How to Get a Tech Job
I left medicine to join a multi-million health-tech company. I didn’t have any real industry experience or qualifications. But this is how I enlisted the help of AI and used what I did have to convince them to give me the job…
My name's Shaene and I'm a doctor, supervisor at Oxford University, and manager at a multi-million health tech company.
Today, I’m going to share with you how I wrote the cover letter that got me into that exact multi-million health-tech company.
My workflow started with going to chatGPT and inputting the command:
Write me a cover letter for Customer Success and Delivery Manager (Clinician) Job at a health technology start up
This, as expected, churned out a generic, overly passionate bordering on cringe, letter that nonetheless served as an excellent starting point. I then extracted elements I liked, input my specific experiences and created the final letter.
This is exactly how I did it…
But first, the structure of the letter.
Both chatGPT and myself agreed on the overall structure which was introduction, main body and conclusion; nothing ground-breaking here.
The purpose of the introduction was to deliver a 3 sentence attention-grabbing pitch showcasing my interest and enthusiasm for the specific role, company mission and my suitability.
The purpose of the main body was to show my suitability to the job role through my relevant experiences and qualification, and finally my interest in and culture fit with the company.
Experiences
Qualifications
Interest in company
Finally, the purpose of the conclusion was to emphasise my passion and the synergistic, mutual benefit that I and the company would gain if they hired me, ending with a lead into an interview as an opportunity to discuss this more.
Now, let’s look at each of these sections in turn viewing what chatGPT came up with first and then how I transformed it into a personalised, humanised letter.
So, chatGPT spewed out this as the introduction:
I am writing to express my enthusiastic interest in the Customer Success and Delivery Manager (Clinician) position at [Company Name].
As a dedicated and accomplished healthcare professional with a passion for technology, I am excited about the opportunity to contribute my skills and expertise to your health technology start-up's mission of revolutionizing the healthcare industry.
Lots of passionate words used here, but it’s very much on the ‘over the top’ side.
For example, the combination ‘enthusiastic interest’ is just way too much.
It’s also wildly general, both in terms of my suitability and also in terms of the company I’m applying for.
This, as a result, screams AI and lacks authenticity.
So, this is how I transformed it.
My introduction starts:
To whom it may concern,
My name is Shaene, a Cambridge educated NHS speciality doctor, successful business-owner, Oxford University educator, and content creator with a keen interest, experience, and research in health technology.
This sentence achieves the purpose of the introduction in that it grabs the reader’s attention by outlining key achievements and suitability relevant to the job role.
The next part reads:
I am writing to express my interest in the Customer Success and Delivery Manager (Clinician) position at Doccla.
As a dedicated and accomplished healthcare professional with a passion for technology, I am excited about the opportunity to contribute my skills and expertise to your mission of revolutionising the healthcare industry through the rapidly evolving power of remote patient monitoring.
The first sentence here clearly outlines the reason for the letter and outlines the specific job role that I’m interested in.
The second sentence here is pretty much verbatim from ChatGPT, except it’s been made more specific to the company that I am applying for, boosting the authenticity.
Using the chatGPT sentence as a backbone allowed me to save a lot of mental thinking and minimised decision fatigue, as I was able to use pre-suggested emotive adjectives and structure.
Let’s now move on to the main body.
The main body consists of 4 paragraphs covering experiences, qualifications and interest in company, with ‘experiences’ being given the heaviest weight in both chatGPT’s letter and my final letter.
Overall, it perfectly achieves the aim of a main body in emphasising my suitability for the specific job role.
Let’s look at each paragraph in turn starting with chatGPT’s first paragraph:
Throughout my career as a clinician, I have witnessed the transformative impact that innovative technologies can have on patient care and outcomes.
My experience working in healthcare settings has provided me with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by both clinicians and patients.
I firmly believe that the fusion of healthcare and technology has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of care, and I am eager to be part of a dynamic team that shares this vision.
Throughout, lots of emotive, passionate adjective are used.
Some important concepts, such as the importance of patient care, challenges and opportunities for key stakeholders as well as a general mission statement is highlighted.
But again, it’s far too general so I added some specific examples to these sentences to make this more authentic and genuine.
This is how my paragraph read:
Throughout my career as a clinician, I have witnessed the transformative impact that innovative technologies can have on patient care and outcomes.
For example, I have worked closely with healthcare-centric artificial intelligence companies to trial software that diagnose prostate adenocarcinoma in core biopsies and went on to present the findings at an international conference.
These software solutions not only work alongside clinicians to speed up reporting, but also adds an extra layer of patient safety.
In addition, I have seen first-hand the evolution of health technology on the wards by ushering in electronic patient records in my current and previous trusts.
This has enabled quicker completion of administrative tasks and creation of safe and highly useable clinical records, freeing up greater clinician time and capacity for patient care.
These experiences have provided me with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by both clinicians and patients.
I firmly believe that the fusion of healthcare and technology has the potential to revolutionise the delivery of care, and I am eager to be part of a dynamic team that shares this vision.
The first sentence here mirrors that of chatGPT, but is backed up by two relevant personal experiences, as well as my own insights in the sentences that follow.
The last two sentences are again borrowed from chatGPT with some minor changes to improve flow and British spelling.
The next AI paragraph reads:
As a Customer Success and Delivery Manager, I am committed to ensuring the successful integration and adoption of your health technology solutions by healthcare providers.
My strong interpersonal and communication skills allow me to establish productive relationships with customers, understand their unique needs, and deliver personalized support and training.
I am well-versed in providing hands-on training to medical staff, guiding them through the implementation process, and offering ongoing support to ensure optimal system utilization.
The first sentence here sounds good, but I’m not convinced it conveys much substance and also assumes some prior experience in the exact role, which I didn’t really have.
The second sentence is better as it identifies some key qualities needed for success and conveys an understanding of what the job role requires.
The last sentence here, again assumes that the applicant will have this experience, but luckily I had something I could tangentially link to this.
And this experience I may not have identified as being relevant, had ChatGPT not suggested this sentence.
So another key win of using AI is that it can help you identify more relevant experiences you have and help you link it to the job.
Let’s now look at my version of this paragraph to see what I mean by this:
My strong interpersonal and communication skills allow me to establish productive relationships with customers, understand their unique needs, and deliver personalised support and training.
Helping my current trust with the adoption of digital pathology has made me well-versed in providing hands-on training to medical staff, guiding them through the implementation process, and offering ongoing support to ensure optimal system utilisation.
I wasn’t a fan of chatGPT’s first sentence in this paragraph so it didn’t make the cut into my version.
However, I really liked sentence 2 and I could link this to my experiences in running Doctor Shaene as a business, if questioned during an interview, so this made the cut without much change.
And I backed this and the last sentence up with a relevant experience that came to mind thanks to ChatGPT’s prompt.
Let’s now move on to the next paragraph starting with ChatGPT’s version:
In my previous roles, I have consistently exceeded performance targets and received praise for my ability to develop and implement innovative solutions that enhance workflow efficiency and patient care.
I am confident that my clinical background, combined with my passion for technology, makes me an ideal fit for bridging the gap between healthcare and cutting-edge solutions.
Again ChatGPT is assuming some experiences and performances, but does very well in utilising emotive adjectives and brining out key suitabilities.
This is how I personalised this paragraph in my version:
In my previous roles, I have consistently exceeded performance targets and received praise for my ability to develop and implement innovative solutions that enhance workflow efficiency and patient care.
In addition, I formalised my training by earning a competitive scholarship that enabled me to complete a 12-month international healthcare leadership programme which honed my skills in collaborative healthcare project management.
Furthermore, as a business-owner myself, I am well versed in building successful client relationships with over 5,000 satisfied and happy customers.
I am confident that my clinical background, experience in project management, client relations, combined with my passion for technology, makes me an ideal fit for bridging the gap between healthcare and cutting-edge solutions.
Even though the first sentence here was clearly intended by ChatGPT to apply to someone who had previously had delivery roles, it actually worked to fit with my experience as a doctor.
As we frequently have to carry out mandatory audits and quality improvement projects aimed at enhancing workflow efficiencies and patient care.
So, I kept this sentence in, as I felt I could back this up with relevant experiences if I were to be questioned at an interview.
In the next two sentences, I use specific examples and link it to key skills that highlight my suitability for the job role.
The final sentence here uses the backbone provided by ChatGPT, but is beefed out with some extra relevant personal experiences.
Let’s now take a look at the final paragraph of the main body, starting with chatGPT:
Working at [Company Name] would be an exceptional opportunity to be part of a trailblazing team focused on transforming healthcare delivery.
I am drawn to your start-up's dynamic and entrepreneurial culture, and I am excited about the potential to collaborate with like-minded professionals to achieve the shared goal of making a lasting impact in the lives of patients and clinicians alike.
These sentences round off the main body with emotive adjectives and a nice sentiment, that was worded really well throughout.
It highlights interest in the company, their mission and showcases a culture-fit, which all companies value.
The content didn’t really need specific examples, so my version was very similar to the AI’s, with some minor changes.
It read like this:
Working at Doccla would be an exceptional opportunity to be part of a trailblazing team focused on transforming healthcare delivery.
I am drawn to your company’s dynamic and entrepreneurial culture, and I am excited about the potential to collaborate with like-minded professionals to achieve the shared goal of making a lasting impact in the lives of patients and clinicians alike.
I inserted the company name and changed ‘start-up’ to ‘company’, but otherwise kept things identical; a triumph for AI.
Let’s now look at the conclusion, starting as ever with the AI:
Thank you for considering my application. I am thrilled about the prospect of contributing my skills and enthusiasm to the success of [Company Name].
I have attached my resume for your review, and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my experiences align with your vision during an interview.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
This quite nicely achieves the purpose of a cover letter’s conclusion by hinting at a mutual, synergistic benefit in hiring me, ending with a prompt for further discussion at an interview.
My final version read:
Thank you for considering my application. I am thrilled about the prospect of contributing my skills and enthusiasm to the success of Doccla.
I have attached my CV for your review, and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my experiences align with your vision during an interview.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Shaene Gnanarajah
Again, I didn’t change much here, except switching ‘resume’ with ‘CV’, adding my name and putting a ‘yours’ in front of the ‘sincerely’.
Now, if you’d like to find out more about writing cover letters and personal statements, then you might like to checkout these articles and the videos below.
Or if you’re interested in why and how I made the change to health-tech from medicine, then you might like to checkout this article and the video below.
But that’s it form me for today, thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you again next time.