How to Use ChatGPT and Claude to Help with Your Job Search
How to use AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude to read job descriptions, tailor your resume, practise interviews and write emails, with prompts and cautions.
It is Sunday night. You have five job ads you want to apply for, only one version of your resume, and no idea how to write application emails that do not all sound the same. AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude can help a lot with this, if you use them as a thinking and drafting partner rather than letting them write everything for you. This article covers how to use them at each stage of the job search, with prompts you can adapt right away.
What AI chatbots can and cannot do
ChatGPT and Claude are large language models (LLMs) that are good at reading, summarising, rewording and asking questions. They help well with digesting long job ads, polishing language and playing the interviewer. What they cannot do for you is know what you have really done, know a company's latest information accurately, or guarantee you the job.
Step 1: Analyse the job description
Paste the job ad and use a prompt like this:
Summarise this job ad in 3 parts: required skills, nice-to-have skills, and what this role must achieve in the first year. Then list 10 keywords that should appear in my resume.
The result tells you which experience to emphasise and helps you decide faster whether the role suits you.
Step 2: Tailor your resume to the role
Ask the AI to compare, not to rewrite the whole thing.
Here is my resume and here is the job ad. Point out which bullets match the job best, which should move higher, and which experiences I have described unclearly. Do not add any achievements or numbers I have not provided.
The last sentence matters a lot, because AI may add numbers or achievements that sound good but are not true, and you will not be able to answer for them in the interview.
Step 3: Prepare and practise for interviews
Let the AI ask the questions
You are the team lead interviewing for this role. Ask me one question at a time, 6 in total, mixing behavioural and technical questions. After each answer, ask one follow-up as in a real interview, and give feedback at the end.
Ask for specific feedback
Ask which answers were too long, which did not show a clear result, and which sounded too theoretical. Then practise again in your own words.
Step 4: Write emails and messages
AI is good at drafting application emails, post-interview thank-you emails or messages to recruiters. Give it full context, such as the role, what was discussed in the interview and the tone you want, then edit the draft into your own voice before sending.
Step 5: Use AI to plan and track applications
When you apply to many places at once, information starts to blur. Ask the AI to design an application tracker, for example: Create table headers for tracking job applications with company, role, date applied, channel, status, contact person and follow-up date. Each week, paste the latest status and ask which applications need a follow-up email and what to prepare before the next round. This keeps you from missing appointments and shows which channels get better responses. If you notice you are sending many applications but nobody calls you for interviews, ask the AI to help you review whether the problem is your resume, the roles you choose or the channels you use.
Let AI help you think faster, but make every word you send a true story about you.
Cautions
- Personal data: remove your ID number, address and phone number from your resume before pasting it into a chat, and read the service's data policy
- Wrong information: AI can state wrong facts about companies or salaries confidently, so always check real sources
- Language that all sounds the same: if you send AI drafts unedited, recruiters may feel there is no person behind them
- Adding false achievements: never do this; it will be caught in interviews or background checks
Start today
- Choose the one job ad you most want to apply for
- Ask the AI to summarise the skills and keywords in the ad
- Ask it to compare the ad with your resume, then make the edits yourself
- Practise at least one interview round with the AI, with a follow-up on every question
- Draft your application email, then rewrite it in your own voice before sending
If you want an assistant designed specifically for career questions, try the AI Career Assistant or check your resume in Resume Lab, and read more about using AI to write a resume that still sounds like you.