ChatGPT Prompts List by Job: 60 Prompts for 12 Professions

Bottom line: here are 60 specific ChatGPT prompts split across 12 real jobs, from sales reps to solicitors, each one built to produce something you'd send or use, not generic waffle you have to rewrite anyway. Copy them as they are or swap in your own details, but read the note halfway down about why most people who copy a prompts list still get rubbish results.

I've run AI workshops for marketing teams, recruitment agencies and a room full of accountants in Leeds who were convinced ChatGPT was going to replace them by Christmas. It didn't. What changed was how fast they got the boring 60% of their job done, the drafting, the summarising, the first-pass thinking, so they had more hours for the bit that needs a human.

This list is organised by profession because a generic "write me a marketing plan" prompt is close to useless. The good prompts are the ones with context baked in: your industry, your audience, your constraints. That's what I've tried to build into every one of these.

Marketing Managers

These are the five I hand to marketing clients most often, usually when someone's staring at a blank campaign brief on a Monday morning.

• "Act as a senior marketing strategist. Here's our product [describe it] and our target customer [describe them]. Write three campaign angles that don't rely on discounting, with a one-line reason each would work."
• "Turn this 1,500-word blog post [paste it] into a 5-tweet thread and a 3-slide LinkedIn carousel outline, keeping the tone but cutting the fluff."
• "I'm launching [product] to [audience]. Write me a competitor gap analysis using these three competitors [names] based on their public positioning and pricing."
• "Rewrite this email subject line five different ways, optimising for curiosity without sounding clickbaity: [subject line]."
• "Build me a 30-day content calendar for [platform] promoting [product/service], mixing educational, proof, and promotional posts in a 60/20/20 split."

Sales Reps

A sales director I worked with in Bristol used a version of the third prompt below to cut her team's proposal drafting time from three hours to roughly 40 minutes. The AI didn't close the deal, she did, but it got her to the negotiating table faster.

• "Write a cold outreach email to a [job title] at a [industry] company, referencing [specific trigger event, e.g. funding round, new hire, expansion], under 90 words."
• "Here's a prospect's LinkedIn bio and their company's recent news [paste both]. Give me three conversation openers for a discovery call that aren't generic."
• "Turn these call notes [paste them] into a follow-up email that recaps what we discussed, restates their pain point in their own words, and proposes next steps."
• "I lost this deal [paste last email exchange]. Analyse where the conversation likely went wrong and suggest what I should have asked instead."
• "Write a LinkedIn connection request message to someone who just got promoted to [role], congratulating them without being obviously salesy."

Recruiters

Recruitment is one of the professions where a bad ChatGPT prompt produces the fastest embarrassment, because candidates spot AI-flavoured job ads within a sentence.

• "Write a job advert for a [job title] role at a [company size] [industry] company, listing the salary range [insert range] up front and skipping corporate jargon."
• "Here's a CV [paste it] and this job spec [paste it]. List the three biggest gaps and three genuine strengths, in plain language I can use in feedback."
• "Draft a rejection email for a candidate who made it to final interview, that's warm and specific rather than templated, referencing [something specific about their interview]."
• "Write 8 behavioural interview questions for a [job title] role that test for [specific skill, e.g. handling ambiguity, stakeholder pushback]."
• "Turn this candidate's messy work history [paste it] into a clean, chronological summary I can send to a hiring manager, flagging any gaps honestly."

Solicitors and Lawyers

Never let ChatGPT draft anything that goes to a client or a court without your own eyes on every line, but for the admin around the law, it earns its keep.

• "Summarise this 12-page contract [paste it] into a one-page client briefing, highlighting the three clauses most likely to cause disputes."
• "Write a plain-English explainer for a client with no legal background on what [legal term, e.g. indemnity clause] means and why it matters in their contract."
• "Draft a holding email to a client whose case has stalled, that's reassuring and specific about next steps without overpromising a timeline."
• "Here's a client's initial description of their dispute [paste it]. List the questions I should ask at the first consultation to scope the matter."
• "Turn these case notes [paste them] into a structured timeline of events, in date order, flagging any gaps in the evidence."

Accountants and Bookkeepers

The accountants in that Leeds workshop use ChatGPT mostly for the client-facing writing they hate, not for the actual numbers, which stay in Xero or QuickBooks where they belong.

• "Write a plain-English email to a client explaining why their tax bill is higher this year, based on these changes [list them: e.g. dividend allowance cut, higher turnover]."
• "Turn this list of allowable business expenses [paste category list] into a one-page guide a sole trader with no finance background could follow."
• "Draft a polite but firm chase email for an invoice that's 30 days overdue, for a client we want to keep long-term."
• "Summarise the key changes in this year's [Spring Budget/Autumn Statement] that affect small limited companies, in under 200 words."
• "Write three FAQ answers for our website about the difference between a sole trader and a limited company, aimed at someone starting their first business."

HR Managers

HR is where I'd argue the AI risk is highest and the payoff is real, because the writing is sensitive but the volume is relentless.

• "Write a company announcement for a restructure affecting [number] roles, that's honest about the reasons without being legally reckless. Flag anywhere I should get sign-off from legal."
• "Draft a return-to-work conversation guide for a manager whose team member has been off with [reason, keep generic], covering what to ask and what to avoid asking."
• "Turn this policy document [paste it] into a one-page summary for a new starter's onboarding pack."
• "Write three different tones of the same message announcing a new benefits scheme: enthusiastic, matter-of-fact, and reassuring for a team that's had a rough year."
• "Here's an exit interview transcript [paste it, anonymised]. Pull out the three recurring themes I should raise with senior management."

Real Estate Agents

Property listings written by AI are everywhere now, and buyers can tell, so the trick is using it for the structure and adding your own eyes-on-the-house detail back in.

• "Write a property listing description for a [bedrooms]-bed [property type] in [area], highlighting [specific features], in a tone that suits [target buyer, e.g. young families/downsizers]."
• "Draft a follow-up text to a viewer who didn't put in an offer, that reopens the conversation without sounding desperate."
• "Turn these six bullet points about a new listing into a 90-second video script for a walkthrough on Instagram or Rightmove."
• "Write an email to a seller explaining why their asking price might need adjusting, using this comparable sales data [paste it], without sounding like I'm just trying to get a quick sale."
• "Draft a market update email to my database summarising [local area] price trends this quarter in three sentences, no jargon."

Teachers

The teachers I've spoken to who use ChatGPT well use it for the admin that eats their evenings, not for marking, which most schools rightly still want done by a human.

• "Write a lesson plan outline for a [subject/age group] class on [topic], including a 5-minute starter activity and one differentiated task for stretch and support."
• "Turn this curriculum objective [paste it] into three real-world examples I can use to make the topic land with 14-year-olds."
• "Draft a parents' evening email inviting parents of [year group] to book slots, with a clear deadline and simple instructions."
• "Write 10 quiz questions on [topic] at three difficulty levels, with answers, for a quick end-of-lesson check."
• "Turn these scribbled observation notes [paste them] into a structured report comment for a student's end-of-term report, in a warm but honest tone."

Copywriters and Content Writers

If your job is words, ChatGPT is either your fastest first draft or your laziest crutch, and the difference is entirely in how much editing happens after.

• "Write five headline options for a landing page selling [product/service] to [audience], each using a different angle: curiosity, urgency, proof, fear, and simplicity."
• "Here's a client's brand voice guide [paste key points]. Rewrite this generic paragraph [paste it] to match that voice exactly."
• "Turn this 40-minute podcast transcript [paste it] into a 600-word blog post with three pull quotes."
• "Write a product description for [item] that leads with the problem it solves, not the features, for an audience who's never heard of the brand."
• "Give me three ways to open this article that aren't a question and aren't a statistic, on the topic of [subject]."

Customer Service Reps

These prompts save the most time on the messages nobody wants to write, the apology, the escalation, the "no, we can't refund that" email.

• "Write a reply to a customer complaint about [issue] that acknowledges the frustration, explains what happened without excessive corporate hedging, and offers a fix."
• "Draft a message telling a customer we can't offer the refund they've asked for, explaining our policy clearly and offering an alternative, without sounding defensive."
• "Turn this string of angry customer messages [paste them] into a calm summary I can hand to my manager, with the key facts only."
• "Write three canned response templates for the most common question we get: [insert the actual question], each with a slightly different tone."
• "Draft a follow-up message checking in with a customer two weeks after we resolved their issue, that doesn't feel like a scripted survey request."

Consultants and Freelancers

I use versions of every one of these myself, and the proposal prompt below is the one that gets forwarded to me most often by people who've stolen it from a previous newsletter.

• "Write a discovery call agenda for a potential client in [industry] who's told me their problem is [problem], with 5 questions that get to the real issue, not the symptom."
• "Turn these bullet points about my services [paste them] into a proposal structure with sections for problem, approach, timeline, investment and next steps."
• "Write a LinkedIn post about [specific result I got a client, with numbers], in a tone that's confident but not boastful."
• "Draft a scope-creep email to a client who's asked for extra work outside our agreement, that protects the relationship while being clear about the boundary."
• "Here's my last five invoices' worth of client work [paste a summary]. Suggest one service I could package and sell as a fixed-price offer."

Small Business Owners and Founders

If you're doing everything yourself, this is the list that buys back the most hours, because founders lose entire afternoons to writing they could have delegated to a prompt.

• "Write a one-page business update email for investors or advisors covering revenue, key wins, and one honest challenge from the last month."
• "Turn this rough voice note transcript of my business idea [paste it] into a structured one-page summary I could show a bank or investor."
• "Draft three social posts announcing a new hire, keeping the tone proud but not corporate."
• "Write a customer-facing apology for a service outage or delay, that's specific about what went wrong and what we're doing about it."
• "Here's my rough job advert draft [paste it]. Rewrite it to attract someone at [experience level] without sounding like every other startup posting on LinkedIn."

The part most lists like this skip

Here's the uncomfortable bit. Almost every prompts list on the internet right now is the same 60 or so prompts recycled with slightly different wording, and that includes plenty of them shared by people with big followings. Copying a prompt someone else wrote doesn't give you an edge, because your competitor is copying the same one. The prompt is not the asset. Your context, your data, your voice, your client history, that's the asset. A generic prompt fed zero context produces a generic answer, every single time, and no amount of clever phrasing fixes that.

The way round it is boring but it works: keep a running document of your best client wins, your actual tone of voice examples, your real objections and how you've handled them, and paste chunks of that into ChatGPT alongside these prompts. That's the difference between an output you can send in five minutes and one that needs a full rewrite.

I saw this play out with a recruitment agency owner who was frustrated that ChatGPT's job ads sounded "like everyone else's." They were, because she was using the exact template prompt from a LinkedIn post with no company detail added. Once she started pasting in three real employee quotes and her actual salary bands, the same prompt produced ads that got double the applications within a fortnight. The prompt didn't change. The input did.

How to build your own prompts, fast

If none of the 60 above fit your job exactly, here's the structure I teach in workshops, and it takes about two minutes to apply:

• State the role you want ChatGPT to play (senior copywriter, tax adviser, hiring manager).
• Give it the actual context: your industry, your audience, the specific document or situation, pasted in full where you can.
• Tell it the output format: email, bullet list, 100 words, table.
• Tell it what to avoid: jargon, exclamation marks, anything that sounds like a template.
• Ask for two or three versions, not one, so you're editing rather than starting from a blank screen.

That five-step structure works for any job I haven't covered here, from dentists writing patient reminder texts to farmers writing grant applications.

When prompts aren't the problem

Every so often someone tells me ChatGPT "just doesn't work for us," and when I dig into it, the issue is never the prompt. It's that they don't have a clear process for the task in the first place, and no amount of clever prompting fixes a process that was already a mess. If that's where you are, no prompts list, mine included, is going to solve it, and it's worth asking the right questions before hiring an AI consultant rather than throwing more tools at a broken workflow.

For businesses where the gap is bigger than a prompts list can fix, that's usually the point to bring in structured help rather than more DIY experimenting, and I've written more about what that looks like on my AI implementation coaching page if you want to see how it's done.

This guide is part of my ChatGPT Prompts and Limits: 30 Guides to Fun Prompts, Photo Edits and Daily Caps. To write your own, try the free prompt builder.

Related: my ai consultant for hr teams onboarding policy questions page.

Frequently asked questions

What's the single best ChatGPT prompt for busy professionals?

There isn't one, because the best prompt is always the one loaded with your specific context, your industry, your audience, your actual document, not a generic template. Start with any prompt on this list and add three sentences of real detail before you hit enter.

Do these prompts work with other AI tools like Claude or Gemini?

Yes, all 60 prompts work with Claude, Gemini, and Copilot with little or no changes, because they're built on context and structure rather than any ChatGPT-specific feature. The output quality will vary slightly between tools, but the prompt itself transfers directly.

Is it risky to use ChatGPT for legal or accounting work?

It's risky if you send anything AI-generated straight to a client without checking it yourself, especially in law and accounting where facts and figures have to be exact. Use it for drafts, summaries, and first-pass structure, and keep the final review firmly with a qualified human.

How often should I update my own prompt library?

Review it every few months and swap out anything you're still editing heavily after you get the output, because that's a sign the prompt or the context you're feeding it needs work. The best prompt libraries are living documents, not a list you write once and forget.

Sources worth reading

• OpenAI's own platform documentation