the applicant. Add in the ingredient of some people believing it’s a numbers game and they will submit as many CVs as they can - and you get an absolute mess on the side of the employer. The experts tell me that on the bombarded receiving end are very junior staff who are tasked with pulling out CVs that meet certain criteria and keywords. This means, I’m told, that if your CV doesn’t have the right keywords in the top part of your CV - your CV will not even be read by a human. One American executive recruiter explained that there are some features on LinkedIn and ATS systems that will make it highly unlikely your CV will be seen especially if you are UNEMPLOYED. The reason: you current title must match what is being searched. He told me my last “official” title did not in any way match what anyone would be searching for. It's hard to be seen by ATS.
As an aside, I'm not sure what makes me more upset - the fact that the system is broken or the fact that so many people busted their chops throughout the pandemic only to end up without a job when the world was starting to look more normal? I suppose its a new normal. A lot of people have struggled because the pandemic took a toll. Many people have been exhausted. It took a tool on mental health and physical health - in many ways. And for some people this has been while they were entering what was supposed to be their peak. And you know what? A lot of those same people were hit in the dotcom bust, 9/11 tragedy, 2008/2009 financial bust, and now...again.
This time, some say AI is the culprit. Well, AI can also be your friend.
But take note, while a lot of job posts are clearly written by AI, and posted and reposted, the word is that inundated recruitment teams are looking for ways to stop applicants from using AI. Is it a wonder people are struggling?? So many people just want to get back into work and do a great job.
So while I'm busy hunting new contracts or even a perm role if the right one finally comes along -- I'm still always happy to help others. So please use this and/or share it.
Asking AI to do your work is where people run into problems. AI is an assistant. It can be an incredible one and an unruly one. I may or may not have experimented too much in the last year with AI on CVs and on my LinkedIn profile. Between a some huge issues outside of the professional world, I wasn’t my laser-focused self. At some point I paid someone with amazing reviews to make sure my CV was ATS friendly. I thought they did a fabulous job because from that point on it's been much easier for me to upload my CV and have it parsed perfectly into forms. (Which saves a lot of time.) BUT, and this is a big BUT, I failed to notice that CVguy had CHANGED the meaning of some things in my CV and added things that were inaccurate. Don't ask how I didn't notice this -- all I can say is that this year has been like a Tale of Two Cities (the best of time and the worst of times). In fact most of the time that I use ChatGPT or Claude -- this happens and it's as annoying as Fudge.
Here’s how to use ChatGPT effectively as the assistant:
Start here: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-MrgKnTZbc-resume
Use the paperclip 📎 to upload your current CV.
The GPT will respond: I have extracted the key sections of your resume. Please confirm if this looks accurate.
Take the time to review and correct anything that is significantly wrong. Make sure it has not omitted anything or stopped processing which can happen. It will summarise some information which may be beneficial. If you feel significant information has been omitted, you can write “It seems some information has been omitted from my CV, can I paste my CV for further review.” And it will review what you paste. Just remember that if you are using a free version, this will be using more of your allowance. I prompted, “There's still a lot of missing content. It's like you've summarised a lot. But lets proceed.”Next GPT response: Thank you for your patience, and I understand your concern. I'll ensure to carefully analyze the content you provided in detail without further summarization. Let's proceed with the full analysis, including all the bullet points and achievements as presented.
I will now begin with the overall diagnosis based on the complete content you've provided. Here are the 10 dimensions for evaluation:
In this evaluation the GPT will give you a table with scores and commentary. (apparently I could do better with diversity of verbs!)The GPT will respond: Next, I'll move on to a detailed analysis of the individual bullet points for each role, starting with your most recent role at Company Name.
Shall we proceed with the detailed breakdown, or would you like to discuss any specific aspects first?
You can reply “proceed”.
From this point the GPT will analyse your role by bullet point, identify any problems and suggest improved version. It will do this job by job throughout your CV.
If you need to figure out if your resume or CV is written for ATS, or just how to make it stand out more, I have a tool for you. And again, one challenge is that on a free version of OpenAI you might run out of your daily allowance.
NOTE: The GPT will automatically write in US English. If you are in Canada or the UK you can ask it to revise for that version.
