“How Do They Have Every Single Thing I Want”: Employer Catches Job Applicant Using ChatGPT To Write A Cover Letter
There’s been much talk about how AI is about to revolutionize absolutely everything you can imagine, but we’re finally starting to see this technology popping up in various fields and raising interesting questions about how we’re going to react to it. On TikTok, a professional career coach named Mandy shared her experience with an applicant who had submitted a cover letter that she realized was written by ChatGPT.
Mandy’s discussion in her videos and in the comment sections under her posts raises interesting questions about where using ChatGPT is acceptable to us. Read on to hear her story and weigh in on whether you think the applicant behaved appropriately.
AI-driven tools like ChatGPT are raising questions about how we’re going to respond the new technological capabilities that they’ve unlocked
Image credits: careercoachmandy
These questions became very relevant for one employer who shared how she discovered that a job applicant had sent her a cover letter generated by ChatGPT
“I just posted a job opening for a resume assistant, because I’m expanding that part of my coaching business. I posted it on Upwork and received this within like five minutes. I was reading it and was like, “Oh my gosh, this person is really qualified. Like, how do they have literally every single thing that I want?” I was like, “wait a minute, let me let me try [this].” So I told [ChatGPT] to write a cover letter based on the description. And then – are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I ignored chat GPT because I was like, there’s just some trends that I don’t understand. It is writing a cover letter based on my job description.”
Image credits: careercoachmandy
@careercoachmandy he really said copy paste #chatgpt #coverletter #jobsearch ♬ original sound – Career Coach Mandy
Some commenters defended the applicant for making clever use of an emerging technology to save time
Image credits: careercoachmandy
“Okay, I totally agree. My first reaction was, “this person is so smart. They’re brilliant, they’ve hacked it, props to them. They’re super resourceful.” The only reason that this does not work in this specific instance, is because the job is for a resume writer. If you look closely at the cover letter, there are a lot of mistakes, right? So, ChatGPT isn’t perfect. They took a sentence that I had written about having run a business for five years and made it that person’s sentence. So that was my first clue. I was like, “why would you say what I did is what you’ve done?” So there was some logical conclusions there. There were other hints, like taking the exact words that I’ve used in the job description. I think that that is a dead giveaway for anyone who is going to spend time to actually read stuff. So it’s a hack, but as a career coach, I would say don’t use this, because anyone who reads it closely is going to realize it’s not actually well written.”
@careercoachmandy Replying to @ocynvdm ♬ original sound – Career Coach Mandy
Some commenters took issue with the concept of cover letters in the first place, questioning why they are required
Image credits: careercoachmandy
“So I’m actually a career coach. I usually tell people to not spend more than 10 minutes writing a cover letter. I say that the cover letter should be three parts – about you, about the company, and then about why you plus the company. Just make a really simple template, have that be your go-to and then just spend five minutes per company, researching some facts so that you’re applying with intention, and it shows that you’ve put in the time. Now, I will say that from an applicant’s perspective, cover letters are like their own version of hell, I get it. They’re really difficult to write. They’re extremely time consuming. And it’s generally the most hated part of the entire process. However, I will say that as a coach, from what I’ve seen, I can think of at least four or five people who in their interview process, people have remarked on “Oh, I actually really liked what you wrote in your cover letter.” So from that perspective, yeah, it does actually sometimes make a difference.”
@careercoachmandy Replying to @sunshineandvalentines ♬ original sound – Career Coach Mandy
Judging by commenters’ reactions, we can get an idea of why the applicant thought to use ChatGPT for their cover letter in the first place
29Kviews
Share on Facebook
Cover letters are idiotic. You posted a job. I think I'm a good fit. Here's my qualifications. It should be simple as a purchase: You have a product. I give you money. I get product. Imagine going to a store and the employee won't sell you something until you explain for 3 minutes why you need it.
Exactly. You post the job with the skills you want. I send the resume with the skills you want. Simple.
Load More Replies...
Had to log in just to rant on this. I feel like I write a damn good cover letter and have qualifying experience for the jobs I apply for. Haven't gotten so much as a follow up call or interview for any full time jobs I've applied for in 3 months! A friend told me it's because companies use tech to sort through and look for key words, or else the hiring manager DOESN'T EVEN LOOK AT YOURS!!! So I applaud this person for using tech to beat tech. Will be trying in the future and I bet it works. I would double check for errors before sending though. But stop posting jobs if you are not actively hiring. And stop paying less than $40k...we can't survive on that anymore!
SAME I'm not even getting called back for RETAIL JOBS they hire your average 16 year old for! If there's a hiring shortage , I don't see it! Freaking demeaning
Load More Replies...
All the commenters saying "work smarter, not harder are ridiculous. How is handing in a cover letter riddled with mistakes considered smart? If you want the first impression you give to a potential employer to scream you cut corners, give no attention to detail and don't bother to proofread your work, by all means hand in that sloppy letter.
I work with Chat all the time for website copy (I'm a designer. Not a writer). It is NOT a copy paste...That's Fine...tool. It's a starting point, a well-based foundation that needs to be worked on. So while I respect and defend the applicant for using it, they were idiots for not proofreading. And for THAT, I would not hire them.
Load More Replies...
"they are very difficult but if you do them repeteadly they do get easier" so not 10 minutes
Mine take an hour to write. The jobs I apply to are not similar enough that can effectively use a template.
Load More Replies...
Regardless of how simple the OP makes it sound, it's not easy to spend only 10 mins writing a cover letter.
This was hard to read and there was a lot of grammatical errors. She should practice what she preaches and not get so bent out of shape about a damn cover letter, which is an archaic thing that needs to be abolished.
Use this same energy when you're taking your time replying to applicants to decline their application (and that's even if you do that). And when you send that decline letter, don't just copy and paste a rejection you use for everyone, detail what about my experience didn't "fit". The amount of hoops employers want you to jump through for jobs when people are overly qualified is out of control. Who cares. Use Chat GPT, use a resume writer, use whatever you need to so that people give you an actual chance at being a legit applicant.
I'd hired them as long as they looked over the text and fixed it. I'd absolutely not hired them if they just took it as is and left the obvious mistakes in. But I call bs on this one. I regularly use chat GPT to create text snippets for work. And not one instance has happened that it created the same text twice. Every answer is different. If you don't like it, just hit recreate and it writes a different one. It also learns from you and changes with use. I just don't believe her that the chat bot wrote the same text for her.
I think they're right tbh, *mandatory* cover letters are a waste of time. If you want to add a cover letter of your own will, great, but shouldn't be a necessary part of the process
Load More Replies...
I am currently looking for work for the last 3 months. The amount of scam interviews I get are ridiculous and I've learned how to spot those at least, but cover letters. (Deep sigh) I think cover letters are the bai. Of my existence at this point in my life. I spend 8+ hours a day applying for jobs, watching webinars on how to make yourself stand out and I'm just so disheartened right now. Never in my life have I had to go this long and working this hard to find work and now that I'm back in the unemployment line I've been told I need to have "at least 10 resumes" and "cover letters should use wording from the employment as, but not sound cliche and you can't make yourself sound too old and your resume looks like it's from the 90's" I've rewritten my resume about 8 times. Can't say I have 35 years experience, must say 10 or I'll look old. I am old. I'm going to write my next cover letter in pirate talk or Edwardian English and see if I "stand out" then
As many of the commenters noted, the person sending the cover letter should have used ChatGPT as a rough draft, then rewritten it in their own voice. Having said that, as a former hiring manager, I barely scanned cover letters, I just read over the resume for relevant work experience.
When work as recruiter, usually I will not really care about cover letter. Why don't check on their resume instead.
This would be an interesting conversation if it wasn't a poor quality tiktok article.
Cover letters are idiotic. You posted a job. I think I'm a good fit. Here's my qualifications. It should be simple as a purchase: You have a product. I give you money. I get product. Imagine going to a store and the employee won't sell you something until you explain for 3 minutes why you need it.
Exactly. You post the job with the skills you want. I send the resume with the skills you want. Simple.
Load More Replies... Had to log in just to rant on this. I feel like I write a damn good cover letter and have qualifying experience for the jobs I apply for. Haven't gotten so much as a follow up call or interview for any full time jobs I've applied for in 3 months! A friend told me it's because companies use tech to sort through and look for key words, or else the hiring manager DOESN'T EVEN LOOK AT YOURS!!! So I applaud this person for using tech to beat tech. Will be trying in the future and I bet it works. I would double check for errors before sending though. But stop posting jobs if you are not actively hiring. And stop paying less than $40k...we can't survive on that anymore!
SAME I'm not even getting called back for RETAIL JOBS they hire your average 16 year old for! If there's a hiring shortage , I don't see it! Freaking demeaning
Load More Replies... All the commenters saying "work smarter, not harder are ridiculous. How is handing in a cover letter riddled with mistakes considered smart? If you want the first impression you give to a potential employer to scream you cut corners, give no attention to detail and don't bother to proofread your work, by all means hand in that sloppy letter.
I work with Chat all the time for website copy (I'm a designer. Not a writer). It is NOT a copy paste...That's Fine...tool. It's a starting point, a well-based foundation that needs to be worked on. So while I respect and defend the applicant for using it, they were idiots for not proofreading. And for THAT, I would not hire them.
Load More Replies... "they are very difficult but if you do them repeteadly they do get easier" so not 10 minutes
Mine take an hour to write. The jobs I apply to are not similar enough that can effectively use a template.
Load More Replies... Regardless of how simple the OP makes it sound, it's not easy to spend only 10 mins writing a cover letter.
This was hard to read and there was a lot of grammatical errors. She should practice what she preaches and not get so bent out of shape about a damn cover letter, which is an archaic thing that needs to be abolished.
Use this same energy when you're taking your time replying to applicants to decline their application (and that's even if you do that). And when you send that decline letter, don't just copy and paste a rejection you use for everyone, detail what about my experience didn't "fit". The amount of hoops employers want you to jump through for jobs when people are overly qualified is out of control. Who cares. Use Chat GPT, use a resume writer, use whatever you need to so that people give you an actual chance at being a legit applicant.
I'd hired them as long as they looked over the text and fixed it. I'd absolutely not hired them if they just took it as is and left the obvious mistakes in. But I call bs on this one. I regularly use chat GPT to create text snippets for work. And not one instance has happened that it created the same text twice. Every answer is different. If you don't like it, just hit recreate and it writes a different one. It also learns from you and changes with use. I just don't believe her that the chat bot wrote the same text for her.
I think they're right tbh, *mandatory* cover letters are a waste of time. If you want to add a cover letter of your own will, great, but shouldn't be a necessary part of the process
Load More Replies... I am currently looking for work for the last 3 months. The amount of scam interviews I get are ridiculous and I've learned how to spot those at least, but cover letters. (Deep sigh) I think cover letters are the bai. Of my existence at this point in my life. I spend 8+ hours a day applying for jobs, watching webinars on how to make yourself stand out and I'm just so disheartened right now. Never in my life have I had to go this long and working this hard to find work and now that I'm back in the unemployment line I've been told I need to have "at least 10 resumes" and "cover letters should use wording from the employment as, but not sound cliche and you can't make yourself sound too old and your resume looks like it's from the 90's" I've rewritten my resume about 8 times. Can't say I have 35 years experience, must say 10 or I'll look old. I am old. I'm going to write my next cover letter in pirate talk or Edwardian English and see if I "stand out" then
As many of the commenters noted, the person sending the cover letter should have used ChatGPT as a rough draft, then rewritten it in their own voice. Having said that, as a former hiring manager, I barely scanned cover letters, I just read over the resume for relevant work experience.
When work as recruiter, usually I will not really care about cover letter. Why don't check on their resume instead.
This would be an interesting conversation if it wasn't a poor quality tiktok article.
8
25