ChatGPT Prompts for Recruiters: Job Adverts That Get Applications, Not Silence

The short version: ChatGPT can turn a rough job spec into a decent first draft of a job advert in under ten minutes, but only if you feed it real detail, not just a job title. The prompts below are the exact ones I use with recruitment clients, including the salary line, the "why join us" section, and the bit almost everyone gets wrong: making it sound like a real human wrote it, not a template.

Why most AI-written job adverts fall flat

I sat in on a hiring review last year for a small marketing agency in Reading. They'd posted a job for an account manager, written entirely by ChatGPT with one prompt: "write a job advert for an account manager." Three applications in ten days. The advert was fine. It was also identical, in structure and tone, to about 200,000 other job adverts online that started with "we are seeking a dynamic and results-driven individual."

That's the problem nobody wants to say out loud: ChatGPT is trained on job adverts, which means its default output sounds exactly like every other job advert. If you copy and paste the first response, you're not standing out, you're blending in with the same corporate mush candidates have learned to scroll past. The fix isn't better AI. It's better prompts and, more importantly, being willing to edit hard once you've got a draft.

The prompt sequence I use

I don't write job adverts in one prompt. I build them in five or six, feeding ChatGPT more detail each time. Here's the sequence, word for word, that I gave to a client hiring a customer success manager in Manchester on a salary of 32,000 to 38,000 pounds. It took us 22 minutes end to end, including edits.

• Prompt 1, the brief: "I'm hiring a Customer Success Manager for a 14-person SaaS company in Manchester. Salary is 32,000 to 38,000 pounds plus 10% bonus, hybrid, 2 days in office. Reports to Head of Customer Experience. Main job: reduce churn from 8% to under 5%, onboard new clients, run quarterly reviews. Ask me five questions before writing anything, so you understand the role."
• Prompt 2, after answering its questions: "Now write three different opening paragraphs (not full adverts, just openers) that would make a good customer success manager stop scrolling. No cliches like 'fast-paced' or 'dynamic team'. Make one direct, one story-based, one problem-focused."
• Prompt 3, picking a direction: "I like the problem-focused one. Build the full advert around it. Include: what they'll do in month one, what success looks like at 90 days, the salary and benefits stated clearly and upfront, and a 'this job isn't for you if' section."
• Prompt 4, tightening: "Cut this by 30%. Remove any sentence that could apply to literally any job at any company. Keep the specific numbers and the 90-day section."
• Prompt 5, the tone check: "Rewrite this so it sounds like a person talking, not a company. Read it out loud test: would a real hiring manager say this sentence to a friend over coffee? If not, change it."

That advert went live on a Tuesday. By the following Monday it had 41 applications, up from a previous similar role that got 9 applications using a generic template. The salary being stated upfront did a lot of that work on its own, which I'll come back to.

Prompts for the parts recruiters forget

Most people prompt ChatGPT for the whole advert in one go and stop there. The better use of it is asking for the specific bits that are hardest to write when you're tired, distracted, or writing your ninth advert of the week.

• The "day in the life" section: "Write a short 'what your first month looks like' section for this role. Break it into weeks 1, 2 to 4, and month 2 to 3. Make it concrete, not aspirational."
• The salary and benefits block: "Take this list of benefits [paste your list] and write it as a short, clear bullet section. No jargon like 'competitive package'. State every number you can."
• The screening question: "Write one application screening question that would filter out people who haven't read the advert, without making it feel like a trick."
• The rejection-proofing check: "Read this advert back as if you are a woman with a career gap, a candidate who is neurodivergent, and someone applying from outside the UK on a visa. Flag anything that might unintentionally put them off applying."
• The alternative title generator: "Give me 8 alternative job titles for this role that a candidate might search for on LinkedIn or Indeed, ranked by how likely someone is to search that exact phrase."

The uncomfortable bit about salary and AI

Here's what a lot of "10 ChatGPT prompts for recruiters" posts skip over. You can write the most polished, human-sounding advert in the world, and it will still underperform if you hide the salary. I've tested this directly: two nearly identical adverts for the same type of role, same client, six weeks apart. The one with a stated salary range got roughly four times the applications of the one that said "competitive salary." ChatGPT will happily write you a lovely paragraph about "a competitive package reflecting experience" because that's what most training data contains. It's also exactly the phrase that makes a chunk of good candidates close the tab. No prompt fixes that. Only you deciding to type the actual number does.

There's also a legal side worth knowing if you're hiring in the UK. Job adverts still fall under discrimination law, meaning wording that implies a preference for age, gender, or a particular background (even accidentally, through phrases like "recent graduate" or "digital native") can land you in trouble. The gov.uk guidance on recruitment discrimination law is worth ten minutes of your time before you post anything AI-generated live, because ChatGPT won't reliably flag this for you unless you ask it to, and even then it's inconsistent.

A real prompt for a real problem: the boring role nobody wants to write about

Not every job is exciting. I've written adverts for warehouse operatives, accounts payable clerks, and a night-shift bakery supervisor. These are the roles where recruiters phone it in most, because there's not much to say. This is where the right prompt earns its keep.

For the bakery supervisor role, the prompt that worked was: "This is a night-shift supervisor role at a bakery producing 30,000 loaves a day. Pay is 13.20 pounds an hour plus a 10% night shift premium. Don't try to make this sound exciting or glamorous, that will feel fake. Instead, be honest and specific about the shift pattern, the physical demands, the team size, and what a good supervisor does differently from an average one on this shift."

The result read like an honest description of a real job, not a sales pitch, and that honesty is what pulled in three candidates who'd previously worked night shifts elsewhere and knew exactly what they were signing up for. Fewer no-shows on day one, which is the actual cost that bad job adverts create further down the line.

Step-by-step: from blank page to posted advert in under 30 minutes

• Step 1: Write a rough brief yourself first, five bullet points, salary included. Don't let ChatGPT guess the role.
• Step 2: Ask ChatGPT to question you before writing anything (Prompt 1 above). This alone catches gaps you didn't know you had.
• Step 3: Generate three different openers and pick based on who you want to attract, not what sounds most professional.
• Step 4: Build the full draft, including the 90-day section and the "not for you if" section.
• Step 5: Cut it by a third. AI drafts are always longer than they need to be.
• Step 6: Run the bias and inclusivity check prompt.
• Step 7: Read it out loud once before posting. If you wince at any sentence, that's the sentence to cut.

What ChatGPT still can't do for you

It can't tell you the salary should be higher because your last three candidates dropped out at offer stage over pay. It can't tell you the job description is fine but the actual role, three months in, doesn't match what's written (I've watched this happen, a "growth marketing" role that turned into 80% admin, and no advert can paper over that mismatch for long, it just delays the resignation letter). And it can't write the phone screen or the interview, which is where most bad hiring decisions happen regardless of how good the advert was. Treat the advert as the opening line of a conversation, not the whole hiring strategy.

For the rest of the series, see the ChatGPT Prompts and Limits: 30 Guides to Fun Prompts, Photo Edits and Daily Caps. To write your own, try the free ChatGPT prompt generator.

Related: chatgpt: guidelines and how to pitch.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best single ChatGPT prompt for writing a job advert quickly?

If you only have five minutes: "Write a job advert for [role], salary [range], based in [location], hybrid/remote status [X]. Main responsibilities: [list 3 to 5]. Write it in a direct, human tone with no corporate cliches, include a clear salary and benefits section, and add a short 'what success looks like in 90 days' section." It won't be perfect, but it will beat a template.

Should recruiters always include the salary in ChatGPT-written job adverts?

Yes. Testing this directly across similar roles showed adverts with a stated salary range getting roughly four times more applications than those saying "competitive salary." No amount of good AI writing compensates for hiding the number candidates most want to know.

Can ChatGPT accidentally write a discriminatory job advert?

It can, usually through phrases that imply age or background preference, like "recent graduate" or "native English speaker" where it's not a genuine requirement. Always run a bias check prompt before posting, and check the wording against gov.uk's recruitment discrimination guidance if you're hiring in the UK.

How long should a ChatGPT-generated job advert be after editing?

Aim for 300 to 450 words. AI drafts typically come out 30 to 40% longer than that, so cutting is part of the process, not optional. Candidates skim, and a bloated advert reads as a company that overcomplicates everything, including, eventually, its meetings.