You need to research the company, create a strong answer to “Tell me about yourself,” and practise three interview questions.

You could ask ChatGPT to do all three tasks, but using exactly the same approach for every task may not give you the best results.

The secret is learning which ChatGPT intelligence level and feature are best suited to the job.

This is the focus of your first ChatGPT challenge.

Before You Begin

When you open ChatGPT, you may see different options for how you want to work.

Chat is designed for everyday tasks such as asking questions, writing and editing content, brainstorming ideas, summarising information and carrying out research.

Work is designed for more advanced and specialised workflows that may require additional settings and capabilities.

For this lesson, we will focus mainly on Chat, because it covers many of the tasks most people perform every day.

Understanding ChatGPT’s Intelligence Levels

ChatGPT uses different levels of reasoning to determine how much effort it puts into solving a task.

Depending on your plan and the current version of ChatGPT, you may see options such as:

Instant — designed for fast answers and everyday tasks.
Medium — provides more reasoning for tasks that require additional analysis.
High — designed for complex, detailed and multi-step tasks.

The exact models, names and availability can change over time, so your ChatGPT interface may look different from someone else’s.

The important thing is not memorising model names.

What matters is understanding how much reasoning your task requires.

Think of Intelligence as Different Gears

Imagine driving a car.

You don’t use the highest gear for every situation. You choose the gear that matches the road.

ChatGPT works in a similar way.

Instant: Fast and simple tasks
Medium: Tasks requiring moderate analysis
High: Complex, multi-step tasks requiring deeper reasoning

Some versions of ChatGPT can also automatically increase the amount of reasoning when a task becomes more complicated.

Your First Challenge

Suppose you urgently need a short professional summary for your CV.

You don’t necessarily need an extremely complex analysis. You need ChatGPT to understand your experience and produce a useful result quickly.

However, imagine that you are developing an entire career strategy involving your CV, job applications, interview preparation, company research and salary negotiation.

That is a much larger, multi-step task.

In that situation, a higher reasoning level may be more useful.

First Discovery

Don’t automatically choose the most powerful option.

Instead, ask yourself:

How difficult is this task, and how much reasoning does it require?

That simple question can help you work more efficiently with ChatGPT.

Feature 1: Web Search

Web Search allows ChatGPT to find current information on the internet.

This is especially useful when information may have changed recently.

For example, you can use Web Search for:

Company research
Current news
Recent business developments
Product launches
Current prices or market information
Recent announcements

Example

If you are preparing for an interview with a company, you could ask ChatGPT to research the company’s latest announcements and major developments.

Because the information may have changed recently, Web Search is more appropriate than relying only on existing knowledge.

Feature 2: Deep Research

Deep Research is designed for more complicated research projects.

Instead of simply answering a quick question, it can investigate information across multiple sources and produce a structured report.

It can be useful for:

Market research
Competitive analysis
Literature reviews
Industry research
Business strategy
Detailed decision-making
Comprehensive reports

Example

If you simply want to know what a company does, Web Search may be enough.

But if you want to compare that company with five competitors, analyse its industry, identify market trends and prepare a detailed report, Deep Research may be the better choice.

Feature 3: Add Photos & Files

ChatGPT can also work with files and images that you upload.

Depending on the capabilities available in your ChatGPT version, you can upload:

PDFs
Word documents
Spreadsheets
Presentations
Images
Screenshots
Text documents

You can then ask ChatGPT to analyse or work with the information.

For example, you could:

Upload your CV and ask for improvements.
Upload a PDF and request a summary.
Upload a spreadsheet and ask for data analysis.
Upload a presentation and ask for key points.
Upload a screenshot and ask what it shows.
Compare two documents and identify differences.

This can save a significant amount of time when working with large amounts of information.

Feature 4: Create Images

ChatGPT can also help create and edit images.

You can describe the visual you want, and ChatGPT can generate an image based on your instructions.

This can be useful for:

Social media graphics
Presentation visuals
Marketing materials
Brand concepts
Illustrations
Creative projects
Website graphics

For example, a business owner could request a professional promotional image for a new product or campaign.

What Is the OpenAI Platform?

You may also come across the OpenAI Platform.

This is different from simply using ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is the ready-to-use application where you interact with AI.

The OpenAI Platform provides developer tools and APIs that allow developers and businesses to build AI-powered applications, services and workflows.

In simple terms:

ChatGPT = use AI directly.

OpenAI Platform = build with AI.

Other Tools and Features

Depending on your account and the current ChatGPT interface, you may also find additional tools, files, apps, skills or specialised features.

These can provide additional capabilities for tasks such as studying, learning, research, productivity and other specialised workflows.

The key lesson is simple:

Don’t just ask ChatGPT a question. Think about which tool can help you get the best answer.

Match the Tool to the Task

Now let’s return to our job interview example.

Suppose you want a quick overview of a company’s corporate culture before your interview.

You could combine:

Instant + Web Search

Why?

The task is relatively straightforward, but you need current information.

Now suppose you want to conduct a detailed analysis of the company, its competitors, industry trends, recent developments and potential interview questions.

You might choose:

Higher Intelligence + Deep Research

The task is more complicated, so deeper reasoning and broader research can be more valuable.

The Real Skill: Combining Intelligence With Features

One of the most useful things you can learn is that intelligence level and features work together.

Think about it this way:

Your Task	Intelligence	Feature
Quick question	Instant	Chat
Current company information	Instant	Web Search
Improve your CV	Medium	Add Files
Analyse a spreadsheet	Medium	Add Files
Detailed market research	High	Deep Research
Create a marketing graphic	Instant/Medium	Image Creation
Complex business analysis	High	Deep Research + Files

The exact combination may vary depending on the task and the tools available in your version of ChatGPT.

Your Second Discovery

ChatGPT is not just a chatbot. It is a toolkit.

Different tools are designed for different jobs.

Use:

Web Search when you need current information.

Deep Research when you need comprehensive research.

Files & Photos when you need ChatGPT to analyse information you provide.

Image Creation when you need visual content.

OpenAI Platform when you want to build applications and workflows using AI.

And choose your intelligence level based on how much reasoning your task requires.

Key Takeaways

Here are the most important lessons from this challenge:

Match the intelligence level to the difficulty of the task.
Use Instant for quick, everyday work.
Use Medium when a task requires more analysis.
Use High for complex, multi-step tasks.
Use Web Search for current information.
Use Deep Research for detailed investigations.
Upload files when you need ChatGPT to analyse your documents or data.
Use Image Creation when you need visual content.
Use the OpenAI Platform when you want to build with AI.
Combine the right intelligence level with the right feature instead of using the same approach for everything.

The Big Lesson

Knowing how to write a good prompt is important.

But there is another skill that can make you much more effective with ChatGPT:

Knowing which tool to use before you start.

The better you understand the available tools, the faster you can turn ChatGPT from a simple question-and-answer system into a powerful assistant for research, work, learning, business and creativity.