Selja or ChatGPT for your CV and cover letter?

The short answer

The answer depends on how much of the work you want to do yourself.

• Use ChatGPT if you want help wording a sentence, shortening a text, finding better words or getting feedback, and you handle the layout and the facts yourself.
• Use a dedicated tool if you want a finished CV and cover letter tailored to a specific ad, in a layout that applicant tracking systems read correctly, downloaded as a PDF.
• Feel free to use both: a tool to create the documents, and a chatbot to practise wording or interview answers.

When ChatGPT is enough

ChatGPT is good with text. It can rewrite a paragraph to make it shorter, suggest stronger verbs, translate a sentence into English or explain what a term in a job ad means. If you already have a good CV and just want to polish a point or two, a chatbot is often enough.

It is also useful when you prepare. You can ask it to put common interview questions to you or explain what an industry values. ChatGPT has a free version, and Plus costs 20 dollars a month according to the company behind it (checked in October 2026). If you already use it, it costs you nothing extra to use it for your CV.

Where a chatbot falls short

A general chatbot only knows what you tell it. It does not know your CV until you paste it in, it does not read the ad until you give it, and it does not know what makes a CV easy to read for Norwegian recruiters and systems unless you explain it. The answer is never better than the instructions.

The company behind ChatGPT says on its own help pages that the service can give incorrect or misleading answers that sound confident, and recommends checking important information. In a CV, that can mean a figure that is wrong, a skill you do not have or a phrase you cannot explain in an interview.

• You have to paste in your CV, the ad and your instructions every time.
• The answer usually comes as text in a chat, so you have to put it into a template and check the layout.
• You have to check yourself that nothing has been added or exaggerated.
• You have to make sure yourself that your CV and cover letter say the same thing.

Keywords from the job ad and ATS

Many employers use applicant tracking systems, often called ATS, to collect and sort applications. The system has to be able to read your CV, and whoever is looking for candidates often searches for the same words that appear in the ad. Our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains how it works.

With ChatGPT you have to ask it to find the keywords, compare them with your CV and make sure they are used correctly. In Selja you paste in the ad, and your CV and cover letter are tailored to the role. With ATS score you can check a CV against a job for free and see which keywords are missing.

No made up details

If you ask a chatbot to write a CV that fits the ad, it may fill gaps with skills, figures or responsibilities you have never had. It is tempting to leave them in, but anything in your CV can come up in the interview, and the employer may call your references.

Selja never adds experience or skills you do not have. If the ad asks for something that is missing from your CV, Selja asks you about it and only uses what you confirm. The goal is to make the most of what you actually have, not to dress it up.

Layout, templates and PDF

A CV should look tidy and be easy to read for both people and systems. If you use ChatGPT, you usually paste the text into Word, Google Docs or another template yourself, fix headings and spacing and save it as a PDF.

Selja has a dedicated ATS template built so that applicant tracking systems read it correctly, several templates and colours, editing and PDF download. Your CV and cover letter are created for the same job in one go, so you do not have to move text between different programs.

The Norwegian job market and language

ChatGPT writes in Norwegian, but it is not built specifically for Norwegian job applications. Without clear instructions it does not know what you consider right, for example how long the cover letter should be or how a Norwegian CV is usually structured. You would have to explain that. Our guide on how to write a cover letter shows what is common.

Selja is built for the Norwegian job market, writes in Norwegian and English, and uses English when the ad is in English. In the app you will also find vacancies from arbeidsplassen.no and a salary check based on figures from Statistics Norway.

Price: ChatGPT and Selja

ChatGPT has a free version, and Plus costs 20 dollars a month.

Selja gives you a free CV score, an ATS score and several free tools without an account. A CV and cover letter tailored to each ad requires Pro, which costs 249 kr a month, 135 kr a month when paid quarterly or 99 kr a month when paid yearly. You can cancel whenever you like, and there is a 30 day money back guarantee (terms apply). See all prices.

How to get the most out of ChatGPT for your CV and cover letter

If you choose ChatGPT, a few simple steps will give you a better result:

• Paste in the whole ad and your CV, and ask for suggested changes, not a completely new CV.
• Tell it not to add experience, skills or figures that are not in your CV.
• Ask it to list the keywords in the ad, and check yourself which ones you actually have.
• Read everything out loud, and delete phrases you would not use yourself.
• Put the text into a simple template with standard headings, and save it as a PDF.
• Do not share more personal information than you need to.

Which one should you choose?

If you are sending a few applications and like writing yourself, ChatGPT and a good template may be enough. If you are applying for many jobs and want each CV and cover letter to match the ad, a dedicated tool saves you a lot of work and checking. To compare more tools, see our overview of the best CV tools in Norway or our comparison Selja or JobStep.