3 Ways CHATGPT is revolutionizing how environmental career seekers should attack the job search and how you can take advantage of it
Ever wish there was a way to make the job search easier? In this article, I will walk you through our Three Keys to Landing Your Dream Job while introducing you to a powerful tool that can significantly elevate your job hunting experience and improve your chances of success. If you’ve been following the tech world these last few months, you likely know that I’m referring to ChatGPT, a revolutionary new chatbot run by artificial intelligence (AI) that can answer almost any question you have.
Gone are the days of writing a cover letter from scratch, having a resume with typos, or feeling like you’ve got nowhere to turn. Here are the Three Keys along with suggestions for each on how to utilize ChatGPT to revolutionize your job search and how you can use it as your personal job search assistant to guide you toward success:
Key #1: Knowledge, Experience, and Interest
Knowledge, Experience, and Interest all boil down to Passion; however, passion isn’t something you just have, it’s something you meet along life’s journey. Until that happens, if you keep building knowledge, experiencing new things, and following your interests - you are bound to find it!
In this step of making your career plans, you’ll 1) need to reflect upon your KEI and 2) delve into your skill gaps.
- Making sense of career options
One of the questions I’m asked most often by first-time career seekers and career changers is “What are my options?” The environmental industry is vast and evolving, which comes with pros and cons. On the pro side, there is a place in this industry that will interest and suit almost anyone. The disadvantage, though, is that picking your direction can be quite a paralyzing decision. Although there are plenty of resources online to help you explore different environmental roles (such as our Environmental Career Explorer), ChatGPT is your one-stop for any and all questions and follow-up questions about different environmental roles.
Here are some example inquiries you can ask the chatbot:
- I have [insert relevant skills, e.g. GIS], what environmental jobs might I be suited for?
- I’m interested in [insert interest here, e.g. animals], what roles should I explore in the environmental sector?
- I want to work as a [insert dream job, e.g. Chief Sustainability Officer], what skills do I need to obtain to help me work this job?
- I have a degree in [insert degree, e.g. marketing] and want to work in the environmental industry, what roles should I apply for?
Really, you’re only limited by your imagination! And if you get vague answers, make sure you’re not asking vague questions -- be specific and provide as much detail as possible.
- Identify your skill gaps.
In the past, this was something people do by gut feeling, getting feedback, and taking personality quizzes and skills tests. Now, take your resume (which you will already have had ChatGPT evaluate) and submit it along with a copy of the job descriptions you’re looking at. Then, ask ChatGPT to evaluate it as a recruiter and identify the shortcomings you might have as a candidate. In seconds, ChatGPT will point out the areas that might be a stretch for you and then you can explore ways to fill those gaps.
Why do I feel like I’m writing myself out of a job here?...
Key #2: Navigating the Industry
Navigating the industry involves understanding its dynamics, trends, and opportunities for success. It requires conducting research to grasp the evolving environmental solutions, jobs, and skills in demand. Before job searching, it's vital to comprehend the diverse range of environmental career options, from hands-on conservation to cutting-edge green technology. Each sector has its own pros and cons, such as government roles differing from private consulting positions. Use Chat GPT to explore these options and assess their suitability based on your Key 1 discoveries.
Some key questions to ask ChatGPT to get you started are:
- What environmental jobs are in demand right now?
- What environmental companies are hiring outside of the government?
- What are the current trends in the [insert sub-sector of the industry, e.g. food production, renewable energy] sector right now?
It is important to note that ChatGPT’s “knowledge cutoff” is September 2021, meaning its information hasn’t been updated in the last two years. Luckily, we might be able to fill in those gaps with our services.
Key #3: Setting Yourself Apart
It may seem counterintuitive to use a chatbot that gives everyone the same responses as a tool to set yourself apart. However, if you’re being specific with your prompts, you will get responses unique to you. As a career coach, I basically do the same thing. 90% of the advice is the same, it's the small details that are specific to you and your journey that make the difference.
Suggestions for what you might do to set yourself apart with ChatGPT are to develop and refine your elevator pitch, make your cover letter and resume really stand out, and get suggestions for other ways to stand out.
Lastly, and falling under this Key, are two areas that most people focus on first: applying for jobs and interviewing. Here’s how to elevate them using a chatbot.
Custom-fitting Your Cover Letters, Resume, & LinkedIn Profile
Have you ever found yourself staring at a blank Google Doc and a job posting, just completely unable to start a cover letter? AI can certainly help you there. In fact, you can actually copy and paste a job description into ChatGPT’s message box and ask it to produce a cover letter for you. From there, you can customize it to your liking by including relevant prior experience, reorganizing it so it follows our tried-and-true cover letter formula, and making it sound more humanlike and genuine overall.
Likewise, ChatGPT can also proofread your resume Summary and LinkedIn About sections and offer suggestions. It can even produce bullet points or paragraphs for your resume/LinkedIn profile if you supply it with information about your responsibilities for each piece of experience.
One final tip regarding resumes is to ask ChatGPT to analyze the job posting you are applying to for keywords. From there, incorporate those keywords in your resume under Skills or Experience. This is especially useful since ATS systems and other forms of AI often read resumes, so it can be helpful to get a different AI’s perspective on what should be included in your resume to land you at the top of the pile.
Of course, I am by no means suggesting that you blindly copy and paste the responses that you get, accuracy and a human perspective on your resume are invaluable. Luckily, we review resumes!
To that end, some of you at this point might be thinking or were already in the “isn't this cheating?” frame of mind. The only person to be cheated here is yourself. If you copy word for word, into an essay or into a resume, and the end result is that you haven’t learned or that the resume doesn’t reflect the reality of your experiences, yes, you’ve cheated yourself. If you carefully review the response you’re given and use ChatGPT as a means to enhance your learning and put your real-life resume experience into a better light - you win!
Practicing to Ace Interviews
One of these days soon, I predict, it will be the norm to have an actual practice interview with a bot that you feed a job description to and it gives you feedback on how to improve. As of now, you’ll have to settle for typing your answers but it’s still pretty helpful. To do this, open your ChatGPT account and copy and ask if it will help you practice for an upcoming interview. It will, of course, be happy to do so as it always is. Paste the job description into the message field and then ask it to develop potential interview questions. After you type out your answers, it will review them and recommend improvements. You can ask it also to tell you why it has made the recommendations that it has so you are able to apply the suggestions to the actual interview that may or may not ask you the same questions.
Further, ChatGPT can also help you develop high-quality responses to the pesky standard yet challenging interview questions, such as “Tell me about yourself?” and “What is your biggest weakness?” After you provide it with information on your skills and past experiences or supply it with your resume, it can let you know which skills you highlight for a particular job or help you articulate your experience in the most effective way.
Once again, be creative on how else it can help you! Your imagination is your only limit!
A Final Note on ChatGPT
Once you begin playing around with ChatGPT, you’ll slowly begin to notice that despite its intelligence, it’s far from perfect. You almost always will need to rephrase your queries and provide additional clarifying information before you get exactly what you want out of the chatbot; you might even need to offer it feedback on its responses — I have had to ask it to give more diverse and inclusive responses when searching for quotes, for instance.
But despite its flaws, it’s undeniable that ChatGPT can give you an edge in the job searching process and if nothing else, save you some time. The one thing it has yet to be able to do is hold you accountable to your goals. In that case, if you need someone to endure that you are taking action or even discuss the validity of what ChatGPT has recommended to you, I highly recommend scheduling a one-on-one coaching session.
