Business Leaders Are Saying ChatGPT Experience Is More Important Than A College Degree—Here’s How To Use That To Your Advantage

ChatGPT has proven to be a useful tool to streamline administrative tasks in daily workflow processes. But a recent report says knowledge of the generative AI chatbot tool is actually the differentiator between someone getting hired or passed over for a job.

Workplace resource platform Intelligent.com, published a recent survey report that explored the critical role ChatGPT plays in the current hiring landscape for early careerists. Unsurprisingly, it is incredibly important. Shockingly though, it is being positioned as more valued than a college degree.

“While a college education provides a strong theoretical foundation of knowledge, the ability to learn and adapt new tools like generative AI, large language models, and automation in real-world scenarios has become increasingly vital across many industries,” the report states. “This is especially true for entry-level positions, where the ability to leverage AI for problem-solving, increased productivity, and innovation can set candidates apart. The demand for such specific skills is a growing trend in employment sectors that prioritize real-world experience and technological fluency that can have an immediate impact on a business.”

The report found that out of the 800 people surveyed, 49 percent of business leaders view experience with ChatGPT to be potentially more valuable than a college degree.

CNBC reported that recruitment websites feature hundreds of descriptions for open roles mention “ChatGPT” — half of these postings are for technical AI engineering roles, while the other half are for marketing, copywriting and social media roles.

“Over the past 18 months, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools and applications have dominated headlines and sparked endless debates about the future of AI in the workplace,” says Intelligent.com’s Chief Education and Career Development Advisor Huy Nguyen. “The blazing pace of innovation and technological progress is reshaping what employers value in job candidates today.”

Use it to get the exact answers your boss wants

ChatGPT creates responses to prompts so that within seconds, it becomes a companion tool to most content creation processes from creating resumes to supporting salary negotiation. But every prompt is not made equal.

“It takes skills to get useful answers,” said Hatim Rahman, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in an interview with The Hill.

“You can prompt the model to give answers back in a specific way. You can say, ‘Pretend you are a customer. How would you react to this product description?’ Things like that require some kind of understanding of how to get useful information from the model.” Ultimately, it can help write everything marketing proposals, editorial calendars or coding for website building.

Taking prompt engineering courses from sources like Coursera or Udemy can be a great way to elevate your ChatGPT skills and edge out the competition.