I Tried Using ChatGPT to Edit My Cover Letter: Here’s What Was Underwhelming
I’ve seen a lot of people using AI to edit their cover letters lately, so I gave it a try too. It was definitely fast and convenient for polishing sentences—what would have taken 30 minutes was done in 5.
The problem was that it wrote too well. It turned my plain sentences into fancy ones, but since it wasn’t my voice, it read awkwardly. There were also a few phrases mixed in that I wouldn’t have been able to explain if asked about them in an interview.
In the end, I revised it myself again. Here’s what I concluded:
- Structuring the piece, catching typos, and removing redundant sentences → AI is overwhelmingly more convenient
- Details of my experience and the sincerity of my motivation for applying → I absolutely have to write those myself
I came away thinking I should use it only as an editing tool and not let it do the writing for me. How do you all use it?
6 answers
But isn't this conclusion way too obvious? "Let's use AI only as a tool" is something everyone's been saying for a year now, so it's kind of funny that they wrote it like a new discovery lol. So what I'm curious about is specifically what prompts they ran. If it's just "I used it well and it wasn't great," then there's no information there.
Honestly, AI is the best at structure and typos.
I do it the opposite way. I write a rough first draft, then ask the AI, "What points in this experience would an interviewer be curious about?" If you have it ask questions instead of asking it to fix your sentences, it leaves your tone alone and just fills in the gaps. I recommend having it play the interviewer role rather than act as an editor.