How to Put a Positive Spin on Your Employment Gaps
Artificial Intelligence software such as ChatGPT has infiltrated many aspects of life as we know it in both the professional and educational sectors as well as for personal reasons. Its rapid development and improvements in creative fields, writing, and content, people are using it to write emails, social media captions, and even term papers and essays with mixed results. It’s natural to wonder, “if ChatGPT can do all these things, can it write my executive resume for me?” In this post, we will explore the positives and negatives of using AI like ChatPGT for resume writing. Read on to fully understand its capabilities as well as its limitations so that your resume is best suited for you and your dream job.
Can ChatGPT Really Write a Resume?
Technically, yes, ChatGPT is capable of writing a resume. However, like most things in life, the simple answer is not always the full answer. When using AI language technology, it is important to remember that at its heart, it is a computer program. With computer programming, there is an old adage: garbage in, garbage out. This applies here. Responses generated will only be as good as the prompts you put in. So if you are going to use ChatGPT as your executive resume writer and builder, be sure your prompts are as thorough as possible. Otherwise, you’ll be generating a whole lot of, well… garbage. Remember: just because something can be done, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be done. We’ve seen it with clients who’ve used it to write their resumes.
The Pros And Cons of ChatGPT for Executive and Senior-Level Resumes
In order to help you from falling into the common pitfalls of resume writing, we’ll break down the positives and negatives of using ChatGPT for this service.
Pros of AI Resume Writing
Accessibility and Convenience
ChatGPT is readily available for everyone—and it’s free. All it takes is a quick Google search and an email address for the account, and then you are off to the races. The AI software is ready to hear your prompts and give you its best responses.
Quick Content
Once you have an account set up with OpenAI, ChatGPT will generate a response in mere seconds which is undeniably quicker than any human could accomplish.
The capabilities of Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT are not to be ignored. However, we need to remember to treat them as such
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Cost-Effective
The standard version of ChatGPT is available to anyone with an email address. In today’s economy with inflation on the rise, this positive cannot be ignored.
There is a paid version ($20 per month), that honestly, I like more (5x the rate limits, 80 messages every three hours, etc.).
Strong Possibility of Passing the Applicant Tracking System
Most companies these days are utilizing Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) in their hiring process. ATS is a computer software designed to scan resumes for certain keywords and weed out the ones that don’t match. Since many of these ATS are supported by AI algorithms, it’s likely that your AI resume will pass that initial screening.
Cons of AI Resume Writing
Lack of Human Expertise and Insight
When you create a prompt for ChatGPT to write an executive-level resume, it will scour the internet for data on how to do this. This can often include incorrect and outdated information. When hiring a professional resume writer, you can rest assured that he or she is educated and up-to-date on all the current best practices for resume writing. This includes tools to pass the applicant tracking systems, industry-specific knowledge of executive-level requirements, important keywords, and more.
Limited Personalization and Customization
Tailoring the resume for individual strengths as well as job-specific requirements is part of resume writing. It is possible for ChatGPT to accomplish this quickly, but it will not always be accomplished well. Hiring managers are becoming more adept at recognizing the generic verbiage of a resume written with AI. I know I can spot one a mile away. When hiring a professional to write your resume for you, he or she will be sure to highlight your skills, achievements, and experiences in a way that represents you. This human connection could be the difference between you and the other dozens or even hundreds of resumes received by the employer.
Formatting and Design Challenges
What we have not discussed is that the content of your resume, while obviously extremely important, is not the whole of the resume. It is important for a resume to be visually appealing while remaining well-structured for ease of communication. ChatGPT will struggle with knowing how to best structure the information and will have no knowledge of the design and layout. On the contrary, a professional resume writer will have the knowledge and skillset to seamlessly create a beautiful and effective resume to help you stand out amongst your peers.
Complex Prompts Needed for Accurate Information
As I mentioned earlier, ChatGPT is only as good as the prompts it is given (garbage in, garbage out). There are even ChatGPT Prompt Engineers that create prompts for their company (more on that in another post).
It will even go so far as hallucinating in order to fill in the information it doesn’t know. It will make up information about your job history, skillset, achievements, etc. to fill in the blanks left from a vague prompt. That said, you may end up spending so much time figuring out the best prompt for an accurate resume that it negates the speed at which AI language tools can create content.
A Professional Resume Writer Will Get Your Resume Noticed by Employers Faster
Technology is here to stay–it is advancing at a rate of speed that is almost incomprehensible. The capabilities of Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT are not to be ignored. However, we need to remember to treat them as such: tools. If you needed to pound a nail into a wall, you wouldn’t reach for a spoon. You would reach for a hammer. Similarly, ChatGPT can be a great tool, but not for resume writing. While it has some perceived advantages such as cost, speed, and accessibility, the cost of using it to build your resume could cost you your dream job. By utilizing a professional resume writing service, you gain the advantage of human expertise and insight, personalized attention to showcase your unique skills, and a polished and impactful design, all without the need for guesswork.
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