Six tips and key takeaways on how to use ChatGPT for Cover Letters

 


If you are starting your Cover Letter from zero, ChatGPT can produce a good starting template and structure.

The following tips will help you get started:

1. Use ChatGPT as if you are having a conversation with it

2. Tell it what type of Cover Letter you need. Example: “I am applying for a position as a Marketing Director within “X” company. Here are the job requirements as well as an overview of my experience and related skills. Can you produce a personalised Cover Letter using keywords in the Job Description and avoiding overuse of buzzwords”?

3. After it has provided you with a Cover Letter, give ChatGPT feedback (i.e., is it using too many buzzwords and clichés, does the tone feel unnatural?). Thank ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite the Cover Letter with less buzzwords and in a more natural yet professional tone. NB: avoid overused buzzwords and clichés in a Cover Letter, however, integrate where applicable some of the main vocabulary/keywords used in the Job Description.

4. Once you get the latest version, check it again. If you are still not completely happy, tell ChatGPT why and ask it, if it can do better. Once you ask it “can you do better,” it will give you a much better result. NB: It is important to repeat the prompts (instructions) you give to see how ChatGPT responds to them. It is important that ChatGPT recognises your communication style and preferences.

5. Always proofread the versions as sometimes, it will confuse things and produce incorrect information (like inventing skills you do not have) as well as using certain words in English that are seldom used in present day English. The tone may sound very artificial and the format and content, a paste and copy of someone else’s work.

6. It is important to personalise the Cover Letter by adding your own individualized touch with accomplishments relevant to the job offer. NB: It is becoming easier to recognise ChatGPT style (Cover Letters that look and feel like a template) unless you tweak the Cover Letter with your own personal accomplishments and motivation.

Take aways:

1. Best way to make the Cover Letter sound like your own original work, is to write your own Cover Letter and get ChatGPT to tweak it in terms of structure and main points. Also writing your own Cover Letter is a much better way to prepare yourself for an interview. You are the best person to describe your accomplishments and motivation.

2. If English is your second language, writing your own Cover Letter in English, is a fantastic way to improve your English writing skills.

3. If you are applying for jobs that require good writing skills or creativity, during a job interview if the recruiter or hiring manager detect that the tone, vocabulary, and syntax you employ are far from the level of your CV or Cover Letter, it can be a red flag that you used ChatGPT and that your level of writing skills and creativity are not up to scratch for the job.


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Brid is a native English speaker, fluent in French, a graduate in both International Business Communication and in Instructional Design. She is also accredited (TEFL) to teach English as a foreign language. Her professional experience spans over 20 years in an international environment, working in CAC 40 communication groups and as a consultant in Executive Search.