My ClassMaster CV Writing: Build Job-Specific CVs with AI Tools

1. Welcome: Hi, I'm Tom and welcome to Spout CV. This is the ultimate guide to creating a standout CV that gets noticed and gets you into interviews. In this course, we're going to transform the way you write your CV, ensuring it grabs attention and gives you the best chance of getting that interview. If you're here, it's likely because you're frustrated that your CV isn't getting the attention it deserves. Perhaps you've sent out dozens, even hundreds of applications with little to no response. That's because the normal way of writing a CV often doesn't work. Recruiters and employers spend mere seconds on each CV, so making your stand out is crucial. This course is designed to flip the script on the standard CV. Instead of following outdated methods, we'll explore what recruiters actually look for and how to avoid common pitfalls. By the end of this course, you'll have a fully revamped CV that grabs attention and increases your chances of securing that all important interview.'s a quick overview of what we'll cover. How recruiters look at CVs, what to avoid and what they are really looking for. Building your CV, step by step instructions for each section from your personal details to tailoring it for the position, building your cover letter, how to craft a compelling cover letter and the best ways to get it in front of a right person. Go the extra mile tips to further increase your chances of getting an interview. Tools, introducing you to various free tools, including AI powered CV and cover letter creators, video guides, QR code tools, and Google Docs templates. A little about me, I'm Tom, and I'll be with you throughout this entire course. I created Sprout CV after years of experience as both an employer and a recruiter, where I had to sift through thousands of CVs. I've helped countless job seekers improve their applications and secure interviews, and now I'm here to help you do the same. Recruiters have a tough job, especially with the sheer volume of CVs they receive. Sometimes they get hundreds within minutes of posting a new job. With thousands of CVs to review, recruiters spend only seconds on each one, which means your CV needs to make an immediate impact. Recruiters are looking for a few key things, a clear, easy to read layout. If they struggle to read it, they'll quickly move on. A tailored cover letter, they want to see that you've spent time on your application, not just sent a generic letter. Relevant experience, highlight the roles that are most relevant to the position you're applying for, a professional email address, leave your teenage email addresses behind. A professional one shows you're serious. On the flip side, here's what they're not looking for. An error ridden CV and cover letter. They want to know you take pride in your work. Unprofessional email addresses. These can be a big turn off. Humor, jokes and anecdotes are better saved for the interview. Too many irrelevant jobs, listing every job you've ever had can clutter your CV, focus on what's relevant to the job you're applying for. How do you make your CV stand out? Ensure it's simple and easy to scan with key information tailored to the position. For example, you're applying for a marketing role, you need to be specifically highlighting your Google Ad certification, social media skills, and relevant experience right at the top. Not information that says you worked in a shoe shop when you left school. Include your personal details, address, email and phone number in a clear format. Your email should be professional. Throughout the course, I'll guide you through each section with detailed instructions and examples. Have access to helpful tools and templates to make the process easier. We'll explore tools like Google Docs and even AI platforms like Chat GPT to craft a professional CV. By the end of this course, you'll have a polished professional CV that stands out from the crowd and significantly increases your chances of getting an interview. Let's get started on transforming your CV and taking that next big step in your career. Welcome to Sprout CV. 2. Course Format: Hi there. It's Tom again. Now that you've had a warm welcome to Sprout CV, I want to give you a quick overview of the journey we're going to take together in this course. By the end, you'll have a standout CV, a tailored cover letter, and a strategy for landing those all important job interviews. So let's walk through how everything will flow. Stage one, set up and getting started. We're starting with the basics, making sure you've got the right tools in place to create, edit, and organize your CVs. This includes setting up Google Docs for easy CV editing and chat GPT to help with crafting and tailoring your CV and cover letters. Once that's all set up, you'll be ready to start building your CV. Stage two, build your master CV. In this stage, you'll create your master CV from the template provided. We'll cover each section, contact details, past employment, skills and qualifications, and populate it with everything recruiters need to know. This is your base CV, the one you'll build upon throughout the course. Don't worry if it's not perfect at first, we're going to refine it as we go. Stage three, using AI to supercharge your applications. This is where things get exciting. In this stage, we'll use AI tools to take your base CV initially, create a generic CV that you can use when you just need a basic non tailored CV to hand out on the fly. You then start tailoring your base CV to specific job applications. You'll learn how to adapt your CV and create job specific versions that speak directly to each role you apply for. You'll also see how easy it is to use AI for creating a tailored cover letter that works in tandem with your CV to boost your chances. Stage four, going the extra mile. Now that you've got your CV and cover letters ready, we'll move on to the extras that help you stand out from the crowd. Sending a personalized video with a QR code to small creative touches like mailing your CV with a fun treat. We'll explore ways to get noticed by recruiters. These strategies may be a little outside your comfort zone, but they work. Stage five, submit and follow up. Finally, we'll cover how to submit your applications and follow up with recruiters. I'll show you how to send professional follow up emails helping you stay one step ahead of a competition. We will also look at how we will keep track of your job applications to keep things organized. So that's how a course will flow. We'll guide you through every step of the process from building your base CV to adding those personal touches that make a big difference. By the end, you'll be ready to send out polished, tailored CVs and cover letters that stand out. Let's get started. 3. Tools to use: When creating your CV, you have access to many online tools, most of which are gimmicky and just not needed. You don't need any special design software or paid subscriptions to sort out your CV. You just need to access free to use tools to keep things simple. During this course, we will be focusing on the following tools, Google Docs, Google Tools and hat GPT. With a Google suite of tools, you will be able to access a word processing tool online via Google Chrome. This is free, and you can assign a special email to the browser, meaning you can save all your CVs, track applications, monitor responses, and more all for free. The next video, we will set up a new Google account that you can use specifically to apply for jobs and keep track of everything. Feel free to skip the video if you already have this all set up. However, it would be worth watching to make sure you're not missing anything. Of course, you can use your current email, use different word processing tools, and set up your own way of saving and tracking. But for the sake of this course, we will use Google Tools. See you in the next video. 4. How to set up and use Google Tools: In this video, I'll guide you through the steps to set up a Google Drive, create a professional email, and provide an overview of how to use the Google Suite of tools. First, click the link below to go to the Google signup page. You'll start by filling in your first name. The surname is optional. Once you've done that, click Next. Next, you'll be asked for your birthday and gender, enter that information and click Next again. Now, you'll choose your email address. It's important to have a professional email for your job applications. So try to stick to your name followed by some random numbers. Avoid anything that might hint at your age or marital status. As this could influence a recruiter's decision, ensure your email name matches the name on your CV and use random numbers that don't look like a birth year. For example, I tried adding 01 after my name, but that was already taken, so I kept trying different numbers until I found an available email. Next, you'll create a password. You'll then be prompted to add a recovery email address. If you have another Google account, feel free to enter it here. If not, don't worry. After that, review your account details to confirm everything is correct and agree to the terms regarding how Google will use your data. Once you've done that, your Google account will be set up. Now, let's explore the tools available for creating your CV and staying organized. In the top right corner, you'll see your initial insider colored circle. Next to that is a circle with a dot pattern. Click on this to open a tab with all the Google tools. If you ever need to access this, just open a new Google Tab and it'll be in the top right corner. First, let's look at Gmail. This will be your platform for sending out emails with your CV and cover letter, as well as receiving emails related to your job search. Now let's navigate to Google Docs. As we create our CVs and cover letters, we'll generate new Google Docs for each one, which will be available in your recent documents for review before interviews. To create a new document, click on Blank Document. This opens a new document where you can copy and paste your CV or cover letter. Remember, Google Doc saves automatically, so you'll never lose your work. Next, we'll check out Google Drive where we'll keep everything organized. You'll see the Google Doc we just created as an untitled document ready for filing. Stay organized. Let's create two folders. Click the plus New button in the top left corner and select New folder. Name the first folder, CV, Do not Edit. This will hold your base CV, which we'll use to tailor for different jobs. Click, create, and then create another folder called JOBS applied for. You can now see these folders in the drive. Inside the Job Supplied folder, you can create a new folder for each job for which you've created a CV and cover letter. This makes it easy to review the relevant documents if you get called for an interview. Move a document to the correct folder from the main drive, click on the three dots in the top right of a document box, scroll down to organize and then click Move. This will show you all your folders so you can place it in the appropriate one. For example, if we made a CV for Sprout Marketing agency, we would add it to the Sprout marketing agency folder. That's your Google account all setup. Up next, we'll be setting up hat GPT. 5. Sign up to Chat GPT: Welcome to the overview video of Chat GPT, the AI tool we will be utilizing to help you create your standout CV. When we use hat GPT, we will be using the free version. It comes with some limitations. But for the purpose we need it for, these limitations won't be a problem. First, you will need to visit the hat GPT website. The link is below this video. If you don't already use Chat GPT, then click Sign Up. This will take you to create an account page where you can either sign up via email or using your new Google account. For this video, we will be signing up using the Continue with Google option, click Continue with Google. You will then be asked to choose an account. Choose the one you have just created. You can use another account if you wish. As long as you remember the login, you can use any Gmail or email you like. Click on the Chosen account. I will then show a very similar signing page. Just click Continue. It will then take some basic information from you. Just pop your name and birthday in so it knows you are old enough to use it. Now, as Chat GPT adds new features, it may change the login message. Currently, it asks if you would like to enable the memory function. Just click No now as we don't need it to remember information from different jobs. That's it. You now have access to one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. I'll now show you how to use it. All you need to do is type, paste or upload some text instructions into the textbox at the bottom of the page. Once you have typed your message, just click the submit or arrow up button. I will then think about your question and give a reply. If you don't know what Chat GPT is, then let's ask it. Explain what you can do as though I was a 10-year-old. When we ask chat to explain what it does, it gives us the following reply. Hey there. Imagine I'm like a super smart robot friend. I can help you with all sorts of things like answering questions. If you're curious about animals, space, history, or how stuff works, you can ask me anything and I'll explain it in a simple way. Helping with homework. If you're stuck on a math problem or need to write a story, I can give you hints or even help you write, telling stories or jokes. I can come up with fun stories or tell you jokes when you need a break. Explaining tough stuff. If something seems too tricky like science or math, I can break it down into easy parts, so it makes more sense. Drawing pictures in your head. If you describe something, I can imagine it and describe it back or even draw a picture for you. Basically, I'm here to help you learn and have fun with any questions or ideas you have. When you are creating chats on Chat GPT, it does save the chats you have created. You may want to keep them to revert back to if needed. The best way to do this is to rename them to the job you are applying for. Otherwise, it will just use a generic name that won't be very easy to find. To rename a chat, all you need to do is hover over the name, click the three dots, and then click Rename, and that's it. Nicely organized. When we use hat GPT, you will be using prompts that we have created that will make it follow certain tasks and make the creation of certain parts of your CV very easy. You can use it out of the box with simple information, but you won't be getting the most out of it. Follow along the following lessons to fully understand how to use this tool. In the next lesson, we'll start creating your brand new CV and show you how to utilize hat GPT to improve and make it quicker when applying to jobs. 6. Download your CV template: In this module, we're going to start by creating your base CV. It's where we create your new generic CV and populate it with all the relevant information employers or recruiters will need to see. Once we have this base CV, we will be able to utilize AI to start to improve and create your job specific CV so you can start to stand out to prospective recruiters. The first thing I want you to do is click the link below this video. It's a link that gives you access to the CV template that you can start to edit. Once you click the link, you'll be prompted to use template. Just click this button from within the Google account you set up earlier and it'll add it to your Google Drive and documents ready for you to start editing. Go now and click Download on the CV, then start the next video where we will start to go through section by section and start creating your new CV. Note that you may have a CV already, and whilst that's great, we want to be in line with what we are working with. If you want that on hand to reference, then load that up too and you can start to utilize the information from that document. See you in the next lesson. 7. Your contact details : In this lesson, we're going to look at your contact details and what you should and shouldn't have on your CV. Contact details should be an easy section of your CV. Just pop them on the top of your CV and then be done with it. However, there's a bit more to it than that. When you go through creating your CV, pop yourself in the shoes of the person who is shortlisting the CVs, read out loud what you've written and see if you would invite yourself for an interview. Your contact details being the first thing someone looking at your CV will see, it's important to make sure these are present, accurate and don't look like they could be questioned. Let's go. Starting with your name, very simple. Just pop your name at the top of the page in bold as per template. If you have a preferred name, then add it here, your phone number, put your best contact number or numbers here, feel free to supply a mobile and landline. Your email address, preferably use an email address like we discussed when setting up the Google account. I just needs to be a simple name style email address that looks professional and simple to use. Also, using a dedicated email address will mean any spam or auto replies will be kept away from cluttering your main email inbox. Your address, again, really simple. Some people only want to put their wider location, town or city here, but this always looks like you're trying to hide something. Just pop your full address here. That's it for the contact details section. Let's move on to the next lesson where we look at your previous employment. 8. Your previous employment: Welcome back. In this lesson, we'll look at your previous employment. With any luck, you already have a list of your previous employment that you can call upon to map out your employment history. This history will vary depending on how long you've been at employment age. Firstly, we'll cover a scenario where you may not have been in the job market for very long. For example, if you've just left education. If you have limited or no job history, then you will need to look at your time in education after school jobs or weekend work. You'll need to take a look at all the key things you have done but may show a skill that you can utilize within your new employment. For example, if you carried out a paper around after school job or voluntary work, then you need to write about it and the skills you feel you have gained from this. At this point, you just need to write as much as you can about any past jobs and the skills you feel they have given you. An example would be that if you had a volunteering job on a local community farm, you would list the tasks you had when there, all the jobs, the skills you feel you've learned, how you communicated with your fellow volunteers, how you dealt with the public, et cetera. You really think of all the skills you have picked up, the list can be very long. Don't pressure yourself at this stage to create a long list, but the longer the better. Once we move forward, we will utilize AI to clear the list up and make it relevant to the position you are applying for. If you're at the stage where you have been in jobs for the past few years, then you will be able to list the companies you've worked for, your role within that job, and your responsibilities and skills you have picked up. Again, at this stage, don't leave anything out. As you are filling in the template, you will be able to add as many jobs as you have had, fill in the company name, your role, and a start and end date you only need to use for month and year or even the year if you were in these positions for a while. This is the most time intensive part of creating your CV, so ensure you spend plenty of time on this, maybe fill it in, sleep on it, and then have another look tomorrow with fresh eyes. In the next lesson, we'll look at your skills, but don't rush this current section. It's better to create your master CV with as much information as possible than have to come back and keep changing or adding to it. See you in the next lesson. 9. Your skills: Welcome to the skills lesson. This lesson will be brief, but just as important as the other sections of your CV. In the skills section, reflect on your past positions and identify any skills you've developed. To format this section, list each main skill as a title. For example, time management. Under the title, provide a concise description, such as proficient at managing my time to stay productive and handle workloads efficiently. Keep these descriptions short and to the point. If you're struggling to identify your skills, head over to the Extras module and check out the skills AI lesson. There, I explain how to use AI to extract skills from your CV complete with a prompt you can use. Once you've listed your skills, it's a good idea to revisit the skills AI lesson in the extra section. This will help ensure you haven't missed any important skills. Don't worry if some skills seem minor or unimportant. We'll refine and enhance them later when we use AI to build your main CV. Next up, we'll cover qualifications. See you in the next lesson. 10. Your qualifiations: Welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to fill in the final part of your CV, your qualifications. Depending on the position you're applying for it depends on what qualifications you need to note. If, for example, you are applying for a job in marketing, then you don't need to say that you had a qualification for irrelevant things like equine care or catering. But if you are applying for a position in marketing, then you will want to put any additional qualifications such as your Google Ad certification or a diploma in digital marketing. Simply use the bottom section of your CV to list out all your qualifications. The format of the qualifications needs to be as follows. Use the subheading, either qualifications or professional qualifications as shown on the template. Use a bullet list. List qualifications in descending order of importance with the most important at the top. Include relevant information. For each qualification, state the name, the awarding body, and the year you earned it. Keep it brief. Limit each bullet point to two lines, and that's it. Congratulations. You've now completed a module on creating your master CV. This is the one you want to keep hold of as your master CV. It will form a basis on which you use AI to create a specifically tailored CV and cover letters for each position you want to apply for. See you in the next module. It gets more interesting from here. 11. Create your generic CV: Welcome to the AI module. This is where things start to get interesting and you start to use artificial intelligence to do the hard work of adapting your CV to each individual job application. By using AI, you will be taking a lot of a monotony of creating or rewriting a CV and cover letter for each individual job you are applying for. Currently, I'm betting that you are using the same CV and cover letter that you have created to apply to each job you apply to. Whilst this is okay and we'll get results, it relies on a lot of variables that mean you probably aren't getting noticed as much as you should be and you'll miss out on a lot of job opportunities. By using AI, you'll be able to easily adapt each application and cover letter to be more personalized and specific to the company you are applying to. We're only scratching the surface of just what AI can do, but the following lessons will get you in the tiny minority of people who you will be competing with for the job. In this lesson, we will create a generic CV. This is useful for when maybe you have already spoken to a company offering the job and they just need to review your CV to see past jobs and skills, et cetera. This is not the CV you will be creating to send out when you apply for the majority of positions, as it's very much the same as your current approach and lacks personalization and personality. So let's get started. Now I'll walk you through how to create your generic AICV first, you'll want to load your master CV, the one you've already created. You'll also need to access the AI prompt for the generic CV, which you'll find linked below. You'll need to click the link and open up hat GPT, then login. Once hat GPT is loaded, click the pencil icon in the top left corner to open a new chat. When you have a new chat open, you'll see the message box at the bottom where you can input text. The first thing you need to do is select the AI generic CV prompt, copy all the text, and paste it into hat GPT. Once you've pasted the full prompt press Enter. At this point, hat GPT will begin working and will ask you to provide your existing CV. You can either upload your CV by clicking the attached file button, or you can copy and paste it directly into the message box, which is the easiest option. Copy your CV and paste it in. After you hit Enter, hat GPT will begin analyzing your CV and start building it out. As it reviews your CV, it will identify areas for improvement in terms of clarity and professionalism. It will then ask you a series of questions to guide the refinement process. For example, your CV might include a personalized header section. If Chat GPT asks how to handle this, you can simply instruct it to remove that section. Next, it may ask if you'd like to include a LinkedIn profile. You can provide your profile link here if you'd like, but I recommend skipping this at this stage. You can always include it later when there's more interest in an interview. Now it will evaluate the structure and grammar of your CV. If it notices, for instance, that a job title is listed twice, it will ask if you'd like to simplify it. You can simply type yes to proceed. Then hat GPT might ask if you'd like to add specific skills or soft skills. If you're satisfied with a current list, just type keep as it is. When it reviews the qualifications section, Chat GPT might ask if you have any additional certifications or qualifications to include. If you do, you can add them here or simply type no to move on. This point, Chat GPT will start rewriting your CV based on the information provided. Once it's done, it will ask if everything looks good or if you'd like further adjustments or additions. Now you'll need to carefully review the revised CV. Double check that all the details are correct, your job experience, skills and qualifications. You may notice that some sections have been condensed, which is fine as long as everything reads well. If you're happy with the result, you can type A good. Your CV will be saved. If you ever want to make changes later, you'll find a history of your chats on the left hand side of the hatGPT screen as long as you're using your logged in account. Finally, to save your refined CV, open up a new document, paste the CV, and save it as your name refined generic CV. Now that you have your generic CV created, you can have this accessible for when you don't need to give a proper personalized CV to someone, this will be quite rare but useful to have. In the next lesson, we'll walk you through creating your personalized CV for each position you're applying for and show you just how quick you can create these to start to stand out. See you in the next lesson. 12. Create your tailored CV: So in the last lesson, you created your generic CV with the help of AI. This would have given you an overview of how the AI works and how it can be used to not only make things look better, but also check your spelling, grammar, and ensure everything is set out as it should be. This is a very basic use of the power AI has, and in this lesson, you'll be making it a bit more useful by getting it to start tailoring your actual CV to the job you are applying for, as well as adding a tailored about section at the top of your CV. This is a form of introduction to you and how you will fit in with the company you're applying to. This will make your CV standout more as the AI prompt we are using will utilize the information from the job description and actually weave it into your CV. Your CV is more tailored to the actual job, making your application much more relevant to the person who is reading it. To start this lesson and carry out the task, I want you to click the link below to open the AI prompt. Also ensure you have chat GPT open in a browser tab. The link to that is also below. You also need to have your basic CV open and ready to use, and you should also find a job in the field that you could see yourself applying for. It doesn't have to be one that you are actually going to apply for, but it will be useful to have something similar to what you are looking for. Once you have all your tabs up on your computer, you should have your chat GPT chat screen, your prompt, which may vary from what you see here, your CV, and a job that we can use to do a sample application with. If you do want to find one you actually want to apply for, that's fine. You can do that or otherwise just find any other one online that you can use as a test. We're going to go to the hat GPT screen, and what we're going to do is copy the prompt. Like I said, this prompt may change, but it will still do the same thing. Copy that prompt and paste it into hat GPT and press enter. Chat GPT will then read through the prompt and decide what it needs to do. Now it's asking you to share a copy of your current CV so it can begin reviewing it. Once it has it, it will ask for a job description of the position you're applying for. All we need to do here is select and copy your CV and paste it there. This is the CV that you started with and created yourself, not the one you created in your previous lesson. Once you've pasted your CV here, just hit Enter. Now what it will do is read through your CV and it will ask you to paste the job description for the position you're applying for. We've used monster jobs, found a random marketing assistant job, and we're going to copy the entire job description and paste it here. If the company name is missing from the description, then you need to paste it in. I think it is at the bottom of the description. We want to make it clear where the job is from. We've got the company I'm applying to, and we'll just pop that in there so that we know what the company is. Once you've got that, just hit Enter. GPT will then go through and make sure it has everything it needs. It will ask a few questions. This time it's asked me three questions. First question is, as this is an early career position, do you want me to adjust the emphasis on your experience, focusing more on transferable skills and your potential to grow in a new sales and marketing role? We're going to put yes for this because we don't want to come across as overqualified for the job, so we're going to put one, yes. Now, if you press Enter here, it will then submit it. What you need to do is press Shift, the up arrow on the left side of your keyboard and Enter. What that'll do is bring it down to a new line where you can answer question two. Question two, would you like me to modify your header section to reflect this job opportunity at set the pace London? Yes, we do. Again, we press Shift and Enter, then question three. Are there any specific skills or qualifications in your CV that you would like to highlight for this role? I'm going to put no, find the best in my CV. That will do is find the best options that you have in your CV and may adapt them to the actual position. You'll find that when using AI like this, you can speak to it as you would a person. Once we've answered any questions, it asks in one, two, three format. We can press Enter. Now it's going to tell us what it's going to do. It's going to adjust our header to reflect the sales and marketing position, highlight transferable skills, and emphasize our qualifications. Now it's going to draft the tailored CV. If we just scroll down, we can see your details and the position we're applying for the sales marketing graduate position at set the Pace London. Now, it will create a nice about section. You can see here, it's actually put in set the Pace London and tailored it for specific job description. It's not going to just give random information about your history in marketing. It's going to focus about section on the role you're applying for. It's also going to adjust the skills section. In this case, it's probably going to tone down what you've actually done in the past to avoid sounding overqualified. The skills have been adapted to fit this position and it's carried over your qualifications. Revised version aligns your experience and qualifications with the role at set the Pace London, focusing on your transferable skills. Let me know if you'd like to make any adjustments or add additional information. You can put no, that's good and finish it there. Sometimes it might output it again slightly differently, or it will just output it as it is. Once it's done this, you just copy the entire CV, create a new document, and paste it into there. What you can do next is save it properly because you want to save these in a logical way, like we discussed earlier, when you set up your Google documents, we want to set it up in a logical way. We're going to actually put these individual ones into folders. For this, I'm going to name it set the Pace London CV, and then we'll choose where to put it. When you save that, you can email or print it. We may not have discussed this before, but if you want to download it, all you need to do is hit File Download, and then you can download it in Microsoft Word. My preference is always to send it in PDF format, because if you send it in Microsoft Word, it can format badly depending on what word processing software they have. If you send it as a PDF document, then it will maintain its format nicely. Then you've got a nice well set out CV. It can be printed or emailed very easily. That's got all your information there and your CV is ready. Congratulations. You have a CV that's tailored to a specific job description. You also have an about section that will be the first thing the recruiter reads. You can see the power and usefulness this will have in your job application process. How simple it is to just pop in new job description details and how quickly it produces a tailored CV for a specific job. In the next video, we'll create a cover letter that you will send alongside your CV. It will help not only sell you but also tailor that letter to the company you're applying to. In some cases, this will get you into an interview before they've even looked through your CV. Make sure you keep your chat GPT work from this lesson open as we will use it in the next lesson, see you in the next lesson. 13. Create your cover letter: Welcome. In this lesson, we'll focus on creating your job specific cover letter. Let's dive in. A well crafted cover letter can secure you an interview even before your CV is glanced at. It's a powerful document that many applicants overlook. When they do include one, it's often a generic letter that lacks specificity for the job they're applying for. To increase your chances of landing an interview, it's essential to send a tailored cover letter with every application. This course aims to simplify the process and we'll use AI to create your cover letter tailored to the specific position. In the previous lesson, you created a job specific CV using hat GPT. We'll continue using that same chat window to make this process as seamless as possible, allowing you to generate both documents in one go. Here's an overview of how this works. First, ensure you are in the correct chat for the job you're applying for. Moving forward, it's best to follow the entire process to create your CV and cover letter in one shot so nothing gets missed or mixed up. All you need to do is copy the prompt provided below this video into the chat GPT window where you created your CV, pop the prompt in and click Submit. We've engineered the prompt to ask questions if it feels anything is missing, so let's answer those questions together. The first one is, would you prefer a more formal or slightly casual approach with a touch of humor considering the company's dynamic environment? For this, I'll type more formal approach. The next question asks, is there any specific achievement or unique experience in your past roles, you'd like to emphasize that would make you stand out further. I'm going to put no, you take a look and decide the best. Of course, if you have something specific in mind, feel free to include it. Remember, when you need to drop down a line in chat GPT, hold Shift and enter to do so without auto submitting. The last question asks, do you have the name of a hiring manager or should I address it generally, EG hiring manager or set the Pace London team? This can be tricky since the recruiter's name often isn't on the job description. Get a bit creative for the biggest impact. You can just use the company name, but why not do 2 minutes of extra research to find out? My favorite way is to do a Google search for the company name and human resources or recruiter. Most of the time the results will pop up on LinkedIn, so you'll want to open a free account there too. You'll often find the name of the person in that department. Example, let's say the person you find is called Julie Bottle. To confirm it's her, you could call the company and ask, Hi, I'm looking at the job you have advertised. Is the correct person to contact about the position still Julie? Most companies will either confirm this or provide the correct name. If it's a small company, it may be the director or business owner you need to contact. In that case, find out their name and address it to them. You'll also need their name and company address for lessons later in this course, so keep them handy. While you're speaking to the company, it might be useful to ask if they work in office or remotely and how your application would reach them if it were posted to them. All will become clear in a later lesson. Back to Chat GPT. Once you have this name, simply pop it in. Number three, just enter the name and click Submit. It will quickly generate your cover letter for you to copy and paste into a document. Once you've done that, congratulations. You now have a tailored CV and cover letter ready to send with your job application. In the next lessons, we'll introduce some fun extras that will help you stand out from the crowd. These techniques will get you noticed and hopefully boost your chances of landing that all important interview. 14. Getting your CV noticed: At this point, congratulations are in order. You will have created your basic CV, generic CV, and your AI job specific CV. This effort surpasses what most people put into their CVs, but you haven't stopped there. You've also crafted your job specific cover letter and identify the right person to send it to. You're now in the top 1% of job applicants. Making a standout impression when you apply for jobs. This module is where things get a bit more exciting and can truly make a significant impact and getting you noticed, we'll explore various ways to stand out to recruiters and potential employers, along with some additional prompts and resources. Some strategies might feel a bit outside your comfort zone or may not directly apply to the specific roles you're targeting. However, none of these suggestions will harm your chances. They're all designed to help you get noticed. In the job hunting game, being noticed is essential. It's important to recognize that very few people go the extra mile when applying for jobs. By doing something different from the norm, you can greatly enhance your chances of being remembered, a word of caution. If you're applying for a creative role, ensure that the methods you choose align with your creative thinking or adapt these suggestions to fit your style. For example, if you're applying for a marketing position using one of these techniques, but wouldn't typically approach tasks that way in your daily work, it could impact how you're perceived. Just be mindful of this. In this lesson, we'll explore a few ways to make yourself memorable to potential employers. The goal is to leave a positive impression, ensuring you stand out in recruitment meetings and discussions. Remember, only a small fraction of applicants consider going the extra mile and even fewer follow through. If you take action that sets you apart, you'll be ahead of the competition. In the tens of thousands of job applications I've received, I've rarely seen anyone do more than send a decent cover letter and maybe a follow up email or call. However, by following these specific ideas, I've personally landed job interviews and offers, even when competing against thousands of other applicants. Trust me, this approach works. Timing is crucial in this process. Often recruiters, especially in smaller companies can feel overwhelmed by applicants and may close job postings early to manage the influx. Acting quickly and submitting your application early can provide a significant advantage as they're more open and receptive at the beginning of a process. While you might think about simply emailing or calling, these are common approaches. What you need is to do something that demonstrates thought and creativity. Something outside the box. Explore the ideas in this lesson and feel free to combine them for maximum impact. Now, let's dive into the first one. 15. Presentation & delivery: One great way to get your CV into someone's hands and ensure it gets red is to send it directly to their office, complete with a small gift inside. This is one of my favorite strategies for helping my private clients stand out to recruiters. It's a simple yet effective approach. Send your CV along with a personalized cover letter and include a kit cat or similar. It falls under the cheaper large letter postage here in the UK and it really helps you get noticed. When you send your CV with a cover letter, it acknowledges just how busy recruiters must be as they sift through countless applications. Including a small treat like a kit cat gives them a chance to take a break while enjoying your thoughtful gesture, making your CV more memorable and it works. To make this even more fun, I've included a prompt below this video. You can stick a post it note to the kit cat with a witty message. To use the prompt, just open a new chat EPT window and paste the text below this video. It's a straightforward prompt that will ask you for a treat you're sending. Just type Kit cat or whatever you choose, keeping in mind not to pick something too thick as postage costs can vary. Chat GPT will generate ten different quote options for your note. Just pick one that feels good but isn't overly arrogant. We want to maintain a positive impression after all this effort. For my post it note, I'm going to choose this kit cat is for your break, my CV is for your aha moment. All you need to do is write it neatly on a post it, ideally with a Sharpie, and attach it to the kit cat. Now, let's discuss the envelope you'll use to send your CV. One of the biggest factors in ensuring your CV gets noticed is to avoid plain white or brown envelopes. These look dull and often get overlooked, shoved aside as marketing material. Instead, you want your envelope to stand out, something bright and eye catching that people will want to open first. Imagine how many times you've seen boring junk mail at home and set it aside without a second thought. When sending your CV for a job you really want, consider the following. First, get hold of some colorful A five Jiffy bags. I recommend the environmentally friendly paper ones, but shiny bright options work well too. Next, find out the person's name and business address. If you follow the previous module, you should have this handy. If not, check Google, LinkedIn or call the company to confirm the right contact person. You definitely don't want to send your CV to someone who no longer works there. Write the name and address neatly on the front with a sharpie or similar. Avoid printed labels. A fun trick I use is to buy special issue stamps like those featuring Paddington Bear, Star Wars, or even spiders. When at the post office, tell them you want real stamps with pictures, as this makes your envelope stand out. Also, make sure the postage is accurate. One sure, far way of getting noticed is to not put enough postage on it so they have to pay to receive it. However, I doubt you'll be called in for an interview. Remember, the aim is to make it look like a personal letter, something special that sparks curiosity and gives a little dopamine boost when they see it. With that excitement, they'll open it first, and your thoughtful sweet treat will only add to that happy feeling. As long as you're suitable for the job, you're likely to land an interview. If you're feeling adventurous, consider recording a video message for recruiters so they can get a sense of who you are before the interview. In the next lesson, we'll explore how to generate QR codes for delivering your video message. See you in the next lesson. 16. Video & QR code: Depending on your confidence level, creating a personal video introduction might be something you want to consider. Personally, I've done it, but I understand it's not for everyone. This involves shooting a short video of yourself. Think of it as a quick, casual introduction. It doesn't need to be a fully polished production. The most effective videos are often self shot where you present yourself in a well put together manner for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Focus on showcasing who you are and some of your interests. There's no need to delve deeply into your work experience or qualifications. This is simply a way for the employer to see you and get a feel for your personality. Once you've recorded your video, upload it to a platform like YouTube and grab the link to your video. Next, you can use hat GPT to create a QR code that you can print onto your cover letter. This allows employers or recruiters to scan it easily and watch your video. Avoid including a long YouTube link in your letter. It's cumbersome and they'd need to copy it manually. To create a QR code in Chat GPT, simply ask using this web address, create a QR code that I can print onto a letter, and just pop the URL or web address of the video into that chat box. It will then create a special QR code for you to use. You can then download the QR code and insert it into your letter before sending it out. QR codes are versatile. You can use them to share all sorts of information. For instance, if you're applying for a photography position, you might link to your online portfolio or a feature you've received on a website. Just remember to test for QR code once it's printed to ensure it works. Don't just assume it will. In the next lesson, we'll discuss how to use email to follow up on your application. See you then. 17. Email follow up: At this point, you've created and sent off your CV, but what now? Well, if you've not yet been contacted, you can do a couple more things to ensure things are still ticking along. One of those things is to send off an email to the position you've applied to. However, you don't want to be too keen. If you send your CV to the company, you need to ensure you leave enough time for delivery and for someone to read it. I would leave it three to four days from when you posted the CV off before contacting the recruiter. To do this, you will need to follow these instructions. Ideally, you will have named your job applications in Chat EPT. Just find the one you used to apply for the job and then copy the prompt from below this video directly into the chat box at the bottom of that screen. Just paste this into the prompt and allow it to work its magic. It should come up with an accurate and well presented email. Just check this over and then copy and paste it into an email and send it to the recruiter. Remember, if the email or any other results you get from Chat GPT are not to your liking, then you can simply ask it to try again or ask it to correct a certain area. If you don't receive an email from the recruiter after a few days, you could go back to that job chat in hat GPT and simply ask it to create a follow up email as they haven't yet replied. However, they are probably quite busy and you may need to just get on the phone to chase it up. You will need to make a judgment on how you follow that up. Up next, we will be looking at a job application tracker and how you can use it to keep yourself organized in your job hunt. 18. Tracking your applications: Now that you've crafted a killer CV and tailored your cover letters, it's time to start sending them out and keeping track of all your job applications. Trust me, staying organized during your job search is key. With multiple applications going out, it's easy to lose track of dates, recruiters, and follow ups. That's where the job application tracker comes in. Job hunting can get messy fast. You're applying to different companies, talking to different recruiters and waiting on responses. Without a system in place, you might forget when to follow up, miss important interview details, or even apply to the same job twice. It happens. Job application tracker is your personal organization tool. It helps you keep everything in one place from the jobs you've applied for to follow up dates and application statuses. By the end of this lesson, you'll have a clear organized way to manage your applications like a Pro. Download the job application tracker below this video. How the job application tracker works. Let's break it down column by column so you know exactly what to track. Job title, make sure to write down a specific job title as it might be slightly different across companies. Company name, the name of the company you're applying to. This helps you avoid duplicate applications and keeps things organized. Date applied. The date you submitted your application. This is crucial for knowing when to follow up. Recruiter name. Earlier in the course, we advised you to find out the recruiter's name. Building relationships with recruiters can really pay off. Address, the companies or recruiters address. You'll need this if you're sending a physical CV and cover letter. Phone number. If you have the recruiters or company's contact number, note it down. Job source, where you found the job, LinkedIn indeed, company website, et cetera. This can help you track which platforms are working best for your search, application status. Keep track of where you are in the process. Common statuses include applied, interview scheduled, rejected offer, et cetera. Follow up date. If you haven't heard back in a few days, use this to remind yourself when to follow up. Remember, following up can make a huge difference. Note, this is your space to jot down anything extra. Maybe the interview went well or you want to remember the company's benefits package. Use this for additional info, such as salary expectations or specific interview details. You can always add more columns to personalize your tracker. For example, you could track salary expectations, job descriptions, or even the level of excitement you have about each position. The more you track, the more insights you'll have about your job search. Using this tracker is going to save you so much time and help you stay organized. It ensures that you never miss a follow up date, always know where you stand in the process, and can easily reference any important information. Plus, it feels really satisfying to mark a job as offer or interview scheduled. Download the tracker below, start using it today and watch how much smoother your job search becomes. You've got this. In the next video, we look at the skills prompt, but this is very much a video based on if you need to create the skills for your CV much earlier in the course. If you have got this far and have not used it, then there is no need for you to watch it. You can therefore skip to the last video in this course. See you there. 19. Skills AI prompt: If you're struggling to create the skills section of your CV, there's a simple solution. Use AI to extract and generate skills from the jobs you've held. This tool will read your CV and pull out relevant skills based on the information provided in your previous positions. As long as your base CV is detailed, it can do the heavy lifting for you. To get started, open a new chat GPT chat window. Next, use the prompt below this video and paste it into the chat. Then hit Enter or submit. You'll be asked to paste or upload your CV. Go ahead and paste it in the message box and press Enter. The AI will then analyze your CV and generate up to ten skills. Take a moment to review these skills and select the ones that best reflect your capabilities to include in your CV. If you're not satisfied with a generated skills, you might need to provide more context about your past jobs or request a regeneration of the output. 20. Concusion: Hey, there, it's Tom again. Congratulations on completing the Sprout CV course. You've made it to the finish line and you should feel really proud of yourself. You've done more than most people ever will when it comes to creating a CV that actually gets noticed. You're now equipped with everything you need to go out there and make a real impact in your job search. I know it can feel a bit daunting, but now is the time to take action. You've built your master CV, created job specific versions, written a cover letter that actually speaks to the recruiter and even learned how to use a few tricks like AI and creative personal touches to stand out from the crowd. You're officially in the top 1% of applicants because most people don't put this effort in, but you have so use it. Just a couple of reminders before you dive into sending out those applications, tailor each CV to a job. Use the tools and prompts we covered to make sure every CV you send feels personal and relevant to the recruiter. Follow up after you send it in. A polite email or call can often make the difference between your CV being read or sitting in a pile. Remember to stay organized, keep track of who you're applying to, what you've sent, and when to follow up. A little bit of planning goes a long way. So go ahead, start sending those CVs. You've done the hard work. Now it's time to get those interviews rolling. I know it can be tough, but trust me, you've got this, and the more you put yourself out there, the more chances you have to succeed. Before you go, I'd love to hear how you found the course. Your feedback helps us improve and ensures we're giving you the best possible tools to succeed. So if you could take a few minutes to fill out the feedback form, that would be amazing. Once again, thank you for choosing Sprout CV and for completing the course. You're ready for the next step and I can't wait to hear about all the success coming your way. Wishing you the best of luck in your job search and remember, you've got everything you need to succeed. Now go make it happen.