How to Use AI To Identify Your Strengths, with Shannon Bowen
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Each of us brings unique strengths to the table, and showing what you excel at makes you stand out to employers. When it comes down to the final two candidates, the offer often goes to the person the hiring manager can clearly picture in the role. Specificity wins. So how do you get that clear on what you offer? Find Your Dream Job guest expert Shannon Bowen of Monsoon Leadership says AI can help.
Shannon shares how to use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to pull strengths and themes from your own success stories, match keywords from job postings, and sharpen your interview answers with stronger verbs, statistics, and outcomes. She also reminds listeners that AI is just a mirror. The strengths are already within you; it simply reflects back what you know best.
About Our Guest:
- Shannon Bowen is a career coach and the founder of Monsoon Leadership.
Resources in This Episode:
- Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 560:
How to Use AI To Identify Your Strengths, with Shannon Bowen
Airdate: July 15, 2026
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.
I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.
Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.
Nobody is good at everything. Each of us has our own strengths. And showing what you excel at makes you stand out to employers.
Shannon Bowen is here to talk about how to use AI to identify your strengths.
She’s a career coach and the founder of Monsoon Leadership. Her company helps you ace your job search and get a bigger salary.
Well, let’s get started, Shannon. Why do you need to know your strengths before you start a job search?
Shannon Bowen:
You need to know your strengths so that you can position yourself both in your resume, your cover letter, and your LinkedIn. And I really think of those three combined because all three tell different parts of the same story, and your hiring manager is looking at all three in whatever order they see fit.
You never know quite in what order they’re looking at them. So you really want to position your strengths within your materials, but also in interviews. So you really want to be able to articulate what specific strengths you bring to the job.
Because a lot of times, what I see with clients is that if they get to the final two candidates and they didn’t get chosen, it’s often because the hiring manager just couldn’t picture them in the role because they weren’t specific enough. It’s like, I don’t feel like I really know them to choose them for that position.
So being able to articulate your specific strengths helps the hiring manager be like, I see exactly how this person fits in this role, and I can’t wait to hire them.
Mac Prichard:
What stops people from talking about their strengths and having that specificity that you say employers are looking for?
Shannon Bowen:
Well, I don’t think we’re walking around life being like, hi, I’m really good at cross-departmental synergy on complex projects. We don’t walk around doing that. So sometimes it can feel really awkward and forced and unnatural to do this in materials and in interviews. So I really like to work with my clients on really naming those strengths, owning those strengths.
And I really do feel like if you do that exercise, you also feel more confident in salary negotiation because you know what your expensive skills are and you know what they’re worth.
Mac Prichard:
What mistakes do you see job seekers make when they’re trying to figure out what their strengths are and also what strengths to emphasize when talking to an employer?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, I think a lot of people start with, well, I don’t have any strengths, or I don’t know. I’ve always just been part of a team. OK, but being part of the team and being the glue is actually a really important strength. As someone who’s hired a lot of teams and built a lot of teams from scratch, you don’t always need someone who’s going to be, you know, the person going out there and getting the leads and all that.
A misstep I see is people saying, I haven’t led that project. I’m not the front-facing person. I’m just the back office. But there is real strength in that. So how can we work together to articulate that? Because that might be exactly what that hiring manager is looking for.
Mac Prichard:
How specific do they need to be, Shannon? Because, as you said, sometimes people either don’t know what their strengths are, or they can sound vague. How can you avoid not only being vague, but also being specific in a way that is going to appeal to the employer you’re meeting with?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so I know we’re here to talk about how to use AI in your job search, and I do feel like AI is a really good tool for this. It’s very good at pulling out themes. So you can give it a whole gobbledegook of here’s all these things I did at work and here’s what I thought I did good at and it’ll repeat back to you.
A beautiful sentence about what the strengths are, what those themes are. Because really strengths are themes. They’re patterns and themes and skills and experiences you bring with you everywhere. So when I talk about the highlights of the qualification section in the resume, those are your core strengths. Doesn’t matter what your title is, you bring it with you everywhere.
I always tell my clients that one thing that I had on my resume for years and years and years was a creative risk taker. I’m never gonna do the same thing over and over again. I’m always gonna come up with an innovative new idea. And I wanted that to be clear on there because if you don’t like that, then I’m not your person. So, also being clear about your strengths helps people feel like they can just decide if this is the right alignment, if this is the right fit.
So AI can really help you articulate what those specific strengths are so that you are coming across as more specific in a job search and really creating that alignment.
Mac Prichard:
Well, let’s talk about how to do that, how to use AI tools to get to identify your strengths and talk about them in a persuasive way. How do you get started? Shannon, what’s a good first step?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so you know you can use ChatGPT, you can use Claude, you can use Gemini, whatever; we have multiple tools now.
So whatever one you feel most comfortable with. I have ChatGPT prompts in my DreamJob Power Pack for my clients because most people use Chat, but really, at this point, you have different options. So I’m gonna read the prompt that I’ve given to my clients. So if you’re really struggling to identify your strengths to highlight, you can write a summary of a specific success story you’re proud of from work and ask it to, from the story, tell me my professional strengths to highlight my resume.
And then the next prompt is: write a highlight of qualification bullet point that showcases my unique strengths, expertise, and approach to work from this story using this advice. Strong verbs to lead bullet points, incorporate statistics of success, and show outcomes.
Which is really the formula you want on your resume. That’s so what. Okay, I was good at this, and I created this outcome because that’s what the hiring manager wants. I wanna find that person who’s gonna solve my problems and create the outcomes I’m looking for.
Mac Prichard:
So how do you construct those prompts if you’re doing it on your own? What do you recommend that people focus on, and what other materials should they incorporate besides stories from their own careers? Should they, for example, look at job postings or materials from target employers?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so another great use of AI is putting the job description through it and saying, what are the keywords that I need to highlight in my resume? So in the beginning, it’s really a keyword matching exercise. You know, do you have the skills that they’re specifically looking for? And that’s the first step to get into that screening interview.
And I would say even more now with ATS scanners, and we’re in a very crowded job market right now. And so you really need to have that specific matching to be able to get to that first step of the screening interview. So, putting the job description through AI, and then also, if you would like to do it, you can put your resume through the job description through AI and say, how can I bolster my resume to make sure that it’s matching, but still sounds like me, right?
So you always with AI want to go through it and put it back in your own language. There are quirks that sound like AI. They love to start with a negative thing and then a positive at the end. They love to do the dashes and things like that.
So, you you want to kind of remove some of that so it doesn’t look like a robot wrote it, but it’ll help you to get started because I think a lot of people just struggle with where to begin with their resume and cover letter, especially if they’re coming from a toxic work environment or they’ve been in their search a really long time and they’re in a demoralized state.
Let the robot help you get started and really start to see your strengths and get your confidence back.
Mac Prichard:
So take that job posting for a position that you’re excited about. Ask your AI tool to identify keywords. Any tips about how to be specific about keywords? That sounds like such a general phrase.
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so I think with AI, you just wanna be as specific as possible. So when I first started using it, one of my colleagues said, the way I approach AI is I’m ordering the most specific hamburger of my life. So I want lettuce, no tomatoes, pickles, mustard, but only Dijon. So, really being specific about what you’re looking for will help you get the right result back. And sometimes…
AI, it’s just a robot. It doesn’t get it right the first time. So you have to prompt it again and say, actually, what I need you to do is this. And so I think that you really, sometimes people will get frustrated, and it doesn’t get there right away. Well, you might have to be more specific and prompt it a few more times.
Mac Prichard:
Okay, so get that list of keywords in the job posting, ask AI to take your resume and give you suggestions about how to incorporate those keywords into your resume. Any tips? You mentioned that people can look at material and detect that it’s AI-generated. Any traps that people should avoid when incorporating keywords into their resume?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, you don’t want it to be a keyword salad, right? So it still needs to feel like a human constructed these sentences. So you want your keywords in your highlights of qualifications and in your experience, but you still want the core of that bullet point to be about you and what you’ve done.
And that’s why I think starting with storytelling and getting those strengths pulled out, or doing something like Clifton StrengthsFinder, or there are a million strengths tests, something that you can at least start to identify what your top three to five strengths are that you want a hiring manager to know about you.
We’ll help you to then test it against the AI response and be like, did it actually do that? Or do I just sound like any old person, right? So you still want it to be very specific to you.
Mac Prichard:
Okay, well hold that thought. We’re going to take a break. Stay with us. When we come back, Shannon Bowen will continue to share her advice on how to use AI to identify your strengths.
We’re back in the Mac’s List Studio. I’m talking with Shannon Bowen.
She’s a career coach and the founder of Monsoon Leadership. Her company helps you ace your job search and get a bigger salary.
Shannon, before the break, we were talking about how to use AI tools to identify your strengths. And we talked in that first segment about the importance of knowing your strengths and the difference it can make, particularly when you get to that final round of candidates where it’s down to you and perhaps one or two other people.
And how AI tools, whatever your favorite one might be, can help you not only with your resume, but with storytelling too. Let’s talk more about storytelling. Give us more tips, Shannon, about how you can use AI to create stories that highlight your strengths and what are the best ways to use those stories.
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so you wanna use your stories both in your cover letter and in your interviews. So I do believe that the cover letter is a great vehicle for storytelling. You’ve kinda got those middle paragraphs that you can tell a specific story of. Many of my clients are fundraisers and nonprofits, so a specific donor story or a specific gift that you raised. Whereas you don’t really have space for that on the resume. So it’s nice to have that in the cover letter.
And then, of course, in interviews, you’re telling lots of specific stories. So you really want to practice those in advance because sometimes I see with my clients that say, I’m great at interviewing. And then we start getting into it. It’s like, okay, but there was no specificity in that story. There were no statistics. There was no highlighting of your strengths or no outcomes.
And so what happens is if you do a general answer, nobody really remembers it. And to get the job, you have to be memorable, right? So when that committee comes together to debrief the interviews,
They want to remember you and remember the specificity of your stories. So I do believe that AI can really help with that. You can write the rough draft of your stories, which I do think writing rough drafts of your stories works for a lot of people.
If you’re naturally more of a writer, you can write them first. You can put that into AI and say, you know, where was this vague? Did it have a measurable impact? Where can I add stronger verbs? Should I add a statistic here? Things like that. Instead of saying,
AI write me a write me in a story about securing a major gift. That’s not what it’s going to be good at. It’s good at strengthening what you have already put in there with specific prompts of how you want it strengthened, which is usually specificity, strong verbs, statistics, and outcomes.
Mac Prichard:
So those are the tactics that you need to use when creating and sharing your story. What are the key elements, Shannon, when you’re sitting down to write that draft of your story? I imagine one is the result, the problem you solved. What are other key elements that you encourage your clients to include when preparing that rough draft of their story?
Shannon Bowen:
Definitely, you want to have your shining moments, your big successes, the projects you led, the outcomes you created. But I actually think another category of stories you want to think about is how were you a good colleague? How were you a good teammate? You know, the curveball question that’s always thrown there is to tell us about a time you had a conflict with a coworker and the steps you took to resolve it.
Please write and practice that story. Because it’s hard to think of or tell me about a time a project that failed. So it’s harder to talk about these things that were sensitive and tough at the time. So I really like people to practice those through writing, put it through AI, and really try to help them shape those stories. But also about a time that you showed up as a great teammate, especially when you’re on a panel interview with people who will be on your team, or you may be supervising.
They want to know that you’re a safe and wonderful person to work with. And so that’s just as important as I had all this great success. So, really thinking about how you show up at work, what your approach is, and how you work with your team is also just as important.
Mac Prichard:
Every job is different, and everybody’s profession is different, but in your experience, are there common strengths that you need to highlight in your stories, whether it’s in your cover letter or your interviews, that everybody should walk into an interview room with, a kind of toolkit of stories that highlight the strengths that are going to get you the offer you want?
Shannon Bowen:
So definitely the strengths differ depending on your expertise and field. So that is very true. I think most hiring managers are looking for someone who’s confident in their skills. So some sort of leadership of a project, an assignment, or a meeting, something with a strong verb of led, managed, or facilitated, that’s always very attractive. Even if you’re an associate or coordinator level, you usually led something, even if it’s the team meeting each week with the agenda, right?
And so we really want to showcase any type of leadership that you have. But yeah, I think it does differ because sometimes you’re looking for someone who’s very data-driven. Sometimes you’re looking for someone who’s very creative, very relational.
But I think knowing what your core strengths are also helps you align your career with your strengths, which is that’s when you’re feeling in the groove of your career, because your strengths are aligned with what you’re doing.
But if you’re a super relational person and you’re stuck in a database job, that’s gonna feel like spiritual death. So, how do you really identify those strengths and do that career exploration so you’re building a career that actually aligns with your strengths and interests? And that will help you retain in your career.
Mac Prichard:
All right, so get clear about your strengths right from the start. And you mentioned earlier some tools like StrengthsFinder you can use to do that. And then you can use AI as a tool to, whether it’s getting the right keywords for your resume or cover letter, or helping you create these stories that you can share in cover letters or re-interviews.
Once you’ve done that work, both the clarity about your own strengths and you’ve created these stories and gotten feedback from AI, how do you recommend, especially before an interview, Shannon, practicing those stories?
Shannon Bowen:
Well, I believe in interview practice. Nobody was born being really good at interviews. They are artificial experiences, and they’re kind of awkward at times. So I really recommend people to practice, and I recommend people to practice the hardest question of all interviews, which is walk me through your career, and what made you excited to apply for this position?
Especially when you’ve been working 20-plus years, how do you summarize your whole career in a way that’s succinct and powerful and not utterly boring and meandering?
That’s a hard question. So I always have people practice that, and then I give them other sample questions to practice. And even if you’ve written them, practicing saying them because verbal is different from written, right? And you can use a voice recorder on your phone. You could call a friend.
Sometimes I have clients who like to record videos and send them to me for feedback, whatever modality works for you. But please practice because your confidence will grow.
I’ve had a client say the interview prep was a healing process because they were in a really toxic situation. But when they really started to talk about their strengths and their stories, they were like, I am really good at this. I was just in the wrong place. But now I’m ready to find the right place for me where my strengths can shine.
Mac Prichard:
What part does emphasizing your strengths and using AI as a tool, how can AI help you emphasize your strengths and walk you through your answer to that question, walk me through your career and why you’re excited about that job? What do you recommend to the people you coach?
Shannon Bowen:
Yeah, so you could put your answer in there and then ask things like, where can I add more statistics? Where did I forget to put outcomes? Where could this be tightened up? Things like that because sometimes people are like, okay, let me go back to when I graduated from college.
Well, actually, that doesn’t really quite matter for this job because maybe you were doing a different type of career. So, you know, I would tell people you could do it chronologically; you can do it thematically, but how do you tell this story that’s basically like every step has brought me here today because this is the right job for me right now? That’s what they want to walk away with.
So putting your kind of gobbledygook answer into AI, giving it some specific key questions of how to tighten it up and strengthen it. And you can even put in there, if I said this answer, what would a hiring manager walk away thinking about me? Which is something we do, so we do a career clarity assessment and then a report. And that’s one of the questions we put in there. Looking at your resume, here’s what a hiring manager would think.
This person is an applicant, and here are the questions they would have, and we give those to my coaching clients so that they can strengthen. You know, because if a question that they have is something you could easily explain well, then let’s just put that in there. But I do think that AI they they built it with a very friendly voice.
So it also helps you build your confidence if you’re really struggling with a toxic work environment, and maybe you’re feeling a little sensitive to start talking to another person about it. You can start putting your stories into AI and saying, how do I pull my strengths out of this? And it does help you build your confidence.
Mac Prichard:
Terrific. Well, I’ve enjoyed our conversation very much, Shannon. Now tell us what’s next for you.
Shannon Bowen:
Yes, so I do a dream job coaching process where I coach people through the job search process and teach salary negotiation at the end. That’s my favorite part. You know, let’s get you more money to align with what you deserve and what you need in your life right now.
So we go through the whole job search process. We have a career clarity assessment and report, tons of resources and tools, including chat, GPT prompts, and that will be opening up again May 1.
Mac Prichard:
Well, I know that our audience can learn more about you and your work by visiting your website monsoonleadership.com and you also invite audience members to connect with you on LinkedIn. When you do reach out to Shannon, please mention you heard or saw her on Find Your Dream Job.
Now, Shannon, given all the great tips you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want an audience member to remember about how to use AI to identify your strengths?
Shannon Bowen:
AI is just a mirror. The strengths are within you and you actually know best what your strengths are. It’s just a tool to mirror back what’s already inside you.
Mac Prichard:
Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job.
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Our sound engineer and editor is Megan Hattie Stahl. Our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.
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