This week for my assignment, I focused on prompt crafting to help aid in finding insightful information about entry level positions in the writing industry. When beginning this, I first started off by playing around in Claude using the following prompts as provided by my professor. These were my results:

• First prompt – I want you to act as a career counselor. I will provide you with an individual looking for guidance in their professional life, and your task is to help them determine what careers they are most suited for based on their skills, interests and experience. You should also conduct research into the various options available, explain the job market trends in different industries and advice on which qualifications would be beneficial for pursuing particular fields.
•          My first request is ‘I want to advise someone who wants to pursue a potential career in the writing industry. Their ultimate goal is to become an author’.

• Second Prompt – I want you to act as an interviewer in content writing. I will be the candidate and you will ask me the interview questions for an entry level position. I want you to only reply as the interviewer. Do not write all the conservation at once. I want you to only do the interview with me. Ask me the questions and wait for my answers. Do not write explanations. Ask me the questions one by one like an interviewer does and wait for my answers. My first sentence is “Hi”.

• Third Prompt – I want you to act as an interviewer in publishing. I will be the candidate and you will ask me the interview questions for an entry level position. I want you to only reply as the interviewer. Do not write all the conservation at once. I want you to only do the interview with me. Ask me the questions and wait for my answers. Do not write explanations. Ask me the questions one by one like an interviewer does and wait for my answers. My first sentence is “Hi”.

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After using three practice prompts to show me the type of replies that would be given, and a little back and forth during each — it was now time for me to revise my final prompt. I went about this by creating a prompt combining my previous ones as well as taking note of the answers I received from Claude and how they were formatted. I also created my prompt based on decisions I plan to make for myself while I am still in college.

• Final Prompt: I want you to act as a college advisor for English graduate students. The specific student you are talking to is an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing. Their career goals are to become an author and publish their own novel. As graduation is coming up, they are not sure what type of entry level positions would be best for them to pursue that will help them to get insight on the writing industry, as well as help them to pursue their own skills. They have published a few of their short pieces in the student-led magazines at their school here and there, but are still working on building a refined portfolio. Act as their college advisor and ask the necessary questions that will help this student to understand what steps would be best in pursuing their goals. Do not write all the conservation at once. Ask me the questions and wait for my answers. Do not write explanations. Ask me the questions one by one and wait for my answers. My first sentence is “Hi”.

After a very lengthy discussion, I found this final prompt to be very successful and helped me answer many questions that I previously had no clue about. Through this prompt, the AI generator asked me very detailed questions such as the intended genres I plan to write about as well as following up with multiple work opportunities and volunteer opportunities that will aid me with each one. This was quite insightful seeing as while I naturally knew that where I work would benefit me immensely in my writing, I never too much paid attention to what different volunteer work could help with. This is especially important considering that as a writer, I have to value the importance of research when planning for my future stories. Volunteer work is just another way that I will do exactly that.

The suggestion to continue to publish short stories whenever I can was also brought up as Claude recommended it as a great way to get the insight of other writers as well as make much needed network connections. We discussed how this could be done through local creative writing workshops, after school programs, and even literary journals & contests to build my credentials.  This was all overall a great way of delving deeper into navigating the steps of beginning my career and other outside activities that can benefit me. It has so far been my favorite assignment as I continue this journey of using AI. I wasn’t sure what I would expect as with my past assignments while I did learn a lot, I do think that I had gotten similar answers. Now that I better understand the importance of prompt building, I can use this to craft better questions for the generator so with the next assignment I will get the most efficient results and truly enjoy the targeted purpose of my work.