Can ChatGPT Write Your Resume | ChatGPT for Professionals - Software Development PDF Download

Introduction

Producing a resume to get you hired for the role is a never-ending story. One that takes up so much time and effort that some candidates may give up. That's where ChatGPT comes in. Use its strengths to synthesize and write in a systematic and articulate style.

ChatGPT is best used when you:

• are looking for details about the more common jobs;
• need to shine among competitors;
• decide on finally overcoming your writer's block.

What is more, ChatGPT can provide you with relatively life-like answers. So, consider implementing it within these three stages.

Resume reviews and re-rewrites to find out:

• popular certifications;
• top keywords related to the job description;
• skills, responsibilities, and requirements for the role.

Mock interviews to practice:

• answering job-specific, technical questions;
• shining light on your soft skills;
• using the STAR (situation, task, action, result) as proof of your capabilities.

Cover letter writing to produce a more succinct and stylized copy.

• But before you get too far ahead of dreaming about how ChatGPT writes your whole resume, here's a heads-up.
• Even though ChatGPT is a very powerful tool, it's still being developed and has some gray areas.
• The AI can't yet replace other resources you may need to write your resume, cover letter, or email.
• It's a fantastic tool for reworking individual experience items and also learning the basics of writing for entry-level roles. But we'll get into more details below.

For now, let's focus on those ChatGPT prompts.

ChatGPT prompts: writing, reviewing, and enhancing your resume, cover letter, and job application

What are ChatGPT prompts?

ChatGPT's prompts are conversation starters: the information you input, which is most often a question or a request.

This chatbot would never ghost you - in a few seconds, it responds in a human-like manner.

Here's a rule of thumb to remember about ChatGPT prompts.

Only you know what you've achieved as a result of your experience.
ChatGPT can rather take your writing (in narrative form) and output texts, tailored based on the prompts you've entered.
So when using this chatbot to write a good resume, you should:

• be thoroughly detailed and specific;
• explain your experience to provide context;
• ask clarifying questions to fill in the gaps.

The texts generated by ChatGPT should be your starting point.

It's up to you to improve your resume by:

• adjusting and reviewing the outputs for accuracy (and professionalism)
• editing, proofreading, and double-checking
• asking for a second pair of eyes to look over your resume
• adding your personal touch to stand out

Without further ado, let's dive right into a couple of useful prompts you can use to write your resume!

Using ChatGPT to review your resume

When training any AI to synthesize information, you need to start from the very beginning. That is, to assign specific roles to the chat participants.

In this case, ChatGPT should act as a resume reviewer, responsible for providing feedback on

• Whether you have all the necessary resume sections?
• Is your resume easy to understand?
• Would you need to add more achievements?
• What about the types of action verbs?
• Finally, the keyword quantity: are the buzzwords provided enough?

Here's what your prompt would look like:

• I want you to act as a resume reviewer. I will provide you with my resume, and you look provide me with feedback on it. Include feedback on the following points: - What appropriate sections to add for making my resume more readable. - How to make my resume easier to scan. - What kind of numbers and results can I add to my resume. - What type of action verbs should I choose. - Am I using too many buzzwords and how to replace them, if so. Do you acknowledge?

Your role would be to thus paste your resume. In this case, we've included:

• Header - name, current job title, and email;
• Education - all relevant degrees, institutions, locations, start-end dates, and any extra information you deem would be necessary for ChatGPT to understand your background;
• Experience - start and end dates, company description, a narrative about what you did with a focus on skills and achievements;
• Certificates - include all;
• Technical Skills - as a list;
• Soft Skills - with a focus on the outcomes of using the skills;
• Most Proud Of - looking at the big picture achievements for the business;
• Various resume sections - to shine a more detailed light on your experience.

ChatGPT didn't disappoint. Check out its synthesized responses below:

• It noted that skills, certifications, and relevant professional memberships would be "beneficial" additions to your resume.
• As well, a summary or objective - to put your "professional experience, skills, and career goals" in front and center - are always a good idea.

To ensure readability, the resume needs to have:

• clear and consistent formatting with bullet points
• action verbs at the beginning of the experience bullet points to showcase your responsibilities and accomplishments
• bold or italicized texts to highlight important details
• numbers or results in other resume sections (e.g. education or skills)
• balanced use of buzzwords to demonstrate industry expertise

There was an overall assessment and recommendations for a couple of tweaks.

We wanted to get the most out of the ChatGPT experience, and that's why we followed up with these questions.

• Just FYI, I have added Tech Skills and Soft Skills section above. Should I rename them or not?

ChatGPT recommends that we should personalize these headlines to ensure that they reflect our particular skill set.

• Do I also have to include a summary or objective or not?

ChatGPT notes summaries and objectives are optional but good to have as they give recruiters (and the ATS) a snapshot of your skills and professional goals. More so, summaries and objectives help candidates to stand out amongst their competitors.

As a reminder:

• Summary statements - three-to-five sentences that shine a light on your most relevant and/or impressive achievements. Zooming in on your experience, skills, and qualification.
• Objective statements - have a similar format, but prioritize your career goals. You're aiming to align your unique skill set to the role you're applying for.

Whatever you decide, remember to always tailor your summary or objective to the position you're applying for.

• Can you tailor one for me, please?

In just a couple of seconds, the chatbot was ready for us. With a reminder that these are just examples and that they need to be further personalized to reflect your professional journey. Find out the summary and objective statements ChatGPT came up with below:

Test it for yourself to see ChatGPT’s recommendations. Read on to find out more about how to write the skills and summary sections of your resume with ChatGPT.

Tailor your resume to the job description with ChatGPT

Let's look at another scenario. What if you've found that dream job you'd really like to apply for? You have your resume ready…

… now it's time to tailor it with ChatGPT!

Start off with a prompt that once more specifies the roles.

You'd expect ChatGPT to assess the job description with a focus on these possible three key requirements:

• years of experience
• skills
• position name.

Asking the chatbot to thus provide you with feedback on how adequate your resume would be for the job you're applying to.

• I'm going to provide you with a job description for a job I'm interested to apply for. You're going to read the job description and understand the key requirements for the position – including years of experience, skills, position name. After that I'm going to give you my resume. You'll go over it and provide feedback based on how tailored my resume is for the job. Do you understand?

You'd hence have two responsibilities.

First would be to input the full job advertisement that includes:

• company description
• information about the opportunity
• responsibilities
• requirements
• compensation and other benefits

ChatGPT would take the time to synthesize this input, providing you with concise information about the position you're applying for and the role's main responsibilities.

You'd find out details about the ideal candidate with a focus on

• soft/hard skills
• preferred experience
• salary range and benefits package.

Next, you'd have to paste your resume.

Here's the prompt you can use:

• Now I'll give you my resume. Provide feedback on how I can tailor it to the above job post. Here's my resume: [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT HERE]

Make sure to include all relevant details, including

• Header
• Summary
• Experience
• Industry Expertise
• Skills
• Education
• Strengths
• Languages

Here's what ChatGPT understood about the position.

• Mandatory soft skills are experience with project management, good communication skills, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced (and highly collaborative) environment.
• Additional experience in managing legal documents is desirable.
• The main recommendations for this resume were to strongly emphasize project management experience, work with legal documents, and soft skills.

ChatGPT reminded us to include specific examples of how the candidate has:

• successfully communicated and collaborated with multiple stakeholders;
• managed competing priorities and tight deadlines;
• worked in different time zones.

Regarding the education section, it noted that more details would make an even better impression (e.g. degree and majors, relevant coursework, and other educational activities). Finally, it reminded us to include all languages the candidate is fluent in, as it might be desirable for this job.

Asking ChatGPT to rephrase your experience or for synonyms

We all know how important action verbs are, especially when talking about your professional experience. But sometimes candidates do struggle with making their resumes more illustrative of their achievements.

We’ve got you covered, let’s look at how ChatGPT can:

• rephrase your experience items;
• substitute verbs with more actionable synonyms.

Rephrasing your resume experience

Starting with this writing prompt that you can use to bring the action to the very front of your resume: I'm writing my resume and I want to make it sound better. Can you go over my Experience section and make it sound more actionable?

You'd then need to paste in the details about the job you're applying for.

Don't forget to include any relevant information:

• about the company
• what is the role about
• what you need to be successful
• what's it in for you
• and job type

Use this writing prompt:

• Here's the Experience section I wrote: [PASTE FULL RESUME EXPERIENCE TEXT]
• And here's the job ad I'm applying for: [PASTE FULL JOB AD]

ChatGPT then takes each experience bullet point and aligns it with the preferable job experience. You'd see that each experience bullet is structured using the following formula:

• “Action verb + skill + outcomes”

This information looks really professional, but it may not be accurate. ChatGPT fills in the blanks and sometimes makes things up along the way.

Including more actionable verbs

Here’s another alternative - what if you want to substitute the verbs you’ve used to make them sound more ready-to-go?
We suggest this ChatGPT resume prompt:

• I'm sharing my Experience section on my resume. Please re-write it using actionable synonyms. [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]

Make sure it’s followed by once again with the whole picture of your experience item, which you’d like to have edited. We’ve used the same example as above.
Wondering what the ChatGPT output looks like?

Both of these prompts are a great starting point to help you gain a better understanding of resume writing structures and editing. But, it's entirely up to you to make your resume sound more personalized.

Synthesis by ChatGPT: creating both resume summaries and objectives

Summarizing texts is one of ChatGPT’s superpowers. Use it to create a catchy resume summary or objective to highlight your strengths.

We’ll use one of the previous resume examples with the following writing prompt:

• I'm going to share with you my resume. Go over it and create two examples: one of a resume summary and one for a resume objective. Here's my resume: [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]

The more professional details you include within the prompt, the more likely the AI will be to learn about your specific achievements and strengths.

ChatGPT has created a wonderful base for you. If you decide, you can ask it to re-write the summary and objectives to provide you with alternatives. Just don’t forget that ChatGPT does crash from time to time and it may wipe out all your current chats.
So ensure that you have all the summaries and objectives safely stored somewhere within a Google Doc or an MS Word file.

ChatGPT to improve the email you’d attach your resume to

Emailing your contacts

• We can't emphasize the importance of networking within the recruitment process.
• As new job opportunities could come across to you from the most unexpected places.
• Do you want to make a good first impression on an acquaintance, asking them to help you with your job search?

Use this ChatGPT trick/ prompt:

• I'm going to provide you with an email I wrote. The email is about me, sending my resume to a distant friend who works at a company I want to join. Provide feedback on how I can improve it. Here's my email: paste full email text

Get inspired by one of our basic Enhancv templates.

Hey {NAME}!
It was great seeing you at {PLACE OF MEETING}. I hope work is treating you well today.
You mentioned something about {COMPANY NAME} hiring a {JOB POSITION} and I’d love to apply! I’m sending you my resume for your consideration. Find attached the appropriate files.
During my time at {PREV COMPANY} as a {PREV JOB POSITION} I carried out various communications projects, formed strategies, managed drafts, and editorial materials, established the company presence, amended legislation, a list of accomplishments, etc.
My most significant contribution to the company is that we achieved an increase of 55% within a year, thanks to my strategic and operational decision-making.
The opportunity you mentioned closely matches my field, which is why I am grateful to you.
Thanks for forwarding my resume.
Kind Regards, [Your given name]

ChatGPT recommends we should make this email more specific to the role we'd like to apply for by including

• a clear and relevant subject line;
• a sentence (or two) describing what you talked about when you met your contact and why you decided to send your resume across;
• instead of just listing what you've achieved, show how these accomplishments make you the ideal candidate for the job;
• contact details and a call to action (e.g. "I would appreciate the opportunity to further discuss my qualifications with you. Please let me know if there is a good time for us to speak.");
• a more formal salutation.

Emailing recruiters

Once again, we start our chat by helping the AI imagine the scenario. A ChatGPT writing prompt when sending your resume out to hiring managers is:

• I'm going to provide you with an email I wrote. The email is about me, sending my resume to a recruiter from a company I want to join. Provide feedback on how I can improve it. [PASTE FULL EMAIL TEXT]

This is the email we wrote to get the attention of hiring managers:

• Subject: [POSITION] - [MY NAME]
• Dear Hiring Manager, I am very interested in applying for the [POSITION] that is listed on [COMPANY]
• I've attached my resume and cover letter.
• If there's any additional information you need, please let me know.
• Thank you very much for your consideration.
• Sincerely, FirstName LastName Email Phone LinkedIn

ChatGPT really enjoyed how straight to the point our email was, but recommended to

• Include the recruiter's name in the greeting for more personalized communication;
• Show why you're a good fit by describing how your experience aligns with the role you're applying for;
• Double-check the spelling and grammar;
• Keep the subject line short and specific to the role;
• Instead of listing your contact details, include a professional signature with all the relevant information;
• Request the recruiters to contact you if they happen to have further questions or queries.

The chatbot even optimized our version:

Adapting your cover letter to your resume with ChatGPT

Formal tone of voice

ChatGPT can surely come in handy when writing your cover letter, especially if you need help with tailoring it to align with your resume. Imagine that you want your cover letter to sound a bit more sophisticated and refined.

We used this ChatGPT prompt to produce a more formal cover letter:

• I want you to act as a cover letter writer. I will provide you with my resume, and you will generate a cover letter to complement it. I want the cover letter to have a formal, professional tone, as I will be applying to a corporation. Do you acknowledge?

Once ChatGPT understood its tasks, we followed up with these commands:

• My preferred job will be [at Home Depot/ company name/ as a Lead Analyst /role/, Finance Business Services/department/]. Here's a job description: paste full job advert text
• And here is my resume: paste full resume text

Once again, make sure you paste in the full job description and all the text that makes up your resume.

With a little more personalization to demonstrate achievements and further why this candidate would be perfect for the role, this ChatGPT structure could work wonders:

Informal tone of voice

There are cases when you would want your cover letter to sound more casual. For example, if you're applying for a startup or SME (small and medium-sized enterprises), where you know the company culture is more friendly.

ChatGPT has you covered:

• I want you to act as a cover letter writer. I will provide you with my resume, and you will generate a cover letter to complement it. I want the cover letter to have a more informal tone, as I will be applying to a startup. Do you acknowledge?

The "I will be applying to a startup" can be substituted with specifics about the company you're applying for. Find below the resume, which we pasted in ChatGPT with these two prompts:

• Ok, here's my resume: [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]
• And here's the job title and company: [PASTE FULL JOB AD TEXT]

Do you like the informal cover letter ChatGPT created for this candidate?

Acing your interviews with ChatGPT: practice giving STAR-format answers

You probably can't believe it, and neither could we when first heard about it. But, yes, ChatGPT can also help you get ready for your interview. We all know those standard questions which interviewers tend to ask. What is more, you could use ChatGPT to also provide you with a list of some of the most popular questions they may ask for your specific role. To these questions, hiring managers expect you to structure a response using the STAR method.

Where you describe the:

• Situation
• Tasks at hand
• Actions you undertook
• Results you achieved.

Practice the STAR method with these ChatGPT prompts.

• Here's my resume. If you've understood my background, say "understood". [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]

Once ChatGPT comprehends your experience, it's time to practice with the following prompt:

• Now, can you write me a sample answer (based on my resume) which follows the STAR format : [WRITE INTERVIEW QUESTION]

In our example, we've used this popular interview question:

• "Have you ever had to develop a new skill on the job? Tell me about your approach to the learning process."
• A few moments later, ChatGPT's provided us with this answer.
• Situation: with a little background and definition of what the actual problem was

Tasks: showcasing the thought process and research, alongside soft skills.

Action: detailing step-by-step the relevant actions, supplemented once again with skills

Results: it's a numbers game!

Changing your resume for different audiences with ChatGPT

For the next examples we have used this resume to demonstrate how it could be targeted to suit three specific audiences:

Presenting your resume to a recruiter

It's often that resumes are analyzed by recruiters who may not have the same technical understanding as candidates.

• That's why it's vital to simplify your experience by making it more understandable to the general audience.
• Of course, that is without losing the chance to highlight your strengths (keywords) and responsibilities.

ChatGPT can also do that for you. Use this prompt to make your resume more comprehensible for the general audience:

• Here's my resume. I'm afraid it's too technical for a recruiter. Re-write it so it's more accessible to recruiters: [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]

Check out how these three resume sections have been edited:

Professional Experience

Strengths

Resumes for C-level executives

In some cases, you may need to make your resume a bit more technical to impress readers (in the example below, we've referred to C-level executives).

Save time tailoring your resume by pasting this ChatGPT prompt:

• Here's my resume. It's going to be reviewed by a C-Level executive and I'm afraid it's not technical to capture their attention Re-write it so it's more actionable and it shows my capabilities better: [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]

Pay attention to how ChatGPT re-wrote these three sections:

Summary

Professional Experience

Strengths

Impressing potential direct managers

Same person, three different resumes: can it be done in a few minutes?
Yes, it can, with ChatGPT!
Here's how the chatbot rephrased these resume sections; to be read by the candidate's potential direct manager.

Summary

Professional Experience

Strengths

Impressing potential direct managers

Same person, three different resumes: can it be done in a few minutes?
Yes, it can, with ChatGPT!
Here's how the chatbot rephrased these resume sections; to be read by the candidate's potential direct manager.

Summary

Professional Experience

Strengths

Experiment with this ChatGPT writing prompt:

• Here's my resume. It's going to be reviewed by the direct manager for the position and I'm afraid it doesn't communicate my value clearly enough. Re-write it so it shows how I'm the right person for the job and how I'll add to the team. [PASTE FULL RESUME TEXT]