Free courses / AI for Your Career / Lesson 3
A cover note in your voice
Use AI for structure and cuts, then put yourself back in.
Cover notes fail in two ways: they repeat the CV, or they sound like everyone else. AI drafts tend to do both, because they are predicting the average cover note.
Use it differently. Give it the job advert — public text, so that is fine — and your three bullets. Then ask for a structure: which bullet answers which line of the advert. Then write the note yourself, using that map.
Finally, paste your draft back and ask only for cuts: “Shorten this by a third without adding anything.” Cutting is where these tools are safest, and where they help most.
- Ask for a map, not a draft.
- Write the note yourself.
- Use AI to cut, never to add.
DOT / THE TRANSLATOR
A cover note written entirely by a machine reads like a cover note written entirely by a machine. Recruiters have started to notice, because we all sound the same.
Try it
Take a real advert, line it up against your bullets, write six sentences, then ask only for cuts. Notice what it wanted to delete; it is often the part you were proudest of.
Here is a job advert and here are my three strongest bullets. Write six sentences connecting them. Do not claim anything that is not in my bullets, and tell me what is missing.
Then paste it into whichever assistant you use — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot. Not sure which? Meet them all.
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