The ChatGPT Guide for Candidates: Using ChatGPT Part II

Part II: The Job Search

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It’s no secret that ChatGPT has revolutionised many things across many sectors. It’s fast and relatively simple to use. But, to get a strong output, you have to give a strong input.

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Since its launch, we’ve seen AI-generated CVs, cover letters, and outreach messages. You name it, we’ve seen it. Some are fantastic. Others, not so much.

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But, we can’t deny that ChatGPT has the potential to be incredibly helpful for job seekers. Whether you’re looking for interview tips, need some help with your CV, or want to build a personal brand on LinkedIn to boost your credibility, ChatGPT claims to be able to help.

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In this series, we’ll explore and review ChatGPT’s capabilities for candidates. We’ve already reviewed how ChatGPT can help with a job application, so now let’s focus on the job search.

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So, how exactly can ChatGPT help?

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ChatGPT told me that it could help in 10 ways:

1. Resume/CV review
2. Cover letter assistance
3. Job search strategies
4. Interview preparation
5. Career guidance
6. Job market insights
7. Skill development
8. Company research
9. Professional communication
10. Personal branding

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Points 1 to 4 are identical to those that we reviewed in our last blog post which you can read here, so in this blog post, we’ll explore and review parts 5 to 10.

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Career Guidance

Our rating: 10/10 ★★★★★★★★★★

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Whether you’re a recent graduate figuring out which career path you’d like to take or an experienced professional looking to review potential progression pathways, ChatGPT proved to be a useful tool for career guidance.

Our bread and butter is recruiting salespeople for tech companies, so we pretended to be an Account Executive in a fintech who’s looking to explore potential options and were pleasantly surprised by the results!

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ChatGPT gave us 10 pathways to take and seemed to have a good understanding of the industry. It recommended that we evaluate our strengths and use these to choose the best pathway.

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For example, if we enjoy leadership, look at Sales Manager roles. If we enjoy hunting new business, look at Business Development. If we enjoy maintaining relationships, look at Account Management. If we have technical skills, look at Sales Engineer roles. It also suggested some more untraditional ideas such as becoming a fintech consultant, a sales trainer, or pursuing entrepreneurship.

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Plus, if you tell ChatGPT your background and experience, you can then ask for specific advice about how to transition to one of these pathways.

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Job Market Insights

Our rating: 0/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

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This one was very disappointing and highlighted a huge limitation of using ChatGPT. As ChatGPT’s knowledge is limited to events before September 2021, it produced very generic job market insights such as “high demand for candidates” and “increase in remote opportunities” rather than offering specific trends and insights based on recent events.

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If you want to uncover insights about the job market, your best bet is to speak to a specialised recruiter who knows the market inside out and has their ear to the ground.

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Skill Development

Our rating: 10/10 ★★★★★★★★★★

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First, we asked ChatGPT how it can help with skill development in general. It told us it can recommend which skills to improve or develop for a specific industry or job and then can provide learning resources, a personalised training plan, and feedback through practice exercises.

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As sales recruiters, we took it one step further and asked ChatGPT which skills we should develop to be a better salesperson. The results were fantastic! It told us how to build rapport with customers, grow our product knowledge and handle objections, negotiations, and rejections, which are skills that are critical to nail if you want to close more deals and be more successful!

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Company Research

Our rating: 1/10 ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

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We have mixed feelings about this one!

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At first glance, ChatGPT’s response seemed great - it told us it can offer insight into any company’s culture, financial performance, recent news and updates, and employee reviews. It also offered a competitor analysis and an analysis of their social media presence so you could tailor your CV to match their branding and tone of voice! All sounds great - right?!

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We’d agree that these are all important points to research and understand before an interview, but ChatGPT failed to remind us that all knowledge it provides will be taken from sources published before September 2021, rendering them useless for an interview today. When we questioned this, it reminded us to do the research ourselves to ensure that it was accurate.

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We’re giving this point 1 star for useful research suggestions, but be warned that any information it provides will be out of date!

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Professional Communication

Our rating: 4/10 ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

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Again, we have mixed feelings about this one! ChatGPT claims to be able to help improve writing, public speaking, active listening, business and email etiquette, body language, and interview communication, which sounds fantastic.

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But, when we dug deeper, ChatGPT appears to have a very warped view of what is deemed “professional” and “business-like”, so it doesn’t understand how writing and communication have evolved, particularly within the tech industry.

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For example, it recommends starting every email with “Dear Sir/Madam” and ending with “Yours sincerely”, which probably wouldn’t bode well in a tech sales email!

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Personal Branding

Our rating: 8/10 ★★★★★★★★☆☆

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Firstly, ChatGPT emphasised the benefits of strong personal branding during your job search, which we couldn’t agree with more! If you’re just getting started with your personal brand and need tips about structure, strategy, analytics, and content ideas, ChatGPT will be your best friend!

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It’s important to note, however, that ChatGPT is not great at producing content. As hard as it tries, it doesn’t sound like a human, and as recruiters, we can detect ChatGPT-written content a mile away which could work against you during your job search.

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In our next blog post, we’ll dive deeper into how you can use ChatGPT to help with personal branding, so stay tuned for that!

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Our Conclusion

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Overall, ChatGPT can be very helpful if you’re looking for career guidance or to develop specific skills related to your job or industry.

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During other parts of your job search, be wary of ChatGPT’s limited knowledge after September 2021 which massively impacts the research and trends support that it claims to offer.

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And remember, don’t follow its guidance blindly. Take everything with a pinch of salt!

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