ChatGPT for Recruiting: 15 Practical Prompts You Can Use Right Away
Using ChatGPT for recruiting can help talent acquisition and HR professionals work more effectively and save time. As the chatbot is based on a large language model (LLM), it is useful for a lot of the textual work talent acquisition professionals do.
In this article, we will dive deeper into ChatGPT for recruiting. We’ll offer tips for using it and what not to use it for, and we’ll share 15 effective prompts that you can use immediately in the various stages of the hiring process.
Contents
Practical tips for using ChatGPT for recruiting
ChatGPT prompts for recruitment
1. Preparing
2. Sourcing
3. Screening and selecting
4. Hiring
5. Onboarding
Practical tips for using ChatGPT for recruiting
Before we get into the ChatGPT prompts for recruiting, we’d like to touch on some things to keep in mind about the use of the tool:
- Be specific. Write prompts that are as clear as possible to avoid generic answers. Providing an objective and context is especially important for writing good prompts.
- Iterate and refine. Use follow-up questions and additional instructions to get better results.
- Don’t enter any candidate data. For example, don’t put in candidate names or other identifying information. You want to avoid any potential privacy concerns.
- Always review and edit the results. Don’t rely on the output as is. Verify the results before using them and edit the AI-generated text where necessary.
- Experiment with ChatGPT for different recruitment tasks. While the tool might work well for some tasks and vacancies, it might not work (at all) for others. Test what works and what doesn’t work to optimize the various stages of the hiring process.
A lot of your recruitment efforts are visible to the outside world. As such, they will have an impact on your employer brand (positive or negative). In that regard, it’s important to keep a few additional things in mind before you start using ChatGPT for recruiting:
- Don’t use ChatGPT to make selections of any kind. If the use of an AI-powered tool results in an adverse discriminatory impact, the employer may be held liable, according to new EEOC policies.
New York City has just recently issued a law that regulates the use of automated employment decision tools (AEDTs). Employers that use AI tools to make hiring decisions must now disclose this fact to candidates.
They’re also required to conduct annual third-party ‘bias audits’ of the technology or software they use to make public how the AI could be discriminating certain types of candidates.
- Determine what (not) to use ChatGPT for. Before you start using ChatGPT for recruiting, have a meeting with the entire People Team. Determine what recruitment tasks you want to use the tool for and – perhaps more importantly – what you do not want to use it for.
- Keep it personal. During the sourcing stage, reaching out to potential candidates with a personalized message is crucial. Messages generated by an AI-driven tool like ChatGPT can be off-putting for candidates, whether it’s an outreach, offer, or salary negotiation email. This lack of personalization may lead to people expressing their discontent about your hiring process online, negatively affecting your employer brand.
The fact that you can use ChatGPT for certain tasks doesn’t mean that you necessarily should.
ChatGPT prompts for recruitment
Recruiters and talent acquisition professionals can use ChatGPT for various tasks across the stages of the hiring process:
Let’s have a look at 15 examples of ChatGPT prompts for the different stages of the process and how you can use each prompt in your specific context.
Preparing
1. Writing a job description
| Sample prompt: “Generate a detailed job description for a data scientist position with a focus on machine learning and AI. The description should include a job overview, key responsibilities, required skills and qualifications, and information about the team.” |
What you need to know
This prompt will generate the basis for a job description that can be used internally, primarily between the recruiter and the hiring manager, to make sure that they are aligned about what they are looking for in an ideal candidate. You can use the AI-generated version as a starting point for your final job description.
2. Creating a job ad
| Sample prompt: “Compose a compelling job advertisement for a Senior Web Developer position at a fast-growing e-commerce startup. The ad should include an enticing headline, an overview of the role, key responsibilities, necessary skills and qualifications, and the perks of working at our company. Use language that is inclusive and appealing to a diverse audience.” |
What you need to know
This prompt gives you a template to use as the basis for your specific job ad. Customize your prompt by including the perks that make working at your company even better, as well as the company’s name and location.
For more specific responses, you can also include a brief description of the company culture and the team the Senior Web Developer will join.
In addition, you can make your job ad SEO-friendly by fleshing out the prompt further: “Include relevant industry and job-specific keywords to improve visibility and discoverability online.”
Sourcing
3. Boolean string generation
| Sample prompt: “Create a Boolean search string to find resumes of Software Engineers experienced in Java. The candidates should have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and at least 5 years of experience. They should also be familiar with Agile methodologies and have skills in SQL and RESTful APIs. Exclude candidates who are only experienced in Python or who live outside the United States.” |
What you need to know
Boolean search methods can be a valuable addition to your sourcing toolkit. With this prompt, you can generate a basic Boolean search string that will allow you to get more relevant results. Depending on the search engine you use, you may need to adjust the string slightly.
To get an even more accurate Boolean search string, you can research how to run a Boolean search on the platform you want to use first and then prompt ChatGPT.
4. Finding alternative job titles for sourcing
| Sample prompt: “Generate a list of alternative job titles or roles related to a Social Media Manager position. These should be titles that might be used by professionals with skills in social media strategy, content creation, audience engagement, and analytics, which are typically required for a Social Media Manager role.” |
What you need to know
This prompt was inspired by Moritz Fischer, AIHR’s Talent Acquisition Specialist, who uses it to source relevant candidates. Knowing alternative job titles is particularly handy in today’s job title environment, where companies and individuals keep coming up with different titles for virtually the same role.
“It has really improved the quality of my sourced candidates, especially for hard-to-fill roles, as well as the speed at which I can find relevant profiles,” says Fischer.
5. Candidate outreach emails
| Sample prompt: “Craft a personalized candidate outreach email for a potential candidate named John, who is currently a Senior Graphic Designer at a well-known digital marketing agency. The purpose of this email is to invite him to consider an open role for an Art Director at our innovative advertising firm. Highlight our creative environment, professional growth opportunities, and competitive benefits package. The tone should be professional yet friendly.” |
What you need to know
This prompt will provide you with a sample outreach email that is, apart from a couple of details, such as the name of your company and specific benefits, pretty much ready to send. For a full-fledged outreach email, you can simply include the missing information by iterating your prompt.
As mentioned earlier, using ChatGPT or a similar tool to generate, for instance, candidate outreach emails is something to consider carefully.
On the one hand, if candidates become aware of the fact that they’ve received an automatically generated outreach email, it may turn them off from wanting to work at your company. They may also take to one of the many online platforms to spread the word about your AI-generated candidate communication and hence affect your reputation as an employer.
On the other hand, many companies already use existing templates for their candidate outreach, so one can wonder what the difference really is. Besides, not everyone is good at writing a compelling outreach email, and for these people, this prompt provides a well-structured template to work with.
The way to go about this probably lies somewhere in the middle. You can use ChatGPT as a starting point, but it is indispensable to add a big – human – personal touch to it.
6. LinkedIn posts
| Sample prompt: “Write an engaging LinkedIn post announcing an open role for a Project Manager at our dynamic tech startup. The post should emphasize the key responsibilities of the role, desired skills, and how the position fits into our organization’s mission. Encourage interested professionals to apply and share the opportunity within their network. The tone should be engaging and inviting.” |
What you need to know
You can further finetune the first version of the result by adding specific responsibilities and skills you’re looking for.
Although personalization matters to a lesser extent here than for the candidate outreach email we discussed earlier, you still want to ensure that your posts stand out. After all, the competition probably also uses ChatGPT for recruiting, and you don’t want your LinkedIn posts to be an exact copy of theirs.
Therefore, if your organization has a distinct way of communicating, a unique tone of voice, or perhaps even its own ‘company glossary,’ this can be something to sprinkle over the ChatGPT result and set you apart.
Spotify, for example, consider themselves to be one big band, with every single employee being a band member. The company consistently use this band terminology throughout its (candidate) communication.
Screening and selecting
7. Providing pre-interview briefings to candidates
| Sample prompt: “Compose a pre-interview briefing email for a candidate named Susan, who has been shortlisted for a Senior Data Analyst position in our organization. The email should explain the stages of our interview process, which are a technical interview with the hiring manager and a peer interview with two team members, potential areas of focus based on the role (like her experience with data modeling, statistical analysis, etc.), and any logistical details such as interview duration, platform (if virtual), or location. The tone should be supportive and professional to help alleviate any pre-interview anxieties.” |
What you need to know
This prompt provides you with a clear pre-interview briefing email. It ticks all the boxes and is well-structured. Based on your personal preferences, you can shuffle the various paragraphs around to structure the email differently.
To provide the candidate with more details and make the email even more personal, you can add the names of the hiring manager and – if known beforehand – the two team members they will be interviewing with. This also allows the candidate to look up the interviewers on, for example, LinkedIn, to better prepare for the interviews.
Here, too, you can add your company nuances to the email to further customize it.
8 & 9. Interview questions by role and interview type
| Sample prompt: “Generate a set of 7 behavioral interview questions tailored for a Software Engineer role. These questions should assess the candidate’s problem-solving abilities, teamwork skills, and how they handle deadlines and project pressures.” |
| Sample prompt: “Create a list of 5 technical interview questions for a Digital Marketing Specialist position. The questions should focus on the candidate’s proficiency in SEO/SEM, email marketing, social media marketing, and their familiarity with marketing analytics tools.” |
What you need to know
ChatGPT is great for idea generation and inspiration, so it will quickly get you started on your questions list creation. You can use follow-up questions to delve deeper into areas like a candidate’s problem-solving abilities or their capacity to work with a cross-functional team – whatever aspect you want to focus on during the interview.
10. Work test check
The following prompt was also inspired by AIHR’s Talent Acquisition Specialist, Moritz Fisher. “Since the launch of ChatGPT, we’ve seen a spike in AI-generated motivation letters, applications, CVs, and work tests. I use ChatGPT to improve the design of our work tests for candidates. Specifically, I check whether or not the work tests our hiring managers create can be completed using only generative AI. If ChatGPT can complete the assignment by itself, we need to redesign the test to be more specific and practical,” shares Fisher.
Sample prompt: “Complete the following work test as if you were a job candidate for an X role: …”
What you need to know
What’s interesting about this particular application of ChatGPT for recruiting is that it demonstrates how the use of this tool has its benefits and drawbacks for both candidates and companies.
Just as candidates tend not to appreciate receiving ChatGPT-generated outreach emails, offer emails, or salary negotiation emails, employers also don’t appreciate receiving motivation letters, CVs, and work tests that are completed using only generative AI.
In the (near) future, it might be worth considering the creation of some kind of ‘Candidate Code of Conduct’ that companies create and send to candidates at the start of the hiring process explaining the company’s policy when it comes to the use of generative AI to write motivation letters and complete work tests (among other things).
This is also a reminder to all of us in HR that we should not treat candidates in a way that we don’t want to be treated ourselves. This means that we should not send them purely ChatGPT-generated emails if we don’t wish to receive ChatGPT-generated work tests.
As for the work test check prompt, by adding the role you want the candidate to complete the work test for, you will get a more accurate work test example.
11. Generating rejection emails
| Sample prompt: “Draft a respectful and empathetic rejection email for a candidate named Alex, who recently interviewed for the role of Product Manager but was not selected for the position. The email should express our appreciation for Alex’s time, note that it was a competitive process, and encourage him to apply for future roles that match his skills and interests.” |
What you need to know
This prompt generates a template that you can use as the basis for your rejection emails. Details such as the name of your company and contact information still need to be added. Other than that, this template is close to ready-to-use.
You may wonder why we are not emphasizing the importance of personalization here as we did with the candidate outreach email. Rejection emails can be tricky to get right since:
- You don’t want to write anything that could be interpreted as potentially discriminatory;
- You don’t want to mention other candidates;
- You want to be considerate, etc.
So, a template for rejection emails that has been validated by your organization’s legal department is probably the best – and safest – way to go in any case. You should always thoroughly read the email before sending it to ensure it does not mention anything that doesn’t apply to this particular candidate.
Hiring
12. Offer email
| Sample prompt: “Compose an offer letter email for a candidate named Sam, who has been selected for the role of Senior UX Designer at our company. The email should express our excitement about potentially bringing Sam on board, provide the main terms of the offer (including salary, benefits, start date), and explain the next steps for acceptance. The tone should be professional, yet enthusiastic and welcoming.” |
What you need to know
Using this prompt will provide you with a good template for your offer emails. Make sure to have your legal department validate the template before you start sending out offer emails based on it.
There is, however, a bit more room – and need – for personalization here than with the rejection email. After all, you are welcoming a new team member into the company, something that should always have ‘human’ written all over it.
13. Salary negotiation email
| Sample prompt: “Create a professional and empathetic response to a candidate named Lisa who has asked for a higher salary than what we’ve offered for the role of Financial Analyst. The email should express our understanding of her concerns, reiterate the comprehensive benefits of our package beyond just the base salary, and state our willingness to engage in further negotiations or explore other ways to meet her expectations.” |
What you need to know
This prompt provides a solid basis for a salary negotiation email. You still need to add the company name and specific benefits, as well as the name of the HR representative that Lisa can reach out to discuss her salary expectations. You should also expand on any specific aspects of the compensation package in more detail.
Onboarding
14. New hire FAQ
| Sample prompt: “Generate a list of 10 frequently asked questions by new hires to be posted on our company’s intranet. This should cover common questions new employees might have, such as understanding their benefits, how to set up their email and other IT systems, details about the onboarding process, who to contact for specific queries, information about company culture and values, time-off policies, and any details about day-to-day operations they should be aware of.” |
What you need to know
This prompt gives you a good idea of the most common questions new hires might have. You can further customize the prompt by including a specific type of role or the industry your organization is in.
15. New hire survey questions
| Sample prompt: “Create a set of 7 survey questions to gather feedback from new hires about their onboarding experience. The questions should cover areas like the effectiveness of the orientation program, clarity of job responsibilities and expectations, their initial impressions about the work culture, how supported they felt during their first few weeks and any suggestions they might have for improvement. The goal is to gauge their initial experiences and find ways to improve the onboarding process.” |
What you need to know
Using this prompt will help you brainstorm the different kinds of questions to ask in your onboarding survey. Adding criteria, for example, ‘Include at least one question about the support they received from their onboarding buddy’ will help you to further customize the survey questions.
Key takeaways
ChatGPT can be a great tool to support talent acquisition and recruitment professionals with various tasks throughout the hiring process.
The use of the tool is, however, something to consider carefully and to discuss with various teams – think of HR, Legal, and IT, for example – beforehand. And remember, ChatGPT for recruiting should always be your starting point, not the final product.
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