I’m not looking for a job, but I ran across an article about using AI tools for a job search. So I decided to try it out. I followed a couple of those prompts and get some results. Here is a set of things I did.

Salary Calculators

I ran this prompt from the article: What are some of the best salary calculators for a Data/SQL Server professional? Provide a list of your top 4 recommendations and the pros and cons of each one. Provide any helpful links. Format as a table.

The results? Mixed. Here is what I got from my local Deepseek model. Note, I didn’t get a table.

From Claude:

From Perplexity

Are these helpful? Well, I knew about GlassDoor and the BLS. Didn’t know Robert Half has a calculator. If I had done this a few years ago, I would have Googled this. When I did, I saw Payscale, Zippia, and CompTia. Ziprecruiter had hourly salaries, US News had a link. None of the ones in the table were there.

Both the Payscale link (Google) and Robert Half gave me similar results. Is the AI more helpful? It gave me a few things to think about, but it didn’t find some of the top Google links. Not sure what to think about that.

My Worth

I decided to ask this prompt: I am a senior database administrator with over 20 years of experience working with SQL Server in large and small companies, handling a variety of operational responsibilities. I have developed and implemented high availability solutions, automated server builds, understand DevOps style database development and GitOps management of servers. I have managed replication, built ETL pipelines, and implemented role-based access controls. What is the market value of my skill set?

The local model didn’t really help here. It gives me some generic things to think about and consider, and some ideas of where to look, but no real links.

Claude:

Perplexity:

Adding Skills

From claude:

And perplexity:

Those are interesting ideas. I’m sure I could follow this up and get more details on some of these and perhaps kickstart my learning. These are areas an AI might be helpful to help guide you or develop a plan. Certainly a friend might do this, but it’s tedious work. Getting some links, assembling a plan, etc.

Claude builds a detailed plan on the right side and describes it on the left The plan has a lot of links to documentation for tools below the phases:

Preplexity gives me a plan, with links as footnotes.

Negotiation

I used this prompt as is from the article: I am making $98,000 with 3 weeks of PTO now. I want to ask for an 8% raise and an additional week of PTO. I also want to work from home one more day a week, especially if I can’t get any extra PTO. What guidance do you have for making this request? What other rate negotiation best practices should I keep in mind?

Claude: a decent plan to get prepare.

Perplexity: very similar results

This isn’t a lot different from advice I’d give, but I wouldn’t write this all down. If someone told me this, I might forget some things. A plan is always good, and the AI has given me a decent plan. I might copy this and run it by friends, who are more likely to mark it up or add to it rather than build the whole thing.

It’s an assistant to getting started and a pretty good one.

A Cover Letter

These are a pain, and I always struggle to get one moving. Here are the results from this prompt:  Given my experience, help me write a cover letter to apply for a DBA job

Claude: Again, an explanation on the left and a result I can start with on the right. It’s  a bit wordy and AI-like, but I can adjust that.

Perplexity: Simpler, but effective.

Note, I didn’t paste anything else in, the AI remembered my experience from earlier in the chat. That’s way, way, way better than working through a search engine.

Summary

For most of us, (I hope) searching for a job is a rare thing. It’s always a pain, and it can be stressful. It’s also easy not to be organized and forget things. A GenAI can assist you with more patience than your friends or family might have. It can give you a good start, but please don’t just copy/paste this stuff or follow it blindly. Ask fellow humans what they think of these recommendations.

The GenAI models are trained on lots of data, and they can function as a sounding board, but they aren’t bringing creativity, and your answers will look a lot like other people’s answers. Lots of people will use an LLM to help them here, so make sure you tweak things to stand out a bit.

And build your brand, and let GenAI help you. Don’t let it write blog posts, but it can sketch things out that you edit and clean up. That editing and cleanup skill will help you in interviews and jobs, so don’t forget to polish the final product yourself. Let the GenAI be an assistant that gets you started and that’s it.