Communicating your story through writing is a key component of your career search.
Clearly articulating your past accomplishments while capturing where you’re going will strengthen your job applications. Your resume and cover letter should target a specific company and function, and your LinkedIn profile should highlight your strengths and accomplishments.
Considerations for Resumes, Cover Letters, and ChatGPT
ChatGPT and similar AI tools can be useful for job seekers, but students should consider the limitations of these tools before using them. While using ChatGPT for inspiration and language support can be helpful, students should be aware of inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and potential lack of authenticity when relying too heavily on the tools to represent themselves to potential employers. Bring your own voice, heavy edits, and a clear sense of judgment to anything ChatGPT produces. Given the evolving nature of AI-powered language models, UC Berkeley recommends staying on top of the ethical and practical considerations by following updates provided on this website.
Additional Resources
- TagCrowd – Helps you find the keywords in a job description
- JobScan – Analyzes how well your resume matches a job in just a few seconds
- SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool – Create an account. Find 10-15 job descriptions and paste the text into the “Plain Text” tab to identify key words and key word pairings and review your resume and LinkedIn profile to see how you’re doing with key word inclusion
- Grammarly – Free site that will check for grammatical errors
Next Steps
After you have updated and reformatted your resume, cover letter and/or LinkedIn profile, make an appointment with a coach to help you refine your content and tell your story.
A best practice to have two to three other people read through your materials for typos, grammar, and clarity. Getting various perspectives will also help you determine what content is resonating with people and why.
Once you have targeted an industry and function, Industry Specialists (for graduating students) and Peer Advisors (for internship seekers) will also be available to review your resume and cover letter.