Evangelia Leclaire
- A New York career coach uses ChatGPT to help her clients find jobs and advance their careers.
- She said AI tools can also help some workers become more productive.
- AI tools could threaten some jobs and might not be helpful for all workers.
Evangelia Leclaire, a New York-based career coach, has spent nearly 20 years helping people adapt to changes in the workplace. The recent emergence of AI technologies is just the newest challenge she's shepherding clients through.
Over the past year, the 43-year-old began using ChatGPT to help clients find fulfilling jobs and advance their careers, she told Business Insider. She said the development of AI tools has been "game-changing" for her as a career coach and that it's a "critical" conversation topic during her sessions.
Since ChatGPT's rollout in November 2022, experts have speculated on how AI could impact workers in the near and long-term future. While AI tools could make some workers more productive and enhance their job searches, it could prove challenging for other workers to use — and even replace some roles.
For clients on the job hunt, Leclaire provides ChatGPT prompts she's developed that are intended to help with résumé revision, interview preparation, professional branding, networking, and research for salary negotiations. She said she recently helped a client use ChatGPT to analyze a job description and position themselves as the ideal candidate.
"With ChatGPT, they can now craft a concise intro message for their cover letter or LinkedIn outreach, demonstrating precisely how their skills and experience are positioned to address these needs and add value to the organization," Leclaire said.
Evangelia Leclaire
When used optimally, Leclaire said ChatGPT has also helped some of her clients become more productive at their jobs.
To be sure, relying too much on ChatGPT during the job search process could backfire, and some companies have policies that restrict employees from using AI tools. But in certain scenarios, for certain workers, these technologies could be valuable.
Leclaire is among the career coaches and mentors who are trying to help workers prepare for whatever the AI future brings.
Using AI at work to increase productivity
Leclaire recalled one client, a content marketing professional, who is now using AI to analyze data. She said it's provided valuable insights and saved them time, allowing them to focus more on other tasks.
"I have clients identify a list of their skills, activities, and tasks that are most repetitive," she said. "Then, I challenge them to imagine what they can delegate or train AI to do to enhance their productivity."
Leclaire even incorporates ChatGPT into conversations with people about career advancement.
She said she encouraged one client, a sales leader, to grow his presence on LinkedIn. Using ChatGPT, she helped him craft a list of his top principles for success to share on the platform.
While Leclaire believes ChatGPT can be a useful tool for clients, she said she's aware of its potential to replace some jobs in the future. In response to these concerns, she's helped clients figure out how they can continue to add value to their employers. Additionally, in some cases, she said she's discussed side gigs that could make them less reliant on a single job.
While it's impossible to completely protect clients from AI's potential impacts, Leclaire said that using ChatGPT has, perhaps ironically, given her more time to contemplate big challenges like this.
"Before, I'd spend hours combing every detail of job descriptions and resumes to match client's skills with opportunities," she said, adding, "With ChatGPT, I spend less time on the nitty-gritty and more time on what makes me a great coach."
Have you used AI tools to find a job or become more productive at work? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@insider.com.