How to Use ChatGPT for Career Advice: A Practical Guide

Key takeaways

Learning how to use ChatGPT for career advice is one way to explore your career goals.

• ChatGPT is a valuable tool for career preparation, whether it’s used to practice for interviews, explore the job market, or assess your skill set.

• When using ChatGPT to help create your resume, make refinements to ensure it still reflects your unique voice.

• You can get the most out of your ChatGPT responses by developing strong prompting skills.

Discover how to use ChatGPT for career advice. If you’re ready to start learning how to provide effective prompts for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models like ChatGPT, consider enrolling in the Google Prompting Essentials Specialization. This four-course series can help you learn how to use AI for a wide range of tasks to experience the benefits of GenAI tools, without any previous experience required.

How to use ChatGPT for career advice

Using ChatGPT to help you in your career journey is nearly as simple as having a conversation. The technology enhances accessibility to career advice and provides 24/7 access. However, you will need to use effective prompts to guide the experience, and verify any data points or claims by doing your own research or exploring any cited sources.

With thoughtful prompting, you can use ChatGPT to gain career advice in a wide range of areas, including career paths, skills and education, networking, and job searches. ChatGPT trains using vast amounts of data, enabling it to comprehend different topics and the relationships between them. To maximize the value you get out of ChatGPT, it's essential to provide high-quality prompts that enable the model to generate accurate and relevant outputs. 

Using ChatGPT vs. human guidance

Research suggests that 34 percent of Americans use artificial intelligence (AI) tools for career-related decision-making, with 43 percent using them for help writing a resume [1]. Still, human guidance has value, too. If you need low-cost, accessible, fast guidance, ChatGPT can deliver. However, if you want face-to-face engagement and ongoing emotional support along with adaptable advice, you may want to supplement your ChatGPT career advice with that of a human, including one of the following:

• Career advisors, who provide clear, step-by-step guidance 

• Career coaches, who offer a more self-reflective process to support your career journey

• Mentors, who can give you practical advice and nurture you throughout your career path

Can ChatGPT help me look for jobs?

ChatGPT can help you search for jobs. If you tell ChatGPT about the kind of career you're looking for and the skills you have, it can guide you towards relevant roles and provide suggestions about where to find relevant job listings.

Types of prompts for career advice

You can input different types of prompts for career advice to help direct ChatGPT based on the information you’re looking to obtain. For example, you can obtain information by simply asking ChatGPT a question, or you can also request directions or engage in a conversation. Explore examples of prompts you can use to gain career advice, and then try a few out on your own to see how they work. 

Prompts for exploring career paths

Using ChatGPT Career Path Finder, you can learn about market trends and career opportunities. The following prompts can help you discover your future career path [2]:

• “What are good career paths for people who have skills in statistical analysis?”

• “If I earn a bachelor’s degree in finance, what are my career options?”

• “I prefer working as part of a team instead of on my own. What career should I choose?”

Prompts for assessing skills

Correctly assessing your skills will give you a better idea of the right path for you to follow based on your current abilities. Use these prompts to assess where you stand:

• “Do I have the necessary skills to qualify for entry-level cybersecurity jobs?”

• “What skills am I missing that electrical engineering roles typically require?”

• “How proficient should my Python programming be for software engineering roles?”

Prompts for looking for jobs

You can use ChatGPT prompts to help with your job search, whether you want to learn about the job market or identify job listings. For example:

• “What jobs are highest in demand in the technology industry?”

• “What careers are expected to become obsolete over the coming years?”

• “Direct me toward job listings for job opportunities in SaaS sales.”

Prompts for interview prep

ChatGPT can help you prepare for an interview in a multitude of ways, such as coming up with practice interview questions and improving your responses to questions as well. Try the following:

• “What are some common data science interview questions?”

• “How should I respond to ‘What are your career goals?’ in a job interview?”

• “What are some questions I can ask in my job interview to learn more about the job?”

How ChatGPT can help with resumes and LinkedIn profiles

With the right prompts and the correct information, you can use ChatGPT as a tool for efficiently developing and refining your resume, as well as optimizing your LinkedIn profile to establish a stronger online presence. While working on your resume, prompt ChatGPT with information such as your:

• Work history

• Achievements

• Education

• Skills 

• Info on the job you’re applying for, such as the job description and qualifications

ChatGPT will use those details to piece together a resume that includes keywords and phrases. However, it’s still important to review your resume and add a personal touch and any necessary revisions to make sure it’s well-written.

ChatGPT's Professional Profile Optimizer can provide valuable insights that you can use to enhance your visibility on LinkedIn [3]. Areas of your LinkedIn profile that ChatGPT can help you improve include your header, summary, and job descriptions in ways that will engage readers and LinkedIn's search algorithms, increasing your opportunities and the number of users who will see your profile.

Is it okay to use ChatGPT to help with your resume?

ChatGPT can help you with your resume. Still, you should avoid overrelying on it and allowing it to do all the work. Doing so increases the risk that your resume may lack the necessary personal touch that only you can provide, which makes it unique. Instead, take the resume that ChatGPT generates and make some edits to it to make sure the language feels natural and better reflects you, and verify that all the information is accurate.

Pros and cons of using ChatGPT for career advice

ChatGPT offers numerous advantages when using it for career advice, since it can answer your career-related questions, help you prepare for interviews, and design your resume and cover letter. Because it’s all accessible from the internet, you’ll have an easier time getting the advice, information, and support you need, especially during non-business hours, in comparison to traditional career counseling. By using ChatGPT as a career planning resource, you can establish a clear path to follow so you know what it will take to reach your goals. 

However, certain limitations exist when using ChatGPT for career advice, which are essential to consider. For example, some companies may use tools to determine whether you used AI to create your resume and cover letter, and may remove you from consideration if AI usage is found. Additionally, ChatGPT can make mistakes when generating material. To navigate these challenges, it’s essential to spend some time editing your resume to make sure it sounds genuine, aligns with your voice and goals, and is free of errors.

Getting started in career development and planning

To plan your career effectively, you can utilize various tools and techniques, in addition to ChatGPT, such as career and personality tests. Career testing can be a valuable tool to learn more about your career interests. It can also help match you with options that align with your abilities and goals, and even help you discover careers you may never have thought of. 

Personality tests can provide a deeper understanding of your personality and identify careers that you may be a good fit for, as well as highlight your specific strengths and weaknesses. Pursuing a career that aligns with your personality can lead to greater job satisfaction and overall productivity, setting you up for success. 

To utilize ChatGPT effectively for your career development and planning, it's essential to take an intentional approach to crafting your prompts. Gaining prompt engineering skills and learning about the different types of prompts you can use, such as zero-shot, few-shot, and instructional prompts, can help you maximize the value you get out of ChatGPT.

Read more: Essential ChatGPT Skills

Explore our free ChatGPT and career development resources

Interested in learning more about ChatGPT and gaining career advice? Check out some of our free resources, like our LinkedIn newsletter, Career Chat, to stay in the know.

• Watch on YouTube: How to Use ChatGPT (Beginner to Power User)

• Take the quiz: Career Test: What Career is Right for Me Quiz?

• Leverage AI: How to Use GenAI to Advance Your Career: Insight from Coursera's Former CEO

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