Having difficulty putting the perfect cover letter together?
Wondering if your competition is using it?
Are you in a rush? Don’t have time to read our Comprehensive Guide on Writing Cover Letters, or The Ultimate Guide to Getting a High-Value Job?
But you still want to put together an effective cover letter that gets you a great job?
Well… You might then be tempted to leverage modern AI technology in order to crank out those letters. But if you do (which we support)…
You Must Be Careful When Using AI to Write Cover Letters
If you do it the right way, using AI tool like ChatGPT or Google Gemini can help you craft exceptional cover letters that get your phone ringing.
But if you do it the wrong way, you not only end up wasting your time, you can also ruin your budding relationship with that prospective employer!
Remember this: On the one hand, job applications are a numbers game. With recent studies suggesting that it can take ~200 applications to get a job, you have to get enough applications out to make a difference.[1] That takes a lot of time and energy, and of course, you want to be efficient.
On the other hand, job applications are a quality game. It only takes one application to get you the dream job you want – the one application that gets accepted. And it only takes one minor mistake to get your application discarded.
While AI tools can save you time, and even help you get started, it will not build you the perfect cover letter on their own. You need to learn how to guide them for the best results.
Benefits & Drawbacks of Using AI to Write a Cover Letter
Using AI comes with some obvious benefits:
- Time: AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini (when used correctly) can save you a tremendous amount of time when writing cover letters.
- Personalization: You can easily personalize your cover letter by generating unique content tailored to the job description and company culture.
- Language Enhancement: AI can suggest improvements to your language, grammar, and tone, helping you communicate effectively and professionally.
- Creative Ideas: AI tools can provide you great ideas that you may not otherwise be able to come up with. Treat it like a human person and have a conversation with it – you’ll be surprised.
- Iterative Cycle: You can improve your letters step by step. First, you can start with a draft, then give it prompts like “improve the conclusion”, or “make the tone more upbeat” to level up your cover letter.
- Confidence: AI tools can boost your confidence in your writing abilities, especially if you struggle with self-expression or experience writer’s block.
But there are also a couple of important drawbacks, that you also need to understand and mitigate:
- Lack of Authenticity: Generated content may lack authenticity and sincerity. Sending a straight up AI generated letter without any of your personal touch can eliminate your chances of making a genuine connection with the employer. And if they notice (or they have systems that notice AI generated content), your application is done for.
- Dependency: Relying too heavily on ChatGPT or another AI tools will reduce your own abilities. You may grow dependent on it, or worse, never learn the skills required to write a good cover letter. By the way – if you don’t know how to write a good cover letter, you cannot tell if a cover letter is good or not. You have to be able to discern what AI tools give you before using them and attaching your name to their output.
- Accuracy: Generative AI tools are not infallible. There’s a serious possibility of inaccuracies or inappropriate content, which could reflect poorly on you. There’s been some recent cases, like lawyers getting caught in court for using ChatGPT, because it generated fake cities. Remember, ChatGPT makes information look good, but does not guarantee the information is correct.
- Privacy and Security: Depending on the platform you use, there may be privacy and security concerns regarding the data you input. We recommend that you pretend any prompt you give ChatGPT – or any AI tool for that matter – were public. At the very least, be OK with it potentially becoming public down the road.
The 3 Keys to Writing Great Cover Letters with ChatGPT
Key #1: (This is the most important key) Read the letter carefully before sending it.
Key #2: First figure out what you want to say, then get ChatGPT to say it. You need to know what you’re trying to communicate with your letter.
Key #3: Don’t just take the first output. Go through multiple prompts. Ask it to improve the letter by giving it specific instructions.
Pro Tip: Don’t use the same chat for multiple companies, as it can (on rare occasion), mix information between companies. It won’t look good if you call the hiring manager by the wrong name, or refer to a company by their competitor’s name!
The 4 Steps to Writing Great Cover Letters with ChatGPT
Step 1: Give it a Great Prompt
It’s crucial you start the process by giving ChatGPT a great prompt. Working with it ourselves, and even asking ChatGPT to improve our prompt, we came up with the following:
“I'm applying for the [Job Title] position at [Company Name] and need help crafting a compelling cover letter. Please include an introduction with my name and the position I'm applying for, a brief overview of my relevant experience and skills, why I'm interested in [Company Name], how I can add value to the role and company, and a closing expressing my eagerness to discuss further. Thanks!"Pro Tip: We are being conversational, specific and polite deliberately. Research indicates that being polite to LLMs (Large Language Models) generates better results.
By the way, this prompt is not going to give you the finished cover letter… We are just getting started.
Step 2: Copy/Paste Job Description
Tell ChatGPT to “Update the cover letter using the following job description:” and copy/paste the job description. (Note: This does not present any privacy concerns since job descriptions are public)
Step 3: Copy/Paste a Section of Your Resume
Now give it another prompt: “Update the cover letter again, using the following parts from my resume:” and copy/paste that portion of your resume which you think is most relevant to the job. (Note: This also does not present any privacy concerns since resumes are public documents)
Step 4: Iterate to Improve All Weak Points
You should by now have a passable cover letter. But we’re not going for passable. We are going for great.
Read the cover letter carefully and identify its weak points. And one by one, deal with every one of the weak points.
Is the introduction flat? Ask it to “improve the introduction to make it grab more attention”.
It’s not sufficiently personalized? Repeat the prompt with the copy/paste of your resume or give it a hand picked qualification to list.
It’s not as personalized to the employer as you need? Maybe it’s not talking about the company enough? Visit the company’s about page, copy/paste their values or mission statement, and ask ChatGPT to incorporate it.
Think you have a particular anecdote or a good story to tell that could be handy to boost your cover letter? Tell ChatGPT that story, and ask it to use it in the introduction.
Continue iterating until you are satisfied with the final form of your letter.
The True Value of Using AI for Your Cover Letters
The possibilities are limitless. But by now, you probably can tell that instructing ChatGPT (or any AI tool for that matter) to write your cover letters isn’t going to save you from working on those letters.
AI tools are not quite like human assistants, especially when it comes to their time saving capacity or ability to remove administrative burden…
Unlike hiring a personal assistant to help with your executive job applications, or getting someone to setup informational interviews on your behalf, AI won’t do your thinking for you. It will not connect the dots for you on its own, by visiting a company’s page or reading your resume from the Internet. You have to manually give it the dots for it to connect.
In other words, if you want to use AI because you don’t like the hassle of writing cover letters, you are in for an unpleasant surprise. AI won’t reduce the hassle you experience anywhere near a human assistant. (We recommend you hire those, especially for higher level networking and job search activities)
But even with that limitation, generative AI is a profoundly powerful tool.
If you pay close attention to the cover letter generation process as outlined above, and provide ChatGPT with precise prompts, you’ll get a great cover letter. In fact, the resulting cover letter will surpass what you could have achieved unassisted.
Human augmentation is one of the big powers of AI. And as it stands, most AI tools currently available on the market are not there to replace you… yet. Right now, they are there to give you new capabilities, save you time, and enable you to achieve exponentially improved results.
Conclusion
Remember: The important point is that ChatGPT is going to assist you rather than write your cover letter for you. This is why it’s crucial that you become familiar with the process of writing cover letters first.
Moreover, if you have time – and by that we mean, if you have a single weekend where you aren’t at work – make sure you learn the Language of Value before taking any additional steps hunting for a job.
Minor adjustments to your job applications can change the entire trajectory of your career.
It pays to be informed.