If you are asking, “How can I use AI to improve my resume?” it is important to know most hiring managers can spot AI-generated resumes instantaneously. You can use ChatGPT, Claude, or another type of AI to improve your resume, but you need to know how to use it effectively.

AI can give you great pointers on how to improve your resume without using its exact wording. For example, it can suggest: “You can make this section stronger to directly show your managerial experience,” or “Fix this sentence — it is unclear.”

Read on to learn how to use AI to improve your resume, understand the do’s and don’ts, and end up with a resume that perfectly reflects you and your abilities during the job search process.

Should You Use ChatGPT to Improve Your Resume? 

Yes, you should use ChatGPT to help you improve your resume, but the key is in how you use it. You want to use it as a tool to improve what you already have, not as your complete resume creation solution.

Most people dislike the idea of writing resumes because they are clueless in effectively describing their accomplishments (it is difficult!), and/or struggle to write about themselves. Therefore, prompting ChatGPT or another type of AI agent allows you to come up with dynamic content, improve your verbs (always so important in resume writing!), and it can also help tailor your content to specific jobs. For example, if you are applying for a job at a garden center, you may want to include creative, relevant verbs in your resume like “cultivated” and “nurtured,” particularly if you have previous experience. 

Ultimately, it is important to remember you want to combine AI-generated content with your own editing and writing during the job searching process, whether you are a seasoned professional, when on the search for entry-level jobs, or when trying to land an internship.

Learn more: How to Choose a Career as a Teenager and How to Get an Internship in High School

Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT to Improve Your Resume

What are the pros and cons of using ChatGPT or another AI tool to learn how to improve your resume using AI? Let’s take a look. 

Pros

The biggest benefits of using AI to help you with your resume is likely the first one on our list, but read through our take on the benefits:

• Can help transform the blank page: There is nothing worse than blinking at a blank page. ChatGPT can turn a bunch of gibberish into full bullet point suggestions in seconds. Why not get something to work with instead of starting from scratch?
• Can elevate wording and bring clarity: You might use AI to communicate just a touch better than you did in your original resume, particularly when making words count. It is always worth it to improve those verbs!
• Can merge job description with resume: You can hit keywords more readily using keywords that applicant tracking systems (ATS) look for when scanning resumes.
• Save time and mental headaches: Most people equate writing resumes to medieval torture methods, have trouble describing their accomplishments, and/or struggle to write about themselves. This is one of the most beautiful uses of AI, because who wants to spend days agonizing over a resume?
• Gives you ideas for flow: AI can suggest seamless ways to move from point to point, particularly when ideas do not seem like they interrelate.

Cons

It is always important to consider the downsides of using AI, especially because the last thing you want is for it to be the reason it is costing you a potential job opportunity. 

• Sounds like AI: Hello, flat, boring bullet points! AI can make your resume sound just like a million other people’s AI-generated resumes. Without you, there is no spark. Also, it uses common words like “leveraged,” “optimized,” and “dynamic” that can signal to hiring managers that you are an AI user.
• Important details can get lost: AI will never understand your important contributions to sales meetings or the impact you made on your mentees. Do not let AI water down the details.
• Inflation can happen: AI doesn’t understand that you alone weren’t the reason the company earned $50 billion in annual earnings — it was a team effort. Therefore, do not let it inflate your responsibility/outcomes.

So, here is the bottom line: Do you still need a professional to help you with your resume? It is a good idea to have human involvement, and Campus to Career Crossroads has years of experience helping professionals just like you find jobs and crush interviews.

Learn more: What to Do at a Career Fair to Get an Interview

How to Use ChatGPT to Improve Your Resume

Let’s walk through how to use AI to improve your resume, from start to finish. 

Step 1: Give ChatGPT instructions and parameters.

First, fire up ChatGPT and prompt it with the following: You are an experienced resume writer in the [insert your industry/field]. Help me improve my resume for the following job: [insert the type of job you are considering].

Next, provide ChatGPT with the general landscape of your work experience, skills, and education. Here is an example of the next prompt: I’m an experienced engineering manager with twenty years at Monsanto. My first job was as a design engineer (2006-2009), then I became a senior design engineer (2009-2015), then became engineering manager in 2015, and I have held the same role till today. I manage three senior design engineers, have become a SolidWorks expert, and I actively train new engineers.

Step 2: Highlight sections of your resume to share.

Highlight the jobs in your existing resume (the work experience bullet points) and copy and paste one job at a time into ChatGPT or other AI source you use. Ask it to give you ideas for improvement. 

Here is the prompt: 

Please analyze the following job in my resume and add more detail, including my [insert: special projects, sales metrics, improvements you made (to anything), achievements, certifications, awards, professional development, technical skills, leadership roles, and more].

Financial Advisory Firm financial advisor, January 2023-present

• Challenge, inspire and motivate a successful team to achieve $50 million in new client referrals.
• Provided outstanding customer service, exceeding quality standards for customer satisfaction. 
• Critically analyze customer needs and convey information and ideas professionally to diverse individuals and groups through presentation of words, actions, and documentation.  
• Develop superior marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems to drive millions in results. 
• Demonstrate use of economic and accounting principles/practices, financial market/investment industry analysis, and succinct/accurate reporting of financial data. 

You might see some holes with this resume piece as-is. Be specific. If you think about your specific contributions over time, you could add incredible color to this section of your resume. ChatGPT will likely give you some great options in highlighting these areas by incorporating and sharpening it. 

Learn more: Is it Better to Apply on LinkedIn or a Company Website?

Step 3: Identify and incorporate keywords from the job ad.

Paste the keywords from the job ad, such as these key skills from this actual posting:

• Ability to read and interpret blueprints and specs
• Skilled in plumbing and hydronic systems
• Proficient in soldering, no-hub cast iron, and mechanical piping
• Strong teamwork, communication, and leadership mindset

Here is the prompt [paste it in directly after you incorporate the prompt]: Now, please incorporate this job description information by sprinkling in keywords throughout.

ChatGPT will pull in the keywords from the job ad to signal to hiring managers that you have the skills necessary to do a fantastic job in that role, but review ChatGPT’s output to ensure every detail accurately reflects your experience.

Step 4: Review for content and AI signals.

ChatGPT gives itself creative license, which also means it can report inaccurate or irrelevant information. You cannot always use everything it spits out, because it might also be a bit of a fib. You want to ensure it exactly matches your job history and skills

Also, if it sounds too AI-generated, that is when you want to step in with your own writing to fix it. If it sounds sanitized or not personalized, you will need to fix that. You want to sound unique, not like — well, like an AI bot.

For example, if you see the word “quietly” in a resume, you can be sure it’s AI-generated. AI loves that word!

Step 5: Have AI write a summary of you.

At Campus to Career Crossroads, we include a client summary at the top of every resume, which uniquely summarizes you, your skills, your capabilities, your goals for the future. We listen to every client and take to heart everything you tell us. It helps us craft a perfect summary and narrative. 

However, it is helpful to have AI write a summary of your qualifications and talents so you can get an outside perspective looking in on your capabilities. Sometimes the information is highly illuminating! It can help you write your own personal narrative. Again, do not use the complete AI description. You want this to be all about you, in your own language. Then, once you are done with that, paste it under your name and information. Check with Campus to Career Crossroads to learn more about the best way to create that summary. 

Step 6: Have Campus to Career Crossroads look over your resume.

You can skip all the steps above and have Campus to Career Crossroads create your resume. We love helping you craft your narrative and give you tips and techniques for best practices. Jason is an active member of the National Resume Writers’ Association and has more than four years of experience in high-level talent acquisition in retained executive search prior to starting Campus to Career Crossroads. 

Learn more: What to Do on the First Day of Your Internship

Use AI to Improve Your Resume: Carefully!

The most worrisome part of using AI to craft your resume is the potential to water it down or make it look similar to the hundreds of others in the stack alongside yours. However, AI can do a lot to help you summarize, outline, and give you ideas. Just ensure you utilize it in the best ways professionally, and we can help you walk that fine line between “pleasing the bots” and enhancing your personal brand. Reach out to Campus to Career Crossroads to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Still asking, “So, how to use AI to improve my resume?” — read on for more information.

Do employers check for AI on resumes?

Employers are usually more concerned about your relevant experience and expertise for the job, but it is possible for AI to water down your experience. Also, many resumes get filtered by ATS tools right away, which search for keywords and formats. Therefore, companies may already eliminate the person-to-person connection between applicants and their resumes. This makes it even more important to consider asking for help from Campus to Career Crossroads, which can ensure your resume has the right keywords essential for the job. 

What is the 30-second rule for a resume?

The 30-second rule for a resume states (very accurately) that employers take only 30 seconds to review your resume. Therefore, your resume must be clean, structured, and showcase your highlighted accomplishments right away. You have very little time to share that you have what it takes to get the job with an employer, so it must be clear immediately. 

What are the five P’s of a resume?

The five P’s are positioning (who you are, why you fit into the company, and whether you will meet the employer’s needs), personal branding, pitch (the way you present yourself using your resume as a marketing document), presentation (the visual experience of your resume), and professionalism (an error-free resume). We always run our resumes through a checklist that reflects these characteristics.