Five prompts for the parts of job hunting that are genuinely hard: describing your own work, matching a job description honestly, and preparing answers you can defend.
5 copy-ready prompts
Resume and interview
Honest by design
The prompts
Prompt 1
Turn a task list into achievement bullets
The most common resume problem: describing duties instead of results.
Here is what I actually did in my role as [job title] at [company type]:
"""
[describe your work in plain language - what you did, what changed, any numbers you remember]
"""
Rewrite this as 5 resume bullet points. Each one must:
- Start with a strong verb, not "responsible for".
- Say what changed as a result, not just what I did.
- Include a number where I gave you one.
Where a bullet would be stronger with a number I have not provided, mark it [NEED METRIC] and tell me what to look up. Do not invent figures.
Why it works: The [NEED METRIC] instruction is essential. Left unchecked, models fabricate percentages that you will be asked about in an interview.
Prompt 2
Tailor to a job description without lying
Applying for a role that is close but not identical to your experience.
Here is my current resume:
"""
[paste resume]
"""
Here is the job description:
"""
[paste job description]
"""
Give me:
1. Requirements I clearly meet, and which of my experiences prove each one.
2. Requirements I partly meet, and how to describe my real experience accurately.
3. Requirements I do not meet at all - say so plainly.
4. Keywords in the job description that are missing from my resume but genuinely apply to my experience.
5. A reordered version of my resume that leads with what matters for this role.
Do not add any experience I do not have.
Why it works: Section 3 is the useful one. Knowing which gaps are real tells you whether to apply, and what to address in a cover letter.
Prompt 3
Cover letter that says something specific
When a cover letter is required and you have nothing to say.
Write a cover letter for [role] at [company].
Use only this material:
- My relevant experience: [2-3 specific things]
- Why this company specifically: [what you actually know about them]
- The gap I need to address: [career change, missing skill, employment gap]
Rules:
- Under 250 words.
- Open with something specific to this company, not "I am writing to apply".
- Address the gap directly and briefly. Do not over-explain it.
- No enthusiasm adjectives. Show interest through specifics.
Why it works: If you cannot fill in "why this company specifically", that is worth knowing before you spend an hour on the application.
Prompt 4
Interview answers from real stories
Behavioural interview preparation.
Help me prepare STAR answers for [role].
Here are situations from my actual experience:
"""
[list 3-5 real situations - a conflict, a failure, a deadline, a decision, something you led]
"""
For each, structure it as Situation, Task, Action, Result, keeping under 90 seconds spoken.
Then, for each answer:
- Name the follow-up question an interviewer would most likely ask.
- Flag anything that sounds rehearsed or vague.
Use only what I told you.
Why it works: The follow-up question is where interviews are won or lost. Prepare for the second question, not just the first.
Prompt 5
Explain a career gap or a change of direction
The paragraph everyone dreads writing.
I need to explain [gap / career change / redundancy / short tenure] in applications and interviews.
The facts: [what actually happened, honestly]
What I did during that time: [study, caring, freelance, health, travel, job hunting]
What I want next: [role]
Give me:
- A two-sentence written version for a cover letter.
- A 30-second spoken version for an interview.
- A one-line version for a resume, if it belongs there at all.
Keep it factual and unapologetic. No spin that would collapse under one follow-up question.
Why it works: Short and matter-of-fact works better than a justification. Length signals that you think it is a problem.
Using AI on a job application without losing your credibility
A resume is a document you will be questioned on. That single fact should shape how you use any writing tool on it: the goal is a clearer, better-ordered account of things that actually happened, not an improved version of a different person.
The problem AI is genuinely good at solving
Most people are bad at describing their own work. Everything you did feels obvious, so it comes out as a list of duties: "responsible for managing the reporting process". What a hiring manager needs is what changed because you were there. A model is good at spotting that gap and at suggesting the shape of a stronger sentence - as long as you supply the substance.
Write your raw material in plain language first, in whatever order it comes out. Then let the model restructure it. Starting from your real account keeps the facts intact and gets you past the blank page at the same time.
The line you should not cross
Models invent metrics. Ask for impressive bullet points and you will get "increased efficiency by 40%" attached to a job where nobody measured efficiency at all. That number will sit on your resume until an interviewer asks how it was calculated, and the answer "the AI suggested it" ends the conversation. Every prompt on this page includes an explicit instruction not to invent figures and to flag where a real one is needed instead.
Tailoring, and why it still matters
Applicant tracking systems are widely used to store and search applications, and recruiters filter by keyword within them. This does not mean stuffing your resume with terms from the job description - it means making sure that where you genuinely have the experience, you use the same words the employer used. If they say "stakeholder management" and you wrote "worked with clients", the match is invisible to a keyword search and to a recruiter skimming for thirty seconds.
Order matters as much as vocabulary. The most relevant experience for this specific role should be the first thing on the page, which usually means a different arrangement for each application rather than a different set of facts.
Formatting that survives the pipeline
Standard section headings - Experience, Education, Skills. Creative labels confuse parsers and readers.
One column for anything you submit through a portal. Multi-column layouts often parse in the wrong order.
No text inside images or graphics. It is invisible to search and to screen readers.
A plain file name with your actual name in it.
PDF unless the employer asks for something else, and check that text can be selected in it.
Preparing for the questions that follow
Everything on your resume is a potential question, so the preparation prompt matters as much as the writing ones. Practise the answer and the likely follow-up. Interviewers probe the second layer - not "tell me about a conflict" but "what would you do differently" - and that is where rehearsed answers tend to fall apart.
Say your answers out loud at least once. Text that reads well often sounds stilted spoken, and ninety seconds is shorter than it looks on a page.
Related resources
The ChatGPT Writing Prompts help you keep your own voice in a cover letter, and the AI Study Prompts are useful when a role requires skills you are still building. If the role is technical, the Frontend Developer Roadmap sets out what employers usually expect at each level.
Frequently asked questions
Can employers tell if my resume was written with AI?
Detection tools are unreliable, but generic AI-sounding phrasing is noticeable to experienced recruiters. The bigger risk is inventing achievements you cannot explain when asked.
How do I add keywords without keyword stuffing?
Only use terms that genuinely describe your experience, and use them where you would naturally describe that work. Matching the employer's vocabulary is honest; claiming skills you lack is not.
