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That's easy. I use it for grammar and spell checking for cover letters and my resume.
That's easy. I use it for grammar and spell checking for cover letters and my resume.
Why do I limit it to these specific uses? I am a real person who at least hopes that job applications will be read by other real people. LLM's can't replicate the way I talk or the way I write. The English that they generate is not my English. My English is a combination of Southern Midwestern Illinois/Kentucky, Central North Carolina, and even a bit of Central European because those are the three areas where I have lived all of my life. The idioms and metaphors that I use come from these places. My accent is weird and only gets weirder depending on where I am physically at that time and what I'm doing. When I write, that comes through even with something as professional as a cover letter for a resume.
Why do I limit it to these specific uses? I am a real person who at least hopes that job applications will be read by other real people. LLM's can't replicate the way I talk or the way I write. The English that they generate is not my English. Not to mention, an LLM-generated cover letter suggests that I don't care about who the employer is; I'm just going to apply for anything with matching keywords in a job description. I am writing this in response to a post that I saw recently on LinkedIn where someone was advertising their service that can supposedly apply for 1000 jobs on your behalf at a time and get you up to 50 interviews. I've been unemployed and desperate before. I understand the need to find a job ASAP, but I don't think mass spamming is the way to go. It's a trap that can get you labeled negatively in the eyes of a hiring manager.
In comparison, LLM's have their own "accent," so to speak. This is more obvious when you consider the way they organize words, the synonyms that they choose, and the fact that they sound like they are writing a paper for peer review instead of sounding like a real person. I don't want my resume or my cover letters to sound like this. It's not me. If you interview me and hear a slight "country" twang in my accent, there's a reason for that.
In my opinion, if you want the job, you will at least put out the effort to write a (mostly) customized cover letter. It's okay if the cover letter is mostly a form letter that's been customized for a specific job. What's important is that is't from a real person who wrote it and customized so that it addresses the specific requirements in the job posting. Eventually, LLMs will get smarter and will be able to impersonate a normal person's writing style perfectly and give a perfect response. That day is coming. When it does, I think it will get tougher to tell LLM-speak from normal English. I also think interviews will get tougher as a result, and we'll see more creative problem-solving challenges before you talk to a real person.
I haven't interviewed that many people in my career. Most that I have done have been technical interviews. However, if I'm reviewing resumes/CVs, it's pretty easy to pick up on LLM-speak, and I would probably put them on a lower tier of potential applicants than someone who seems legit but also misspelled a word. In my opinion, if you want the job, you will at least put out the effort to write a (mostly) customized cover letter. I couldn't care less if the cover letter is mostly a form letter that you have customized for a specific job, as long as it was a real person who wrote it. I also realize, eventually, LLMs will get smarter and will be able to impersonate a normal person's writing style perfectly. That day is coming. When it does, I think it will get tougher to tell LLM-speak from normal English. I also think interviews will get tougher as a result. At least, that's my two cents.
To sum it up, I don't use LLMs to write for me when applying for jobs because I want the person who reads it to know that I am a real person and not just a bot. In the same way, I want to show the potential employer that they are someone that I want to work for, and I've done my due diligence to know who they are, what they do, and why I am interested in working for them.
One last thing, if you're not a native English-speaker, having an LLM write for you might seem like an amazing tool. I completely understand! I've been learning a second language for years, and I'm still not very good. However, I believe that the imperfection in the language you are applying in is still better than LLM-generated text that isn't you.