In a striking example of how artificial intelligence is reshaping career pathways, Indian-origin product manager Amar Saurabh has secured a lead role at PayPal after building a custom GPT to assist with his job search.
Based in San Mateo, California, Amar, who is in his 30s, previously spent five years at Meta and later worked at TikTok. While he found TikTok’s fast-paced environment exciting, he began seeking a more stable role in the US tech ecosystem and started applying for new opportunities in April.
Turning frustration into innovation
Initially, the process was slow. Amar told Business Insider that despite applying consistently for two months, he landed only a handful of interviews. Although he used ChatGPT to draft recruiter messages and tweak his résumé, the outputs were often generic or mixed up details.
Frustrated, he decided to take a different approach. Using ChatGPT’s custom GPT feature, Amar built a personalised AI assistant called PM Job Search Advisor. He uploaded his résumé, LinkedIn profile and project details, and defined his goal of targeting senior product management roles.
“It took about an hour and a half to set up,” he said, “but once ready, it became incredibly useful.”
From applications to offers
The custom GPT helped tailor his résumé for specific roles, draft personalised recruiter messages, and prepare for interviews by highlighting relevant experience and predicting likely questions. Within two months, Amar noticed a sharp increase in responses, even though the number of applications he sent remained the same.
After interviewing with companies including Reddit and Intuit, Amar joined PayPal as a lead product manager. He even used the GPT to help negotiate his salary offer.
Now settled into his new role, Amar believes custom GPTs could become a powerful tool for job seekers. “The benefits are huge,” he said, adding that his next goal is to automate job applications using the system.