Introduction

In recent years, the job-hunting process has evolved beyond merely preparing application documents; it now demands the ability to present oneself effectively and compellingly. In particular, entry sheets (ES) and statements of purpose serve as critical mediums through which candidates convey their past experiences, values, and future aspirations to interviewers.

However, many job seekers struggle to construct a logically coherent and emotionally engaging narrative when analyzing their experiences and structuring their writing. This challenge is even more pronounced for students enrolled in overseas universities, where reliable career support systems and proofreading services may not be readily available. Cultural and linguistic barriers, as well as differences in support structures, further limit opportunities for receiving constructive feedback, making it even more difficult to refine their writing independently.

In this context, the utilization of generative AI presents a significant opportunity. Generative AI serves as a powerful tool that helps users synthesize their accumulated experiences, achievements, and high-quality online samples to generate well-structured and emotionally resonant writing. It streamlines the organization of vast amounts of information and the selection of effective expressions—tasks that were traditionally time-consuming—while simultaneously enhancing the quality of written content. For students studying abroad who lack immediate access to proofreading support, AI can provide valuable objective insights and feedback.

In today's job-hunting landscape, failing to leverage technology may, in fact, put candidates at a disadvantage. Employers are increasingly considering the use of AI-driven tools for application screening and analysis, making AI proficiency an essential skill for job seekers adapting to modern recruitment trends. Globally, the use of generative AI for drafting self-introductions and résumés is becoming commonplace, and integrating AI into the writing process is a rational choice for effective self-presentation.

Furthermore, Japan’s job-hunting culture is highly unique, with application formats such as "self-promotion (自己PR)" and "gakuchika (学生時代に力を入れたこと)" deeply rooted in Japanese corporate customs. For international students, advice from local peers or career services may not always align with Japanese hiring expectations. In contrast, generative AI, when tailored to Japan’s job-hunting culture, can provide highly relevant feedback, enabling candidates to craft more precise and impactful application documents. Recent studies also suggest that generative AI, when guided by clear criteria, can significantly enhance the persuasiveness of written content.*1

This article explores how to effectively utilize generative AI in drafting entry sheets and statements of purpose, providing a comprehensive guide on its advantages, practical usage, and prompt examples. We begin by outlining the multifaceted benefits of AI-assisted writing, followed by a systematic breakdown of personal history creation, sample data utilization, and in-depth preparation strategies. Through this discussion, we aim to introduce a new approach to job application writing and empower job seekers to articulate their strengths more effectively.

1. Benefits of Utilizing Generative AI in Job Hunting

In job hunting, entry sheets (ES) and statements of purpose serve as the frontline for self-expression, and their quality is a critical factor that directly impacts success or failure. However, many job seekers face the challenge of transforming their experiences and strengths into a logically structured and emotionally compelling narrative. This challenge is particularly pronounced for students enrolled in overseas universities, where reliable support for job applications and document review may be limited. In such an environment, self-sufficient writing becomes a necessity, making generative AI an extremely effective solution.

1.1 Significant Improvement in Work Efficiency

Generative AI achieves remarkable efficiency gains compared to traditional manual writing processes.

Time Reduction: By automating processes such as self-analysis, drafting a personal history, and collecting sample materials, AI enables users to create drafts in a short period. This allows applicants to focus more on refining their strategic self-expression.
Automation of Repetitive Tasks: AI can instantly process adjustments and refinements to drafts, significantly improving quality while reducing workload.

1.2 Balancing Logical Coherence and Storytelling

Generative AI excels at producing logically structured and consistent writing based on personal histories and high-quality sample materials.

Support for Logical Structure: AI organizes diverse pieces of information and presents them in a clear chronological order, emphasizing causal relationships to enhance reader comprehension. It provides a framework for logically developing experiences and insights gained from them.
Emotionally Engaging Storytelling: Rather than merely listing facts, AI carefully depicts the background and significance of each experience, creating a compelling narrative that resonates with readers. This enables applicants to evoke empathy and leave a lasting impression on interviewers.

1.3 Providing Multidimensional Perspectives and Objective Feedback

By referencing a diverse range of high-quality samples and existing data, generative AI introduces perspectives and expressions that users might have overlooked.

Comparative Analysis with Sample Materials: AI incorporates reliable entry sheets and statements of purpose from the internet, enabling users to compare their writing with strong examples to identify areas for improvement and uniqueness.
Automated Feedback: AI offers concrete improvement suggestions based on logical coherence and storytelling quality, allowing users to objectively reassess their writing skills.

1.4 Refining Self-Expression and Enhancing Interview Preparation

The use of generative AI goes beyond writing assistance; it facilitates self-reflection and strengthens self-expression based on one’s own values and strengths.

Deepening Self-Awareness: By creating a detailed personal history and inputting it into AI, users can reevaluate past experiences and lessons learned, helping to clarify their core strengths.
Enhancing Persuasiveness in Interviews: Using AI-generated writing as a foundation, applicants can refine their wording, ensuring they can confidently articulate their strengths during interviews. This also helps mitigate cultural and linguistic barriers.

As outlined above, generative AI brings multifaceted advantages to the job application process, enhancing efficiency, logical clarity, and emotionally compelling expression in ES and statement writing.

2. Creating a Personal History and Utilizing Generative AI

The foundation of self-analysis in job hunting lies in the creation of a personal history. A personal history serves as a structured record of past experiences, lessons learned, and formative moments, providing a clear understanding of one’s strengths and values. Furthermore, by revisiting these formative experiences in depth, one can identify how these past events connect to their motivations for pursuing specific companies or industries.

2.1 The Significance and Key Uses of Personal History

A personal history is more than just a chronological list of experiences. By reflecting on one’s growth process, values, and formative experiences, it plays a crucial role in the following aspects:

Deepening Self-Awareness: Organizing past episodes, successes, failures, and challenges in chronological order enables a more objective recognition of one’s growth trajectory and underlying values.
Identifying Strengths and Formative Experiences: Understanding which experiences highlight personal strengths and skills, and which formative moments form the foundation of one's career motivations, helps reveal intrinsic interests in potential companies and industries.
Constructing a Persuasive Narrative: A well-developed personal history serves as valuable material for presenting a logical and emotionally engaging story to interviewers. Demonstrating how past experiences have influenced one’s current self and future career aspirations enhances the credibility of one's motivation for a particular company.

2.2 Methods for Creating a Personal History

A systematic approach is recommended when compiling a personal history. The following methods can help structure the process effectively:

2.2.1 Chronological Recording

Early Childhood and Family Environment: Describe family structure, childhood episodes, and the background of early value formation in detail.
School Years: Record academic achievements, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and events that contributed to personal growth.
Internships and Part-Time Jobs: Organize work experience, accomplishments, and challenges overcome.
Failures and Successes: Clearly document experiences of overcoming adversity, along with the lessons learned.

2.2.2 Thematic Organization

Personal Growth: Select experiences that significantly contributed to self-development and systematically organize their background and impact.
Challenges and Resilience: Extract episodes of challenges faced and overcome, highlighting key takeaways.
Skills and Strengths: Organize specific skills and strengths acquired from different experiences, incorporating measurable achievements.
Connection Between Formative Experiences and Career Motivation: Analyze and structure how past formative experiences have shaped motivations for specific industries or companies.

2.3 Leveraging Generative AI for Personal History Analysis and Prompt Design

To maximize the effectiveness of a personal history, it is essential to input the structured data into generative AI. Proper organization and structuring of information enable AI to provide more accurate outlines and feedback.

2.3.1 Key Considerations for Data Organization

Clarity and Specificity: Ensure that the personal history includes clear and specific information such as detailed episodes, achievements, and numerical data.
Linkage to Career Motivation: Emphasize how formative experiences are logically connected to career aspirations.
Utilizing High-Quality Samples: Referencing successful essays from job-hunting platforms like Mynavi, Rikunabi, and ONE CAREER can help understand effective logical structures and expressions. By aligning personal history with exemplary samples, one can integrate well-rated elements into AI-generated responses.

2.3.2 Example Prompts for Generative AI

Below are sample prompts designed to generate AI-assisted responses for typical job application questions:

Prompt for "What did you focus on during your student years?"

"You are an outstanding job seeker and an expert career counselor. Based on the personal history and past experiences provided below, extract the activities or episodes from your student years that you focused on the most. Organize how this experience contributed to your personal growth and skill acquisition. Also, create a response that clearly explains how that experience will be utilized in your future career. Additionally, the following includes the company overview and past success stories. Based on this company overview, construct a more persuasive episode that aligns with the characteristics of the company, referring to past examples for reference."

[Personal History]
(Insert personal history details here)

[Company/Industry Overview]
(Provide basic information about the company or industry, including reasons for applying)

[Successful Examples]
(Insert successful examples from platforms like ONE CAREER or foreign job-hunting resources)
Prompt for "Please explain your motivation for applying."

"You are a professional in job-seeking, and an expert at constructing persuasive motivations for employers. Based on the personal history and past experiences provided below, dig deeper into how your interest in specific companies or industries was developed. Specifically, clarify how strengths gained from foundational experiences will lead to success in the company or industry you're applying for. Also, create a response that clearly explains how that experience will be utilized in your future career. Additionally, the following includes the company overview and past success stories. Based on this company overview, construct a motivation story that aligns with the characteristics of the company, referring to past examples for reference."

[Personal History]
(Insert personal history details here)

[Company/Industry Overview]
(Provide basic information about the company or industry, including reasons for applying)

[Successful Examples]
(Insert successful examples from platforms like ONE CAREER or foreign job-hunting resources)
Prompt for "Please provide your self-presentation."

"You are an expert in self-presentation, skilled at creating stories that are highly valued by HR professionals. Based on the personal history provided, clearly organize the strengths, skills, and values gained from past experiences. Furthermore, craft a self-promotion statement that specifically illustrates how these elements will lead to success at the company, referring to the company overview to ensure the content aligns well with the company’s characteristics."

[Personal History]
(Insert personal history details here)

[Company/Industry Overview]
(Provide basic information about the company or industry, including reasons for applying)

[Successful Examples]
(Insert successful examples from platforms like ONE CAREER or foreign job-hunting resources)
Prompt for "Please explain your future career vision."

"You are an expert in career planning and well-versed in future-oriented strategies. Based on the personal history provided, clarify what kind of career you are aiming for, and logically and passionately explain the background and strategy behind your career choice. Additionally, using the company overview and successful examples, create a more persuasive career vision."

[Personal History]
(Insert personal history details here)

[Company/Industry Overview]
(Provide basic information about the company or industry, including reasons for applying)

[Successful Examples]
(Insert successful examples from platforms like ONE CAREER or foreign job-hunting resources)

These example prompts are designed to help generative AI dig deeper into the personal history data, enabling it to generate logically compelling answers based on one's growth, strengths, foundational experiences, and their connection to motivation. As a result, previously overlooked motivations and career directions can be clearly identified, leading to the creation of more attractive and impactful entry sheets.

In this way, creating a personal history and leveraging generative AI is not just about organizing information but is a powerful method for revisiting foundational experiences and uncovering underlying motivations for applying to specific companies or industries.

3. Refining Prompts and Enhancing ES Responses Through Comparison with Sample Entries

Based on the self-analysis derived from the personal history and the reaffirmation of foundational experiences, the next step involves further tuning the prompts through comparison with collected high-quality samples. This section details the process of prompt adjustment and its iterative improvement.

3.1 Evaluation and Analysis of Initial Outputs

The prompts designed in Section 2 are intended to generate basic outlines for entry sheet (ES) responses based on the personal history information. Here, we will introduce the process of fine-tuning the prompts while comparing them with the collected high-quality samples.

Evaluation of Initial Output: Compare the ES responses generated by the AI with the collected high-quality samples. Specifically, evaluate the following aspects:

Logic and Specificity: Are clear episodes and concrete achievements expressed, as seen in the samples?
Emotional Expression: Does the self-experience come across convincingly and persuasively?
Structure Balance: Are the introduction, development, and conclusion appropriately organized?

These evaluations are most effective when combined with human verification while utilizing the AI's analysis capabilities. While AI is useful in pointing out differences in logical structure and specificity when compared to the samples, human input is indispensable in adjusting emotional expression and subtle nuances. Therefore, combining the AI's objective feedback with human judgment will lead to higher-quality ES responses.

3.2 Adjusting and Improving Prompts

Based on the comparison with high-quality samples, if issues like the following become clear, the prompts can be refined accordingly:

Lack of Specific Figures or Achievements: If it’s pointed out that specific figures or results are missing, add the instruction: "Clarify the specific achievements (e.g., sales increase rate, success metrics of the project) within the episode."
Weak Emotional or Personal Growth Depiction: If the emotional or personal growth descriptions are weak, include the addition: "Show in more detail how the emotional learning or personal growth gained from the experience connects to your motivation for applying."
Iterative Improvement: Based on the evaluation of the initial outputs and the samples, prompts should be adjusted repeatedly. For example, if the first draft has a strong logical structure but weak emotional expression, modify the prompt to include: "Request additional explanations for specific episodes that appeal to emotions."

3.3 Practical Considerations

Ensuring Originality: High-quality samples should be used as reference materials only. The most important aspect is maintaining original content based on your personal history.
Incorporating Feedback: Instead of accepting the output from the generative AI as-is, it’s crucial to constantly verify the alignment with the personal history and the consistency with the samples while iteratively reviewing and adjusting both the prompts and outputs.

By refining prompts through comparison with high-quality samples and personal history, the initial outputs can be improved into more polished and sophisticated results. This process is expected to create more persuasive entry sheets that clearly express motivation for applying to specific companies or industries.

4. Deep Dive Preparation and Interview Application Using Generative AI

Generative AI is not only useful for creating ES responses but also serves as a powerful tool for preparing for in-depth questioning during interviews. However, in interviews, it is essential to avoid overly lengthy answers, communicate key points concisely and effectively, and ensure consistent responses through one's personal history. This section will discuss specific methods and considerations for using generative AI to deeply explore personal experiences, strengths, and motivations while maintaining a coherent storyline.

4.1 Importance of Deep Dive Preparation and Considerations During Interviews

Interviewers tend to ask for the background and details of episodes mentioned in the ES, but the following points need attention:

Clarification of Background and Consistency: It is crucial that there is consistency throughout one’s personal history. Ensure that the thinking process and lessons behind each episode are unified into an overall story.
Concise Responses: Remove unnecessary parts from the detailed responses generated by generative AI and focus on communicating the key points clearly to the interviewer.
Flexibility: Prepare multiple response patterns using generative AI beforehand. This allows for quick and adaptable responses to unexpected questions by selecting answers that balance consistency and conciseness.

4.2 Example of Deep Dive Prompt Design Using Generative AI

This section presents a concrete example of prompt design to help prepare effective responses for interviews using generative AI. The following steps outline how to organize and refine a list of questions to dive deeper into responses. Ultimately, it is crucial to summarize these questions and answers in a notebook, organizing them as if brainstorming, which will help solidify them in memory.

List Potential Interview Questions
First, list as many common interview questions as possible. The following prompt can be useful when utilizing generative AI:

"You are an interview professional. An interview professional is someone who is familiar with industry- and job-specific interview questions and can create an appropriate list of questions to help applicants prepare thoroughly. Based on the following information, create as many general interview questions as possible for various industries and job roles."

[Company Information]
(Write details about the company and industry)

[Job Role Information]
(Write details about the job role)
Generate Responses for Each Question
Next, generate specific and logical responses for the listed questions. Below is an example of a prompt:

"You are an expert in interview preparation. An expert in interview preparation is someone who organizes the applicant's background and motivations and creates logical and persuasive answers based on their personal history and ES responses. For the following questions, create logical and persuasive sample answers with specific examples. Keep the answers concise."

[Question List]
(List questions)

[ES Response]
(Write the ES content)

[Personal History]
(Write your personal experiences and background information)
Generate Deep Dive Questions
Next, create a list of potential follow-up questions based on the generated answers. This allows you to anticipate the interviewer’s intent and prepare accordingly. Here is an example of a prompt:

"You are an interview professional. An interview professional is someone who can analyze the applicant's answers and predict the deep dive questions the interviewer may ask. Based on the following answers and considering the personal history and ES responses, create 5–10 possible follow-up questions."

[Sample Answer]
(Insert the generated answer)
Create Responses to Deep Dive Questions
Generate specific and logical responses to these deep dive questions. Below is a prompt example:

"You are an excellent career advisor. An excellent career advisor is someone who can leverage the applicant's experience to create concise and logical responses to deep dive questions. For the following questions, considering the personal history and ES responses, create specific and logical sample answers. Be sure to keep the answers to the point and avoid redundancy."

[Deep Dive Question List]
(Insert the generated deep dive questions)

[Personal History]
(Write your personal experiences and background information)
Organizing in Notes for Memory Retention
Finally, organize the questions and answers into a notebook. This method will help solidify the content in memory through brainstorming. It is effective to structure it as follows:

Example: Note Organization Method
Question Categories: Self-Introduction, Motivation, Past Experience, Failures, etc.
Basic Question (Example: "What did you learn from that experience?")
Response Example 1: Lessons and specific actions learned from the experience.
Deep Dive Question 1: Why did you make that choice?
Response Example 2: The situation at that time and the reasoning behind the decision.

By organizing it this way, you can maintain the flow of answers and your personal episodes, making it easier to adjust and respond flexibly in the interview.

The following is an example of a brainstorming-style notebook. Adjust the answers based on each level of response, and refine them to improve your preparedness.

4.3 Iterative Review and Practice

Deep-dive preparation using generative AI improves interview performance through repeated revisions and adjustments based on the initial outputs.

Mock Interviews: Conduct mock interviews using the created response examples, assessing actual response times, how key points are conveyed, and consistency.
Incorporating Feedback: Based on feedback obtained from the mock interviews, readjust prompts and the organization of your personal history, generating more concise and consistent responses.

By continuously refining deep-dive preparation and interview applications through generative AI, not only can you delve into your personal experiences and growth process in detail, but you can also maintain consistency throughout your entire personal history. This results in concise and persuasive answers, making it a powerful tool for presenting yourself effectively to interviewers.

5. Summary and Future Utilization

This article has explained the methods for utilizing generative AI in crafting application essays (ES) and motivation letters during job hunting. First, it highlighted the importance of organizing your personal experiences, strengths, and core experiences to clarify the reasoning behind your motivations for the company or industry. Then, it suggested optimizing prompts through the collection and organization of high-quality examples, comparing them with your personal history to refine your approach. Furthermore, the article discussed techniques for deep-dive preparation and interview readiness using generative AI, focusing on eliminating redundancy and maintaining consistency while conveying key points concisely.

It is important to note that generative AI is merely an "auxiliary tool." Ultimately, the ability to speak in your own words is essential. While leveraging AI, it is crucial to engage in self-analysis and repeated practice to build confidence for the interview process.

Looking ahead, as generative AI technology evolves, more advanced self-analysis and interview preparation will become possible. Through regular reviews of personal histories and incorporating feedback, job seekers can continuously refine their self-presentation to logically and persuasively highlight their strengths, helping them perform to their maximum potential during job interviews.

(Editor: Jelper Club Editorial Team)

Sources and Notes

１.「人工知能研究の新潮流２～基盤モデル・生成 AI のインパクト～」（CRDS）：https://www.mext.go.jp/content/240125_mxt_jyohoka01_000033728_08.pdf

【A Guideline to Using Generative AI in Job Hunting】From Personal History Building to Crafting Application Essays, Motivation Statements, and Interview Preparation