trying very hard to use my brain more
on doing things the hard way even when there's an easy way
A secret: I used AI for help on my cover letter. This is because I’ve applied to 28 jobs and written nearly 20 cover letters. THAT’S A LOT OF COVER LETTERS!!!!
Writing cover letters is not necessarily a hard task, but it is tedious and time-consuming — a lot of the job descriptions I’m looking at feel extremely similar, chock-full of the menial tasks I would have to perform as a Managing Editorial Publishing Book Assistant Editor Assistant or the Paralegal Assistant Legal Administrative Office Assistant.
I was tired of figuring out how my four years in college translated to working/preparing/drafting/assisting/trafficking/supporting/organizing/coordinating
So I took a shortcut. I did something seemingly innocuous:
I asked Claude to help. It (he? it feels wrong to anthropomorphize machines any further) actually did a fairly good job, pulling specific lines from the qualifications/responsibilities section of the job listing and highlighting specific areas where I might expand on my experience to better connect the two.
Even if I hadn’t explicitly written about a certain experience in my cover letter, it imagined certain interactions or tasks I might’ve performed that would be relevant.
I never mentioned any “relationships” I might’ve managed explicitly, but it assumed (correctly) that this was an inherent part of my role. I was, to be totally honest, impressed. And relieved. I didn’t realize it could be so easy! Literally all I had to do was copy/paste the job listings and a cover letter and the machine would do the hard things. I made minor revisions where necessary, adjusting some clunky sentences or adding suggested specific examples, but I was cutting wayyyy down on time spent on my job application submissions.
Never mind that I still wasn’t hearing back from anyone. Never mind that I was barely even skimming the job descriptions anymore. I was a job application machine.
Like literally. I was turning into a machine. Here’s a suggestion Claude made to my opening paragraph in one letter.
And in my final send-off:
Sure, it is now EXPLICITLY CLEAR that I am DRAWN TO THIS OPPORTUNITY and moreover I am EXCITED BY OPPORTUNITIES.
But there is no me in those letters. I literally majored in CREATIVE WRITING. I like a sensory detail, I like a little hyperbole, I like using em-dashes and long sentences and varying the rhythm in my writing to add interest. If my eyes are glazing over reading these job descriptions, surely a recruiter’s eyes are glazing over as I (Claude) attempts to cram every single keyword from the job posting into the cover letter.1
So I started over. I opened a blank Google doc and I just wrote. And then, without Claude, I went to the job posting and read through the description. I identified transferrable skills and highlighted them in my letter. I worked in a paragraph about the data analysis and visualization skills I learned during an internship. I also talked about trips to local libraries and used em-dashes and described something as “dream job” even though Claude once told me that was “unprofessional.”
It took me nearly an hour and a half.
Will this cover letter get me an interview? Statistically speaking, no.2 Maybe the company’s AI will filter me out before a real human even sees my application. But at least this cover letter is mine. I wrote every single word of it. It hasn’t been touched by a machine.
And if I really want someone to read it? My mother — someone who knows me and my strengths and weaknesses better than ChatGPT! — read and edited every single one of my college essays and would surely read my cover letters. I’m friends with tons of people who can catch a missing Oxford comma or random typo. I KNOW REAL PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE WHO CAN DO THESE TASKS, TOO.
It’s just a little bit harder that way.
I’m lucky to live in an age of convenience and efficiency. You can get groceries or dinner delivered straight to your door. In fact, you can get almost anything delivered straight to your door. You can meet strangers on the internet and have entire conversations from behind the safety of a screen. You can watch TikToks while you brush your teeth, and you don’t even have to scroll.
But you know what? I kind of love going to the grocery store. I like picking out my own bananas. I like trying jeans on in person, because 90% of the time they don’t fit me anyway. I like meeting friends for coffee. Even though it’s scary, I like having real people read my work.3
Doing hard things is how we grow. Being uncomfortable sucks, and it is also so important to deal with discomfort as a functioning human being. I want to be able to solve hard problems and write long papers and communicate well and watch a movie the whole way through and I suspect that hyper-convenience and AI are probably obstacles in those goals.
So these days I’m trying to take fewer shortcuts. I literally work 12 hours a week — I have nothing but time to do things the long way. I do not need ChatGPT to tell me how to teach third graders about urban growth. I do not need it to plan my dinner or convert US cups to grams. I can do that myself.4
And so can you! Saludos!
Of course, companies also use AI screen applicants, so it’s usually recommended that you include some specific buzz words from the job posting. From HBR: “With 83% of companies reporting they’re using AI features to screen resumes, if your resume doesn’t incorporate nearly all the keywords from the job description, it may never be seen.” I won’t talk about how much this depresses me but just know that I acknowledge it is unfortunately necessary to do some of this more mechanical writing.
Of the 28 jobs I’ve applied to, I’ve been selected to interview for two. I advanced to a “pre-interview test” for one job. I then failed the test. Both jobs I interviewed for were because I had a personal connection with someone at the company. So the data is not really on my side.
Obviously there are fair and valid arguments for the use of delivery, dating apps, and even auto-scroll (though I’m struggling a little on this one). I’m not trying to make any blanket statements here. Plus I love getting a pizza delivered in my pajamas.
There are lots of other reasons I support using your own brain to do things as opposed to using AI (AI's environmental impact, copyright concerns, and educational implications). There are also a lot of really cool things AI can do, especially in terms of data analysis — plus, I recognize skills with machine learning are probably going to become increasingly important when applying for jobs. It’s complicated!! That’s why I’m using footnotes!!
I love that you are rejecting AI as a replacement for honest, human effort. You will never regret it.