ChatGPT trick: steer your career development with a little help from artificial intelligence

Swirling books composition I've made through Midjourney and DALL-E.

Besides making uncanny-valley avatars or building entire systems from AI prompts, there are many practical ways to use this technology to benefit our personal and professional goals. I won’t detail what ChatGPT is — there are so many descriptions out there — but all you need to know for now is that it’s free, works as a (very impressive) chat conversation, and can also operate in different languages. Easy peasy!

ChatGPT has been very helpful for my learning habits, and since this purpose is not as widespread as it deserves, I’ll share some simple prompts you can use as well.

An example of what you can ask ChatGPT.

Try adapting the following prompts to your context, not underestimating the natural conversation capability of this technology. The more specific you go, the better the answer you’ll get: add details, give context, or even ask the chat to be more specific or pragmatic.

Start with the “please act” prompt

To begin with, ask ChatGPT to act a certain way. For this objective, you can start your message with something like that:

* Please act as a career adviser
* Please act as a [department] manager
* Please act as a position interviewer

Set out a role

Now, depending on your familiarity with the field, you can opt for a broader or more detailed way to prompt.

* What is expected from a Product Manager to do?
* How is a day in a life of a Product Designer Senior in a startup?
* Which capabilities must a Design Coordinator have?

Unfold desired topics & capabilities

Did anything catch your attention in these answers? A skill you’re unfamiliar with, a capability you were not expecting, or something you’re not sure you are good at. You can also add other topics of interest to the mix, such as feedback you’ve been getting or a hot topic in your field.

* Can you be more specific about business acumen in this context?
* In which moments will adaptability be required?
* How can the lack of emotional intelligence impact my role?
* How could AI technology impact my role in the near future?
* Detail 5 behaviors that demonstrate a lack of emotional intelligence during 1:1s.

Differentiate seniorities

Seniority expectations and specific titles often vary from company to company, but there’s always a common ground to dig. Here are some ideas on how to prompt those:

* What extra responsibilities will I have when moving from a Product Manager to a Senior Product Manager?
* Please give me 5 pragmatic bullet points that differentiate a Design Manager from a Senior Design Manager.

Time to take action

All this content will only make sense if you know what to do next. And the key here is to specify the format you want for the outcome.

* Please give me an outline of how I can improve my data-driven design, including practical actions and educational content.
* Please summarize and compare 3 books to improve my communication as an introvert.
* Please list free sources to learn more about time management and self-organization.
* Please give me 3 challenges to practice this week to improve my emotional intelligence at the workplace.
* Please list some small habits to start improving my strategic thinking immediately.

I hope this article led you to some nice learning opportunities. If you share my curiosity, I highly recommend exploring this technology’s endless possibilities. For example, I used both Midjourney and DALL-E to create the header image, and it was super fun!