Date: Friday, May 23, 2025
This week members of Washington Evaluators are sharing advice for improving your evaluation skills, making career pivots, and adapting to uncertainty as many in our evaluation community are reassessing their career paths and considering their next steps.
Hi! I’m Mary Ann Aabye, a member of Washington Evaluators and a monitoring and evaluation specialist for the federal government.
As a federal employee, I never expected to find myself in the midst of a job hunt. But here I am, anticipating a transition I hadn’t planned for. Faced with the challenge of writing cover letters for unfamiliar roles and industries, I’m exploring ChatGPT for help transferring my evaluation skills to other industries. What I discovered was a game-changer—AI that could take the stress out of drafting, revising, and personalizing cover letters, making a once time-consuming task far more efficient.
First, I tell ChatGPT that I need to write a cover letter for a specific job posting. I paste the details of the posting directly into the chat, which I find works better than providing a link. Example prompt: “Hello! I need to write a cover letter for this job posting: [paste the full job posting].” ChatGPT will respond with a generic draft cover letter, which is a solid starting point.
Next, I paste my resume into the chat. While some ChatGPT versions allow you to attach your resume, pasting it tends to work just fine for me. Example prompt: “Thanks! Now, please revise based on my resume: [paste your resume].” At this stage, I’ll have a more personalized version of the cover letter, though it still needs work.
My next step is to ask ChatGPT to revise the letter based on my preferred format, which utilizes bullets to highlight my relevant experience rather than full paragraphs of text. Example prompt: “Please revise using this format: [Insert Cover Letter format here].”
Now that the letter is looking good, I ask ChatGPT to incorporate specific details. For example, I usually highlight something that drew me to the company or job posting. Or if I’m switching industries, I’ll highlight transferable skills and experiences. Example prompt: “Please revise and incorporate mention of these specific details: [list specific references].” This makes the cover letter truly tailored to the job and my background.
I ask ChatGPT for recommendations to improve the cover letter. It might suggest tightening up certain sections, adding a stronger call to action, or even revising the examples used. Example prompt: “Do you have any recommendations for strengthening this cover letter?”
Finally, I ask ChatGPT to incorporate the best suggestions. I then paste the draft into Word to make my final tweaks — fixing grammar, adjusting length, and ensuring all examples of professional experience are accurate.
While it isn’t a foolproof process, ChatGPT certainly makes errors and needs a human check (as it always does), — I can now write a tailored cover letter in under 30 minutes — something that used to take hours. And I’m all in on anything that makes my life easier!
If you’re looking for more information on cover letter formatting, I found this article helpful.
Interested in learning more about AI in evaluation? Check out these recent AEA365 posts:
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Washington Evaluators (WE) Affiliate Week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from WE Affiliate members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.