ChatGPT has been released since November 2022. The impending takeover of AI has dominated everything from VC funding, Fortune 500 corporate strategy planning, and the global stock market performance driving Nvidia and the semiconductor industry (barring Intel) to new heights.
Yet on a day to day basis, what do the common folk have to do with the AI takeover? ChatGPT has been used by roughly 1 in 10 people, despite over half of Americans having heard of ChatGPT. For individuals over 65 years old, that usage drops down to 5%. That leads the vast majority of Americans lagging behind on one of the most transformative technological advances of our generation.
The problem stems from not knowing what to leverage ChatGPT for. It’s cool and funny when it spouts nonsense on what 2+2 is, but how can we make it useful?
Most jobs have the same set of work, writing tasks that we end up deprioritizing on the To-Do list. The new employee welcome email or the job description that Human Resources needs from you to post that new role. Whether it’s writers’ block or too many competing priorities, too often these write-ups tend never to get written up. Some of these however are generic at best because of the content type; and make excellent problems for ChatGPT.
I've welcomed and helped onboard over dozens of people in my career. Most welcome emails and employee onboarding guides look the same. The first two weeks on a job are HR onboarding, then team specific onboarding, and finally getting systems access and software up and running. From there, the first 30 to 60 days is some sort of initial deliverable or project, and by the 90 day mark there should be a manager and employee check-in to ensure the new hire has settled in and is independently productive. The specifics may vary, but the general outlines of what looks successful in your first 90 days on a job look the same.
Prompt for ChatGPT with Placeholders for Specifics in [Brackets]
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Not all employees will need an onboarding guide, especially more senior level positions. However, any and all employees would welcome receiving a recommendation whether a LinkedIn one or a more formal letter.
Recommendations can be a time consuming task. Some times you might be asked to draft up your own and have your recommender sign off on it. Other times the recommender might take a template they have elsewhere and reapply the text to you. In either case, a response from ChatGPT can help get the writing process started and really does sound a lot like most recommendations I’ve received, or from ones I’ve given myself.
ChatGPT for LinkedIn or Letter of Recommendation with Placeholders for Specifics in [Brackets]
For LinkedIn or shorter recommendations, limit to 200 words. For letters of recommendations limit to 500 or 700 words. Modify the output accordingly to fit the person being recommended.
Job Description postings for interns, entry level, and mid-level hires generally look the same. There are a few aspects such as the “About the Company” that may be different, but the responsibilities and requirements don’t often have much variation for jobs sharing similar job titles. Furthermore, there are many job description postings on the internet, so the ChatGPT results are just as good as what most managers would come up with.
ChatGPT Prompt for Job Description with Placeholders for Specifics in [Brackets]
Senior level positions hired through executive searches will require more detail write-ups and don’t follow the generic job description. Those would follow a rubric outlined by the recruiting firm (which can also be inputted into ChatGPT to create a first draft for the busy executive).
Rejection emails are hard to write, especially for earnest candidates that you got a chance to know over the interviewing process or have committed hours of time to interview with your company without compensation. Instead of sounding human and easing the blow, most rejection emails have to sound formal and remain generic. The tone and vagueness of these emails are driven by human resources reasons that I don’t know enough to outline, but do know enough to follow. Make the process easier by communicating promptly; and ChatGPT does an excellent job facilitating that process.
ChatGPT for Candidate Rejection Email with Placeholders for Specifics in [Brackets]
Another interview related task for the interviewee (instead of the hiring manager) that ChatGPT does well is create a template to utilize during the interview process to thank interviewers for the opportunity to be considered for the position. The response can even provide placeholders and inserts so the template can be modified as needed to sound more personal and relevant.
ChatGPT Prompt for Candidate Interview Email with Placeholders for Specifics in [Brackets]
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ChatGPT can help speed up interview follow-up and improve your perception with the hiring company for adhering to the appropriate etiquette and adding a personal touch (enhanced by AI). When most applications are likely automated or done in bulk, add small touches to stand out.
“Adapt or Die” commonly attributed to Charles Darwin means those who best adapt to change have the highest likelihood of surviving. ChatGPT, and large language models like it, have been in development over five decades ago [2]. And now LLMs are being integrated into every tool we’re using from coding platforms like GitHub to chatbots like Intercom. Before ChatGPT, there was Wikipedia and Google Search. Before software there was hardware, the Mainframe and the personal computer. The dissidents of those tools are left behind in the technological advancements enabling the modern white collar professional who did adopt the new tools to pull ahead of the pack.
If you need any more convincing, maybe a very smart woman dubbed the human calculator who too had to adapt to technological advances in her time might convince you:
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