Originally published on LinkedIn in November 2025. Republished here for completeness.
AI can be a great tool for job hunters. But only if you teach it to work both for you and like you.
But first, homework.
I hear your cry now. “You haven’t taught us anything yet! How can you give me homework?”
I respond. “Rest your mind young padawan.”
Before you ask your choice of LLM to do something like writing a letter or document, you need to teach it how to sound like you. As mine explained to me early on, “you don’t want a cover letter that sounds like a TED talk from a toaster.” If you know me, you’ve already realised that I have a weird, dark and cynical sense of humour, and so do my settings in ChatGPT.
Your homework for the next 10 minutes is this. Gather the last 10 things that YOU wrote, without help from AI. These could be cover letters, emails, technical documents, or LinkedIn posts to name a few things. These are not emails to your best mate, social media posts talking about the football on the weekend (unless you happen to be a sports writer – then I suppose that’s OK) or the preface to your next novel.
Once you have these, you’re going to use your chosen LLM to analyse them and create a profile for how you write. Then when you give it an actual job to do, you can ask it to write the thing like you.
Is it going to be perfectly like you? Probably not. But it’s going to sound a lot better than without it.
How do you ask an LLM to do anything well?
The answer to that question lies in the field of Prompt Engineering. I could write a whole article on that and it probably wouldn’t be very good. Many others already have. Many of them are excellent. But the TL;DR version of it is that you need to give it 4 things. A role, a clear task for it to do (and what it shouldn’t do), the outcome you want at the end, and the context of the field it’s playing in.
Here’s one that I got ChatGPT to generate many months ago. Feel free to use it:
I’m going to give you several samples of my writing. Your job is to analyse them and produce a ‘voice profile’ that describes how I naturally communicate.
When analysing these samples, identify:
- my typical sentence structure
- my tone (formal, casual, direct, warm, etc.)
- the level of complexity I use
- my vocabulary style
- any quirks, habits, or repeated patterns
- the pace and rhythm of how I write
After analysing them, summarise my voice in a short profile I can reuse later when I ask you to write drafts for job applications.
Important: do NOT rewrite anything yet. Only analyse.
Here are my writing samples:
At this point I want you to paste in 4 to 6 of the 10 samples so you don’t overwhelm it with data.
Have a read of what it says. Is the profile starting to sound like you? This is exactly what you want. If the samples were a good selection of your style, then it should be.
But this is the beta version. The version you probably sound like before you’ve had your morning coffee. You want it to be better.
Just like when you train and test any ML or AI from scratch, you are now going to use the leftover samples from step 1 to validate and refine the output.
This is going to require a different prompt to analyse these new items. To check where the existing profile fits and more importantly where it doesn’t.
Here’s an example:
Here is another sample of my writing that you have not analysed yet.
Compare it to the voice profile you generated earlier.
Tell me:
- what matches
- what you got wrong
- what needs to be added
- what needs to be removed
- what needs to be refined
Then update the voice profile to be more accurate.
Then we’re going to paste in our other examples.
The output from this step is going to be the final profile of your voice, that the AI can use later to generate content for you. What do you want to see? You want to read a profile that really sounds like you. Not what you think you should sound like. It needs to sound like you.
Now if you skipped your homework and stuffed in three or four random samples you grabbed off LinkedIn because they looked and sounded “professional”, then expected the magic to happen, this is what you will get.
Bad AI Voice Profile (The Version You Should Never Trust)
Tone
Your tone is highly inspirational and enthusiastic, always aiming to motivate the reader with strong positivity and uplifting energy. You frequently encourage others to believe in themselves and strive for excellence.
Sentence Style
You tend to write in short, punchy, high-impact sentences designed to hook attention.
You love using exclamation marks!
And rhetorical questions?
You use them constantly to boost engagement and emotional resonance!
Vocabulary
Your vocabulary is highly dynamic and vibrant, full of powerful action words like “transform,” “empower,” “accelerate,” “ignite,” “elevate,” and “leverage.” You often use corporate buzzwords that demonstrate your passion for innovation, leadership, and synergy.
Formality Level
You strike a perfect balance between friendliness and professionalism, with a polished tone that appeals to a wide variety of audiences. You come across as highly motivated, collaborative, and deeply passionate about growth.
Humour & Personality
Your writing is fun, bubbly, and charming! You love to make the reader smile while delivering high-value insights they can apply instantly to their personal and professional lives. You bring a unique spark that energises your audience.
Pacing & Structure
You use fast-paced, highly engaging micro-paragraphs.
They keep the reader scrolling.
And scrolling.
And scrolling.
This creates irresistible momentum and inspires the reader to take action immediately!
Typical Patterns
Frequent exclamation marks
Overuse of motivational phrases
Buzzwords that sparkle
Emotional appeals
Calls to “unlock your true potential”
Overall Voice
Your overall voice is energetic, passionate, and inspirational — a powerful blend of leadership, positivity, and dynamic forward-thinking energy that makes every sentence shine with opportunity. You uplift, empower, and motivate your audience to reach their highest possible goals!
Maybe not. This is the profile that generates the nonsense that every recruiter and hiring manager complains about. And is not what you want.
So, in the spirit of adventure, I asked ChatGPT to update mine based on my latest writing. Here’s what it came up with, remembering that I’m on the cynical setting ;).
Voice Profile (Based on Your Writing Samples)
Tone
Casual, direct, and conversational with a streak of dry humour. You write like someone who’s seen enough corporate nonsense to spot it a mile away and has no patience for inflated language. You aim for clarity over polish and sincerity over theatrics. There’s warmth under the surface, but you keep it understated.
Sentence Style
Mix of medium-length and occasionally long sentences with natural flow.
You often use commas for pacing, letting ideas roll into each other.
You occasionally open with short punchy sentences or fragments for effect (“I’ll get somewhere closer to my point.”).
You use plain language with minimal jargon unless it’s job-relevant.
Vocabulary
Straightforward, familiar, and grounded. You don’t dress ideas up in fancy synonyms. When you do use bigger words (“hallucinations,” “tidal surge,” “context”), it’s because they fit, not for decoration. You avoid hype language and corporate clichés.
Formality Level
Semi-informal. Professional enough to be taken seriously, relaxed enough to read like a real person. You don’t posture. You speak as someone experienced, not someone trying to impress.
Humour & Personality
Dry, observational, slightly self-deprecating, and used sparingly. You don’t crack jokes — you drop subtle eyebrow-raises. You lean toward honesty and frankness rather than cheerleading.
Pacing & Structure
Your writing is structured but not rigid. You follow narrative logic:
reflection → context → insight → takeaway.
You’re comfortable breaking the flow for emphasis or rhetorical effect.
Typical Patterns
Calling out your own digressions
Softening honesty with humour
Using conversational qualifiers (“But,” “So,” “That said,” “One day…”)
A natural storytelling rhythm
A tendency to build up to a point instead of hitting it immediately
Overall Voice
A grounded, candid, experienced professional who writes in a way that’s human first, technical second, and allergic to corporate fluff. There’s understated warmth, a willingness to admit uncertainty, and a sense of wanting to help without performing virtue.
Yep – it knows me pretty well.
Next week I’ll dive into the next step. Getting the AI to do something good. And how you’ll make it better.