Generate a Cover Letter with ChatGPT

Overview

Cover letters are short documents sent alongside your CV. They introduce you and tell the person reviewing your application why you’re perfect for the job. Not all job applications need a cover letter. But, when needed, an excellent cover letter is critical.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can help with drafting these documents as long as you’re careful. Copying text from ChatGPT without reviewing it is a bad idea, as it tells lies. It’s especially important to be mindful of how you use it in an educational context. ChatGPT can make you think you’re progressing when you’re not. Copying straight from it won’t help you learn.

This step is all about getting ChatGPT, a generative AI software, to help you make a cover letter for Jane Doe. Jane is a fictional person who has completed a software development programme. Jane is applying for a Junior Software Developer role with Software for Lawyers Ltd.

You don’t need to understand the technical terms in these two pieces of text to complete the task.

Jane’s summary:

Jane has recently completed the part time Super Coders Software Development programme. During this time, she was also working full-time and caring for her two children. The course teaches full stack web development and general programming concepts. It teaches HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, Express, React and PostgreSQL. Jane is very passionate about programming. She taught herself the Python programming language before starting the course.

Her portfolio includes many full stack applications.This includes projects she has built with other students, as well as some solo projects. She’s especially proud of a project called Pin the Mood. This project stores book recommendations until the user has time to read the books. The project used React, Express, Node.js and PostgresSQL. The project team was an agile team made up of two trainees, a scrum master and a tech lead.

After leaving school seven years ago, she joined Lawyers 4U as a call handler. She has developed excellent interpersonal skills and has gained experience working under pressure.

The Job Description:

Software for Lawyers Ltd makes case management software. Their software helps lawyers manage caseloads and track time spent. The development team is small and close knit. They are looking to add a Junior Software Developer to their team.

Requirements

• A university degree in a relevant subject or software development course
• Experience with Node.js, Express and React
• A strong portfolio with solo and group projects
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Experience developing software in an agile team
• Passionate about programming

Nice to Haves

• Experience in the legal sector
• Some knowledge of Python
• Experience working in an office-based environment

Steps

1. Go to https://chatgpt.com and signup for an account
2. Ask the AI to help you write a cover letter. Give it the description of Jane and the job description provided. It may take some experimentation to get the right prompt. That’s OK: getting AI to do what you want is all about trial and error.
3. Think about the goals of a cover letter. Read and reflect on the cover letter. Has the AI provided good links between Jane’s experience and the job’s requirements (e.g. does it note that she has experience in the legal sector)? How has the AI demonstrated that Jane has the right skills for the job? Has the AI added anything that wasn’t in the description of Jane? Could you do better?
4. Think about your own future job hunt. What have you learned that will help you apply for jobs in the future? Will you use ChatGPT to help you generate a cover letter? If so, how will you make sure it’s a good cover letter? If not, why not?
5. Create a Google doc with the text of the cover letter you generated. If this platform is new to you, there is this guide on what Google docs is and how to use it available.
6. Please put your name in the title of the Google doc and make it public. You can add just your given name or your family name if you prefer.
7. Add the link to the Google doc to this platform
8. Add a comment with at least three comments (positive or negative) on the AI’s work

Sign up for a free ChatGPT account

🔗 ChatGPT

A volunteer will review your submission and check it meets the acceptance criteria. They will give you feedback on your submission and help you make any changes to meet the criteria.

Here is the criteria you need to meet:

• You have generated a cover letter for Jane using AI
• You have saved the contents in a document
• You have added your name to the document file name
• You have uploaded the document
• You have added three comments giving feedback on the AI’s work

Submission

You must do this in the CYF Course platform

1. Upload the document containing the cover letter to this site
2. Add a comment with at least one comment (positive or negative) on the AI’s work

When you have a question, ask it.

When you have questions about coursework, ask in a workshop 🧶 🧶 workshop Code Your Future Workshops are meetings where you can get technical help. or in Slack 🧶 🧶 Slack Slack is messaging software - once you have downloaded Slack you can visit our Slack workspace to ask your questions.

You do not need to wait for a workshop to ask a question. You can ask questions in Slack at any time. We are here to help you understand and complete this course. Our goal is to help you learn.

Use your new skill in real life:

You do not have to complete this part of the task, but you might find it interesting or useful. Please don’t submit the result - it will lead to your submission being rejected.

You can ask ChatGPT to generate a CV for Jane using her summary. There isn’t quite enough information there for the AI to do a perfect job, so it might guess.

You could also ask it to generate a CV for you. This course by CodeAcademy might be helpful in getting AI to make a CV. But, please do note that the sample prompts in the course do not always work.