How to use ChatGPT for recruiting: Guide + prompts

What is ChatGPT?

This is a question you rarely hear anymore. Because, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year (or you’re happily retired and reading these articles just for fun), there’s no way you haven’t used or at least heard of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model developed by OpenAI that’s been an absolute game-changer across industries, and recruitment is no exception.  It's designed to generate textual human-like responses based on the input it receives, making it a valuable tool for automating various tasks, answering questions, providing information, offering explanations, translating text, writing various forms of text, and countless other things that can make your everyday work easier.

How can it help with recruiting?

The powerful AI chatbot can assist you at various stages of the hiring process and take (at least a part of) the administrative burden off of you so you can focus on the strategic part of your job (it can even help you there as you will see shortly).

Here are 13 ways you can leverage ChatGPT for a more efficient recruiting process:

Writing Job Descriptions

If you are a hiring manager looking to add someone to your team, ChatGPT can help you draft an engaging and informative job description for a particular role. To get the most effective results, be explicit about the role's key responsibilities, necessary qualifications, and any unique features of the position in your prompt. This ensures that the generated job description is both detailed and tailored to your specific needs. For example:

"Draft a comprehensive job description for a [specific job role] in our company. Please include details on the key responsibilities, qualifications, and expectations for this position. The job description should be engaging, informative, and appealing to potential candidates. Emphasize the role's significance within our organization, its main objectives, and how it contributes to the company's success. Highlight the core duties, such as [key duties for that position]. Additionally, include the required qualifications, including education, skills, and experience, as well as any preferred qualifications. Provide information about the department this role falls under, the reporting structure, and any collaboration with other teams. Mention our company's values, culture, and mission and how this role aligns with them. The job description should be clear, concise, and geared towards attracting top talent while accurately representing the position and our company. Please ensure it is formatted appropriately and without grammatical or typographical errors."

Using this prompt to create job descriptions might result in something like this:

Writing Job Ads

Crafting an engaging job advertisement is vital to attract the right talent and convey your company's ethos effectively. ChatGPT can help you create an amazing job ad, just make sure to provide as much specific information about the role and your company's unique qualities as possible. Take a look at the following prompt: 

"I need help writing a job advertisement for a [specific job role] at our company. This role involves [key responsibilities, e.g., managing a team, developing software, designing marketing campaigns]. Our company prides itself on [unique selling points, e.g., a supportive work environment, cutting-edge technologies, and commitment to sustainability]. Can you generate an engaging and concise job ad that not only details the responsibilities and required qualifications but also highlights our company's culture and values? Craft the ad to be concise, engaging, and appealing to potential candidates."

This is ChatGPT's result: 

Writing Emails to Candidates

You’ve probably, at least once, thought how great it would be to have someone just write emails for you so you don’t have to spend all that time composing the messages, dwelling on the tone of voice you should use, etc. Well, with ChatGPT, you can compose professional follow-up emails post-interview. Just ensure your prompts indicate the tone and key points you want to convey, and you’ll get a well-structured and relevant email in a second. For instance:

"Compose a follow-up email template to send to candidates after an interview. The email should convey our appreciation for their time, provide constructive feedback, and express our continued interest in their candidacy. Please make the message professional and inviting."

The response might look something like this:

You can do this for all stages of email communication to candidates, not just post-interview. Let’s say you need an email template for initial candidate outreach:

"Help me draft an outreach email for a potential [specific job role] candidate. Highlight the exciting aspects of the role and our company's culture, ensuring it feels personalized and engaging."

Or maybe you’re inviting the best candidates for an interview?

"Assist me in composing an email inviting a candidate for an interview for the [specific job role]. Include details about the date, time, format (e.g., virtual or in-person), and what they should expect during the interview."

How about sending a rejection email?

"Help me write a rejection email for a candidate who interviewed for the [specific job role]. Ensure it's respectful, offers feedback, and leaves a positive impression."

Creating a candidate persona

Creating a candidate persona can be a valuable exercise to identify and target ideal candidates effectively. ChatGPT can be incredibly useful in visualizing and crafting candidate personas. To ensure you obtain a comprehensive profile, your prompts should delve deep into the intricacies of the job role, touching on demographics, skills, motivations, and more. The more specific you are, the better ChatGPT can assist in creating a persona that perfectly matches your ideal candidate.  Here's a prompt for creating a candidate persona with ChatGPT's assistance:

"Assist me in developing a candidate persona for the [specific job role] position we're hiring for. Please provide a detailed profile of our ideal candidate, including their demographics, skills, experience, motivations, and potential pain points. Consider factors such as their job preferences, career goals, and communication preferences. Additionally, help me outline where and how we can reach and engage with candidates matching this persona, both online and offline. The persona should serve as a valuable reference for tailoring our recruitment strategies like recruitment marketing content and messaging to attract the right candidates."

Let's try to create a candidate persona for a Senior developer position:

This prompt guides ChatGPT to help recruiters and hiring managers create a well-defined candidate persona that can guide their talent acquisition efforts and ensure a more targeted approach to sourcing and engaging candidates. 

To dive deeper into the art of creating a candidate persona to define the exact candidate you're looking for, download our FREE E-Book  - A Guide On How To Create a Candidate Persona

Boolean Search Strings

Leveraging the advanced language capabilities of ChatGPT can simplify the task of crafting Boolean search strings. When looking to source candidates on platforms like LinkedIn, the specificity of your query matters. To obtain the best results, your prompts should indicate the exact skills, qualifications, and other attributes you're looking for. For example:

"I need assistance in formulating a Boolean search string to identify potential candidates on LinkedIn who possess skills in Python programming, and machine learning, and have experience in the finance sector. Additionally, I'd like to exclude those who have been in roles related to sales or marketing. Please provide a Boolean search string that efficiently narrows down these profiles."

Employer Branding

A strong employer brand can set your organization apart from competitors and attract top talent. By highlighting your company's culture, values, and unique selling points, you can create a compelling narrative about why potential candidates should consider joining your team. Provide detailed information about your company's values, culture, and unique points to make ChatGPT offer you actionable strategies. Here’s a prompt to enhance your employer branding strategy:

“We are a [the business you are in, eg. Marketing Agency] of X employees. I'm looking to enhance our employer branding to attract top talent and position our company as an employer of choice. Could you help me develop a comprehensive employer branding strategy? Please include suggestions on how to showcase our company culture, values, and employee experiences. Also, recommend platforms and content types that would be effective in promoting our brand. Additionally, please provide ideas on potential campaigns or initiatives we could launch, both online and offline, to encourage candidate engagement and create a positive perception of our workplace."

Conducting Hiring Market Research

Asking for help in hiring market research, your prompt should be as detailed and specific as possible to get accurate and relevant results. Consider specifying the industry, the job role you're hiring for, and the specific areas of interest (like salary trends, talent pool availability, or competitor strategies). Here's a sample prompt you might use

"I'm conducting market research for hiring a Software Engineer in the tech industry. Can you provide me with data and insights on the current salary trends, availability of talent, and hiring strategies used by leading tech companies? Additionally, please recommend credible sources or platforms where I can gather more detailed and up-to-date information on these topics."

Here's ChatGPT's tech industry analysis using the suggested prompt:

Resume Screening Criteria

With ChatGPT, you can easily set standardized screening criteria to help your candidate selection process be more streamlined. Specify the role and any unique qualifications in your prompt to get a clear and detailed set of criteria. Here's a suggestion:

"Define a clear and detailed set of screening criteria for evaluating resumes for [specific job role]. Specify the essential qualifications, skills, and experience we should prioritize when shortlisting candidates. Include any preferred qualifications as well."

You can use these criteria as guidelines during your selection process to distinguish the most appropriate candidates for advancement to the next stage. 

Go deeper into the topic: How to Identify Star Candidates in a Haystack of Resumes

Generating Interview Questions

You can use ChatGPT to generate a variety of interview questions tailored to specific job roles, technical skills, or soft skills. This saves time and ensures consistency in the interview process. For example:

"I need assistance in crafting a comprehensive set of interview questions for a [specific job role] interview. Please provide a mix of technical, situational, behavioral, and competency-based questions. Ensure these questions effectively assess a candidate's qualifications and cultural fit."

Our prompt generated 20 interview questions you can use during an interview, but of course, you can ask specifically for any number of questions or tailor the prompt to generate various types of questions.

Further reading: 30 Strategic Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Interview Evaluation Rubric

Constructing an interview evaluation rubric is no easy task, but ChatGPT's capabilities can simplify it. For the most effective results, prompts should be clear about the specific role, desired competencies, and attributes you aim to evaluate. This ensures that the generated rubric is both thorough and relevant to the position you are looking to fill. Here’s how you can frame your prompt:

"I need to develop a structured interview evaluation rubric for the role of [specific job title]. Please provide a framework that allows interviewers to assess candidates objectively based on key areas such as technical skills, soft skills, cultural fit, and problem-solving abilities. The rubric should have a scoring system, with clear guidelines on how to rate each category, ensuring consistent evaluations across all interviewers. Also, include any additional criteria that might be relevant for this role. I want this rubric to offer a comprehensive view of a candidate's suitability and potential fit within our organization."

Reference Check Questions

Crafting thoughtful and concrete reference check questions will help uncover essential details about a candidate to validate their qualifications, work habits, and overall fit for the role from a third-person perspective. When using ChatGPT, your prompts should be written to show the nuances and specifics of the role, so that the questions generated are as relevant and comprehensive as possible.

"Assist me in creating a comprehensive set of reference check questions for candidates applying for the [specific job role]. These questions should help us gain a deeper understanding of the candidate's qualifications, work ethic, and character. Please include a mix of open-ended and specific inquiries, covering different aspects of their professional background."

Just like interview questions, the bot will give you an extensive list of reference check questions that cover almost everything you need to know about the candidate to get the full picture. Reframe the initial prompt or follow up on the prompt with specific requests if you have any!

Diversity and Inclusion Strategies

When crafting a prompt for diversity and inclusion strategies, provide context about your company's current state and objectives related to diversity. This will help ChatGPT offer tailored strategies and actionable steps. Here's a refined prompt:

"Diversifying our workplace and fostering an inclusive environment is a top priority for us. Based on current best practices, can you provide a comprehensive strategy to enhance diversity and inclusion in our hiring process and overall workplace culture? Share best practices, policies, and practical steps to foster a more inclusive candidate pipeline and workplace culture."

ChatGPT is great at suggesting ideas and strategies. Just make sure to adjust them to your own company's mission, values and practices. 

Onboarding Checklist

You can let AI draft the complete onboarding process for a new hire. Just give it the essential details about the role and what you want the checklist to contain:

"Assist in developing a detailed onboarding checklist for new hires in [specific job role]. Outline the essential steps, resources, and training that we should provide to ensure a smooth and effective onboarding process."

ChatGPT gave a detailed outline of all the phases of the onboarding process along with exact tasks and steps to take during each of them. Don't bother creating one on your own from scratch. Just give it the right instructions! 

How to get more accurate answers

Provide Specific Information

ChatGPT operates based on the information you give it. To receive accurate answers, ensure that your prompts are detailed and specific, and provide proper context. The more precise your instructions, the more accurate the AI's responses will be

For example, instead of asking, "Create interview questions for a software engineer", you can ask, "Generate a set of technical interview questions for a senior software engineer with expertise in Java and cloud computing." Specificity helps the artificial intelligence understand your requirements and produce more relevant responses.

Take a look at this article from Writesonic to learn more about how to be better at writing prompts to ChatGPT. 

Iterate and Refine

Don't hesitate to iterate and refine your prompts based on the initial responses you receive. ChatGPT can improve its accuracy with feedback.

Responses to ChatGPT prompts may not always be perfect on the first attempt. It's a good practice to review the initial responses and provide feedback when necessary. For example, if the generated interview questions lack depth or specificity, you can iterate by asking, "Can you provide more detailed technical interview questions for a senior software engineer with experience in Java and cloud computing?" This iterative approach helps train the AI to better understand your needs over time.

You can also Experiment with Different Prompts. If you're not satisfied with the initial responses, try varying your prompts, to see if it yields more accurate or comprehensive answers.

Also, consider providing ChatGPT with additional training data specific to your industry or organization. This can help the AI model better understand and respond to your unique requirements.

Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT for Recruiting

Leveraging ChatGPT in the recruitment process offers several advantages and comes with its own set of challenges. Understanding both the benefits and limitations of using AI-powered tools like ChatGPT is essential for recruiters or hiring managers to make informed decisions about incorporating this technology into their workflow.

Pros

Time Efficiency: ChatGPT can save an enormous amount of time by automating tasks such as drafting job descriptions and emails, generating interview questions and other content, etc. This time-saving aspect allows recruiters to focus on higher-value activities, such as candidate interviews and relationship building.

Consistency: ChatGPT delivers consistent responses based on the provided instructions, ensuring that all candidates receive fair and uniform information. This consistency is especially valuable in maintaining fairness and objectivity in the recruitment process and reducing human error.

Cost-Effective: It can be more cost-effective than hiring additional personnel for certain tasks, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the resources to hire additional staff for tasks like content generation or research.

Cons

Lack of Context: While ChatGPT can generate content based on instructions, it may not grasp the intricacies of your specific industry or company culture. It's essential to review and adapt AI-generated content to ensure it aligns with your unique context.

Initial Learning Curve: Implementing AI tools like ChatGPT into your recruitment process may require some initial learning and experimentation. Recruiters may need time to become proficient at crafting effective prompts and fine-tuning AI-generated content.

Ethical Considerations: AI models like ChatGPT can unintentionally perpetuate biases present in the data they were trained on. It's crucial to regularly review AI-generated content to ensure fairness and avoid any unintentional biases. Additionally, staying updated on ethical guidelines and best practices in AI recruitment is essential for responsible usage.

AI is here – leverage it

ChatGPT truly changed the game when it comes to recruiting. Using prompts like the ones we covered in this article is just a glimpse of what you can do. Thanks to ChatGPT paving the way for AI and its use in everyday work we at TalentLyft developed our own AI called Virtual Recruiter - An AI-powered tool intended exclusively to help recruiters with their everyday and not-so-everyday recruitment tasks and make their work more streamlined. It’s basically ChatGPT for recruiting.

Virtual Recruiter is designed to complement the principles we've discussed in this article, offering a more personalized and integrated experience for recruiters. It is equipped with a vast knowledge database that includes comprehensive information on recruitment best practices, industry trends, and TalentLyft's powerful features. By utilizing natural language processing capabilities, Virtual Recruiter can quickly retrieve and deliver accurate information, saving you valuable time and effort and helping with: 

• Strategic tasks

• Specific guidance 

• Tool expertise