Best AI and ChatGPT Prompts That Actually Help Recruiters

Beneath the hype, ChatGPT continues to be a top choice in the list of AI recruiting tools, especially for creating content. And it makes sense. Recruiters aren’t meant to be writers, and ChatGPT is the perfect solution to get started. Enter a prompt with enough information, and the output is instant.

This guide covers some of the best ChatGPT prompts for recruiters that actually work. No fluff, just prompts you can copy, tweak, and use right away. We have also shared screenshots of the responses as received during our testing.

Best AI and ChatGPT Prompts for Recruiters

Below is a list of the best AI and ChatGPT prompts that agency recruiters should use in 2025 to achieve meaningful results. These are grouped into categories for ease.

Candidate Outreach and Engagement Prompts

1. Prompt Template for Outreach:

Act as a seasoned recruiter who has a proven track record of creating highly effective outreach communications. You operate in {{industry}} and are currently hiring for {{name of the role}} for a {{Company highlight}}. Create an outreach email for potential candidates. Emphasize why the candidate might be a good fit for the role using the following information:
{{Name of the role + Years of Experience}}
{{The location, type of role}}
Tone: {{friendly/professional/conversational}}
Writing Style: {{Brief and to the point}}
Content Length: {{Under 150 words}}

Prompt Example:
Act as a seasoned recruiter who has a proven track record of creating highly effective outreach communications. You operate in SaaS recruitment and are currently hiring for a senior backend engineer for a well-funded, remote-first SaaS company building scalable developer tools. Create an outreach email for potential candidates. Emphasize on why the candidate might be a good fit for the role using the following information:
Senior Backend Engineer with 5 years of experience, remote, full-time role
Tone: Conversational and friendly
Writing style: Brief and to the point
Content Length: Under 150 Words

2. Prompt to Create Follow-up Messages:

Prompt Template:

Act as a seasoned recruiter who has a proven track record of creating highly effective outreach communications. You operate in {{industry}} and are currently hiring for {{name of the role}} for a {{Company highlight}}. You have to create a follow-up email to understand if a potential candidate is interested in a job you pitched earlier. Re-emphasize why this might be a great opportunity for the candidate. The email must evoke confidence and nudge the candidate to reply. It should not create a fake sense or urgency, but should help the candidate understand the importance of time. Refer to the company-related information from the previous email.
Tone: {{friendly with a sense of urgency}}
Writing Style: {{Brief and to the point}}
Content Length: {{Under 100 words}}

Prompt Example for Follow-Up:

Act as a seasoned recruiter with a track record of writing effective follow-up communications. You operate in SaaS recruitment and previously reached out to a candidate for the role of Senior Backend Engineer at a well-funded, remote-first SaaS company building scalable developer tools. Create a follow-up message that acknowledges the previous outreach and restates the opportunity briefly.
Reinforce why the candidate might be a good fit using the following:

- Senior Backend Engineer with 5 years of experience

- Remote, full-time role

- Includes a light, friendly call to action

- Tone: Friendly, polite, and non-pushy
  Style: Brief and conversational
  Length: Under 100 words

Prompts for Candidate Nurturing & Engagement

When it comes to candidate nurture and engagement, a single email or message is not enough. This prompt will help recruiters create a highly effective sequence across email, SMS, and LinkedIn.

3. Prompt for Candidate Nurturing

Act as a seasoned recruiter who has deep experience in candidate nurturing. You have a database segmented by roles, geographies, and years of experience. You have to create a multi-channel candidate nurturing sequence that helps keep high-potential candidates nurtured over a period of {{duration – e.g., 2 to 4 weeks}}. The sequence should be spread across the following channels: LinkedIn, SMS, and email. The sequence should include:
Channel Mix, along with frequency and timelines
Create a communication flow across LinkedIn, email, and SMS
The messages must be spread strategically to ensure it doesn’t feel like spam
For each message, the objective should be clear.
Don’t try to say too many things in a single piece of content.
Follow the rule of one email, one theme, one cta.

The ultimate goal is to understand the candidate’s current job search intent, the job, and verify details that will be beneficial for future outreach.
Additional Guidelines:

- Tone: Friendly, professional, and non-intrusive

- Length: Based on the respective channel. A general rule is to have an email under 150 words, a LinkedIn message under 80 words, and SMS under 50 words.

- Writing Style: Conversational, authentic, and value-driven — not just role-pushing

Also, check 25 Recruiting Email Templates Recruiters Can Use.

4. Prompt for Candidate Engagement

You are a seasoned recruiter with over 10 years of experience in the industry. As of today, you are working in a recruitment agency that does {{primary agency offering}}. You are currently hiring for {{role}} at {{company name/industry}}. Act as a seasoned recruiter who has deep experience in candidate engagement. You have a database segmented by roles, geographies, and years of experience. You have had at least one interaction with each of these candidates in the past. You have to create a multi-channel candidate nurturing sequence that helps keep high-potential candidates engaged over a period of {{duration – e.g., 2 to 4 weeks}}. The sequence should be spread across the following channels: LinkedIn, SMS, and email.

Additional Guidelines:

- The content should evoke a sense of urgency, but not push too hard

- Tone: Friendly, professional, and non-intrusive

- Length: Based on the respective channel. A general rule is to have an email under 150 words, linkedin message under 80 words, and SMS under 50 words.

- Writing Style: Conversational, authentic, and value-driven — not just role-pushing

5. Prompts for Creating Candidate Persona

Creating an ideal candidate persona helps in identifying the ideal traits and characteristics for any job order. It helps recruiters refine their sourcing strategy. Here’s a prompt that recruiters can use repetitively.

Prompt template for creating a candidate persona

You are a seasoned recruiter working in the industry. To excel at sourcing candidates, you have decided to create candidate personas. You have to now create a persona for {{ROLE}} for a company that operates in the {{AREA OF FOCUS}} space based on the information shared below. These are the key requirements shared by the client.
{{JOB TITLE + YOE}}
{{JOB LOCATION AND TYPE: REMOTE/HYBRID}}
{{MUST HAVE SKILLS}}
{{CORE STRENGTHS & SKILLS TO LOOK FOR}}
{{COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES}}
{{COMMUNICATION THEMES}}
{{SALARY RANGE}}

The persona should be detailed and act as a single source of information for any recruiter who may work on this job in your team.

Creating a candidate persona is an iterative process. It helps in creating a highly effective strategy to ensure high submittals. A well-defined candidate persona also helps in resource planning and improving the candidate and client experience.

Candidate Sourcing Prompts

Sourcing candidates is a never-ending process. We have split the candidate sourcing prompts into a few situations.

6. Candidate sourcing prompts to find relevant websites & job boards for a certain job role

You are a sourcing expert working in {{INDUSTRY/HIRING TYPE: TECH/RPO}}. I want you to identify websites, communities, and niche platforms where {{ROLE}} candidates are most likely to be active. Don’t forget to include job boards specific to {{INDUSTRY/DOMAIN}}. I would also like to find websites where these candidates are most likely to share their portfolio (ex: Github for techies). I am looking for candidates located in {{REGION}}, so prioritize sources that are relevant.

Prompt example for a marketing manager role in North America.

You are a sourcing expert working in Tech/RPO. I want you to identify websites, communities, and niche platforms where Marketing Manager candidates are most likely to be active. Don’t forget to include job boards specific to marketing and growth. I would also like to find websites where these candidates are most likely to share their portfolio (ex: Behance or Medium for marketers). I am looking for candidates located in North America, so prioritize sources that are relevant.

7. Prompt Template: Finding Clients Across Platforms Based on Role Types

While we do apologize for the length of this prompt, it is extremely beneficial for creating a BD strategy especially when you are trying to open up a new market or starting up. To make this prompt work, we highly recommend adding as much context about your recruitment agency. Focus on the category of your top clients, past wins, strengths, tools, etc.

Here’s the prompt:

You are a sourcing strategist. I need help identifying potential clients (employers) who are currently or recently hiring for roles like {{list of roles — e.g., Product Manager, DevOps Engineer, UX Designer}}.
Objective: Build a targeted outbound list for business development or partnership conversations with companies actively hiring for these roles. The list should be cohesive and built from all relevant sources including (but not limited to) LinkedIn, Wellfound (AngelList), Y Combinator Jobs, Remote OK, We Work Remotely, etc. Don’t forget to focus on roles posted in the last {{X}} days.

Output Format
Return a structured table with the following columns:

- Company Name

- Platform

- Job Title

- Location (or Remote)

- Posting Age (in days)

- Prioritization Criteria

- Prioritize companies that are:
  - - In {{industry type — e.g., SaaS, fintech, healthtech}}
  - - Of {{company size — e.g., early-stage, seed to Series B, remote-first}}

- Consider role-to-industry fit (e.g., DevOps in infra startups, PMs in product-heavy orgs)

Notes

- Use known hiring trends or available public data

- No need for real-time scraping unless specified

- Keep the output relevant to {{region or global scope}}

The quality of output may differ if you have a premium version of ChatGPT compared to the free version.

8. Prompt for Creating Job Descriptions

Prompt template for creating job descriptions:

You are a recruiter working in an agency that specializes in {{AGENCY FOCUS}}. You are currently hiring for {{ROLE}} in {{INDUSTRY}}. You have to create a job description that covers the following details:
{{ROLE + SENIORITY}}
{{LOCATION + TYPE: REMOTE/HYBRID}}
{{MUST-HAVE SKILLS}}
{{ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES}}
{{TOOLS, DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE, YOE}}

The job description should not be filled with jargon. It must use all the relevant keywords that communicate the job role without overcomplicating it. The tone should be professional and friendly but not casual. The description should have a clear formatting over random paragraphs and bullet points stacked one below the other.

Prompts for Creating Screening Questions

Screening the right candidates for a job order is the first step to success. The quality of candidates impacts the time to hire, time to fill, submittals to hire ratio, and the overall client relationship. These prompts are tailor-made for recruiters. We’ve also covered a prompt for companies where DE&I is of importance.

9. Prompt template for candidate screening

You are a recruiter working in a recruitment agency that specializes in {{Core Agency Industry}}. You are currently screening candidates for {{ROLE}} for a client in the {{INDUSTRY}}. The requirements of the role are as follows:

{{Years of Experience Required}}
{{Summary of Job Description}}
{{Must-Have Technical Skills & Non-technical Skills}}
Based on this information, create a set of 7 screening questions that assess competency, role-fit, and motivation. Include a mix of technical, motivational, and behavioral questions. Also, give me an outline of what a good vs bad answer would look like.

Prompt example for candidate screening:

You are a recruiter working in a recruitment agency that specializes in growth and marketing hires for tech companies. You are currently screening candidates for the role of Marketing Manager for a client in the B2B SaaS industry. The requirements of the role are as follows: 5–7 years in marketing, with at least 2 years in a managerial or lead role. The candidate will own the entire marketing function — from content and campaigns to performance tracking — and work cross-functionally with sales and product teams. The company is a remote-first SaaS startup targeting enterprise clients. Must-Have Technical Skills & Non-technical Skills: Marketing automation (e.g., HubSpot), performance analytics, campaign planning, SEO/SEM basics. Non-technical: Strategic thinking, stakeholder communication, team management, adaptability. Based on this information, create a set of 7 screening questions that assess competency, role-fit, and motivation. Include a mix of technical, motivational, and behavioral questions. Also give me an outline of what a good vs bad answer would look like.

10. Prompt Template for candidate screening with a focus on DE&I

Act as a recruitment agency recruiter at an agency that values inclusive hiring and works closely with clients who prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in their teams. You are screening candidates for the role of {{Role}} at a {{Industry}} company. The client has asked you to place special emphasis on the candidate’s ability to lead, collaborate, and contribute in diverse and inclusive environments.

The role requires:

Experience: {{Years of experience + any leadership requirement}}

Technical Requirements: {{Key skills or tools}}

Non-technical Requirements: {{Communication, collaboration, strategic thinking, etc.}}

Based on this, generate a set of 7 screening questions that assess:

Core role competencies

Experience or mindset around DE&I (e.g., working across cultures, inclusive leadership, bias awareness)

Behavioral adaptability and collaboration with diverse teams

Motivation to work in an inclusive, mission-aligned environment

For each question, outline what a strong answer and a weak answer might look like, especially in the context of inclusive, people-centered teams. Keep the tone professional, values-driven, and aligned with a client who sees DE&I as central to team and product success.

11. Prompt for Creating a Staffing Agency Contract

Creating a staffing agency contract is essential to set expectations, project the business, and ensure compliance at all levels. This simple prompt will help you create staffing agency contracts quickly.

Prompt template for creating a staffing agency contract:

You are a recruiter working at an agency that specializes in {{Agency Focus}}. Create a staffing agency contract for a client based on the following details:

Client Name & Location: {{Client Name, Address}}

Service Type: {{Contingent / Retained / Contract-to-Hire}}

Roles & Industry: {{e.g., Tech, Marketing, Sales}}

Fee Structure: {{e.g., 20% of annual CTC, invoiced on joining}}

Candidate Ownership Period: {{e.g., 6 months}}

Replacement/Refund Terms: {{e.g., 90-day free replacement}}

Termination Clause: {{e.g., 30-day notice}}

Governing Law: {{e.g., State of California}}

Keep the language professional, clearly structured, and client-ready. Include standard legal sections like scope of services, fees, confidentiality, liability, and termination.

You can also check out the staffing agency contract template.

Tips to Get the Most Out of AI Prompts

ChatGPT is a great tool for saving time. All AI recruitment tools have one thing in common: context. The more context you share, the more refined the output. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your ChatGPT prompts:

- Offer Details: Adding more context, like job specifics, skills, industries, or special needs, improves output quality.

- Keep Improving: Don’t stick with the first answer you get. Adjust your prompt, offer more specifics, and follow up with questions to make the output better.

- Add a Personal Touch: Let AI help create drafts, but always review and tailor them before sending. Generic messages are easy for candidates to recognize.

- Stay Ethical: Be careful of bias in AI-created content. Always check it to ensure it’s fair and includes everyone when screening or reaching out.

- Integrate with Workflow: To be more productive, connect AI tools with your ATS or recruitment systems.

Why Recruiters and Hiring Teams Are Embracing AI and ChatGPT in 2025

Recruitment has always focused on people, but by 2028, smart technology will play a big role too. More than half of employers use AI in hiring now, which is twice as much as they did in 2023.

To adapt, agency recruiters see this as more than just catching up with trends. It has now become essential to grow and thrive in a space where being fast, personal, and efficient isn’t optional.

Here are the key advantages of using AI in recruitment:

- Speed and Efficiency: AI handles tasks like scanning resumes, writing outreach messages, and checking how well candidates fit. This leaves room for recruiters to spend time on meaningful conversations.

- Scaling Personalization: ChatGPT allows you to create communication in bulk, helping your emails grab attention in busy inboxes.
  Fair Processes Every Time: Automated systems like screening tools and structured prompts help remove bias and create consistent recruiting practices.

- Better Candidate Experiences: AI tools like chatbots and tailored messages provide faster and more relevant responses. This boosts your agency’s reputation.

How Recruiterflow’s AIRA Boosts AI-Powered Hiring

If you want to expand your agency’s recruiting abilities, you need more than just smart prompts. You need access to the right tools. That is where Recruiterflow’s AIRA plays a role.

What Is AIRA? AIRA is an AI assistant from Recruiterflow made just for agency recruiters. It can take over repetitive tasks, write messages that grab attention, and find top candidates. This allows recruiters to focus their energy on closing more deals.

How AIRA Supports Recruiters:

- Automated Sourcing: AIRA uses advanced AI technology to find and shortlist candidates that match your criteria. This eliminates the need for hours of manual searching.

- Smart Screening: With AIRA, resumes get screened instantly, and clear summaries are generated. This makes it easy to decide and select the right candidate faster.

- Focused Messaging: Use tested prompt examples to craft messages that get replies instead of being ignored.

- Automating Tasks: AIRA handles time-consuming tasks like scheduling interviews and creating reports, allowing you to focus more energy on building connections.

- Learning Over Time: AIRA becomes better with every search and action, adjusting to fit what your agency needs.

Why Pick AIRA?

- Tailored for Agency Recruiters: Unlike one-size-fits-all AI tools, AIRA is made to work with the actual challenges faced in agency recruiting.

- Easy to Use: Add AIRA into your daily process without much hassle.

- Real Results: Agencies using AIRA experience quicker hires, better candidate experiences, and more satisfied clients.

Want to See What AIRA Can Do?

Don’t just rely on what we’re saying here. To see how AIRA could change the way you recruit, book a demo now. Learn how using smart AI prompts on the right platform can help you find and place candidates quicker while making the process easier.