With all of the different factors and considerations that go into job hunting, it can often feel overwhelming to land an interview with a good company. More than mock interviews, networking, or crawling through job posting after job posting, however, writing the perfect resume is something many people struggle with. Even if you have the skills, experience, and strengths necessary to flourish in a role, knowing how to communicate those things is another thing altogether.
And while many people worry about whether AI will eventually replace their jobs, using AI tools like ChatGPT to write and optimize your resume is becoming more and more common.
In this guide, we'll teach you how to leverage the power of ChatGPT to help you create a stellar resume tailored to your background. With thorough, plain-language explanations for each step, we'll cover how to optimize each section of an existing resume, write a new one altogether, avoid common AI-related pitfalls, and set yourself up for career success.
AI-Powered Resume Writing
Even for the most experienced professionals, resume writing can be a challenge. How, after all, can you be expected to shrink your entire identity and work experience into a single-page resume summary—a summary that only gets looked at for seven seconds, on average, by hiring managers?
Because of these constraints, job seekers often struggle to craft a resume that fully reflects their qualifications and merits, especially when relying on a generic resume template. By using the power of artificial intelligence, however, you can transform the resume writing process into something painless, effective, and even fun.
Understanding ChatGPT's Evolving Role in Resume Writing
Resume writing looks quite different today compared to even five years ago. Advanced AI systems like ChatGPT are facilitating a new era.
In years past, most job seekers relied on generic, cookie-cutter resume templates and their own writing abilities to craft a compelling application. Even for those who had the skills to do this successfully, formatting, tailoring a resume to each specific job description, and matching a company's values often took an exhausting amount of time and effort.
With ChatGPT’s AI capabilities, modern job seekers can save time and frustration by streamlining many resume-writing tasks. Specifically, ChatGPT's ability to interpret job descriptions and create text related to those descriptions can help you create a tailored resume for each company to which you apply.
Still, it's important to note that ChatGPT isn’t designed to fully replace human resume writing. Instead, consider it more like working with an especially dedicated professional resume writer. Together, the two of you can either work to build a new resume that captures your strengths and personality or refine a current resume into something more engaging.
By combining your human insights with the computational and formatting capabilities of AI, you can create a final product that's better than anything either you or ChatGPT could create on their own.
What Is ChatGPT and How Does It Work?
Before we get into the exact ways that you can use ChatGPT to write and optimize your resume, it's important to first understand what it is in general.
Short for “Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer,” ChatGPT was created by Anthropic, an AI safety startup. In creating the AI, Anthropic based their design on machine algorithms that they trained using millions of online conversations and an enormous set of data. By doing so, they succeeded in making an AI that can generate responses similar to what a human might write.
While users and developers are discovering new ways to use this technology with every passing day, some of the key abilities of ChatGPT are:
- Conversing in a natural, context-based manner
- Providing explanations and context for questions
- Admitting mistakes or lack of knowledge
- Compiling data or statistics
- Writing basic programming code
- Improving a user's written content
Altogether, these abilities make ChatGPT ideal for things like enhancing a professional resume summary or helping you fine-tune your resume achievements.
Depending on your needs and how you prompt or communicate with it, ChatGPT can do everything from interpreting job descriptions to analyzing your professional background and skills. Then, that same AI can rewrite your inputs into a more eloquent, professional summary.
That said, ChatGPT only performs as well as the information it's given, so knowing how to successfully prompt the AI is key to achieving your desired results.
Why Use ChatGPT for Resume Writing?
With job dissatisfaction at record highs and ongoing job market volatility, modern job seekers and career changers face significant hurdles to landing the position of their dreams. Because of this, creating a truly engaging resume is arguably more important than ever—and needs to do more than just list your skills or work history.
This is where ChatGPT comes in. Whether you're simply looking for help to write resume achievements or want more in-depth guidance to tailor your cover letter, ChatGPT can help. Here are some of the key ways that you can use ChatGPT to write an outstanding resume.
Extract Keywords from Job Descriptions
Often, job descriptions can reveal far more about what a company is seeking than you might think. When you copy and paste job description information directly into ChatGPT and then ask it to extract the most important keywords, it can set you up to include those keywords in your own writing.
This step can be especially critical, as an increasing number of companies have begun using applicant tracking systems that look for specific keywords in resumes and cover letters.
A sample prompt would be something like:
"Pretend you're a job seeker applying for a position with (insert company name here). Using the job description I provide, extract the most important keywords and terms. For each keyword or term, provide your logic for why you chose them. The job description is: (insert description here)."
Rewrite Descriptions Using Industry Terms
Once you've identified the most valuable keywords in a job posting, you can then ask ChatGPT to rewrite parts of your resume using those terms. By doing so, you can align your cover letter and resume summary with what a company is looking for. If you do this immediately after extracting keywords, you can even have ChatGPT reference its response from the previous prompt.
A sample prompt would be something like:
"Pretend you're a job seeker applying for a position with (insert company name here). Rewrite the following sections in a more professional, compelling tone. Use the keywords you extracted in the previous prompt to make the writing more engaging and effective. The sections to rewrite are: (copy and paste your writing here)."
If doing this without having extracted keywords with ChatGPT, a slightly different prompt would be:
"Pretend you're a job seeker applying for a position with (insert company name here). Rewrite the following sections in a more professional, compelling tone. Use keywords like (insert keywords here) to make the writing more engaging and effective. The sections to rewrite are: (copy and paste your writing here)."
Identify Relevant Transferable Skills
When changing careers or stepping into a job title with limited previous experience, it can seem challenging to "sell" yourself on a resume. With a simple ChatGPT prompt, you can identify transferable skills from your job history and then translate those skills into industry-specific language meant to land you an interview.
A sample prompt would be something like:
"Pretend you are changing careers and beginning a new role as a (insert role here). Using my existing resume, identify any transferable skills that might be relevant to this new role, then communicate those skills using professional, engaging language. The existing resume is (insert current resume here)."
Review for Any Errors
Once you've done the heavy lifting of designing and writing your resume, do a quick pass with ChatGPT to check for errors. These types of prompts are extraordinarily simple, but you should also scan them yourself to make sure that ChatGPT didn't miss anything. While the AI is typically very good at spotting spelling errors or grammar mistakes, it can sometimes get confused with long-form writing.
A sample error-checking prompt would look something like:
"Pretend you're an expert proofreader checking a professional resume for errors. Review the following text for grammar errors, misspellings, or any issues with consistency. The text is: (insert resume here)."
Can ChatGPT Do It All?
Again, it's crucial to remember that ChatGPT is simply a tool to enhance your own efforts, not a golden bullet for resume writing (or anything else). If, after experimenting with ChatGPT, you still feel like you'd like a bit more dedicated human support, consider looking into services like career coaching or advanced career testing.
JobTest.org, for example, offers both a mix of powerful AI and one-on-one career coaching sessions with our industry experts to help supercharge your job-hunting efforts.
Preparing to Use ChatGPT for Resume Writing
Before booting up ChatGPT and getting to work, there are some steps you should take to make sure you provide as much detail to the AI as possible.
Understand the Target Job Role
Whether it's one specific job or several different job postings, you should organize all the information you have about your dream position into one easy-to-understand document. This includes not only the job duties but also information about a company's values and goals.
Compile Your Career History
ChatGPT does its best work when you give it all the information and context it needs, so make sure to compile important details about yourself like:
- Past resumes, employee reviews, job descriptions, and awards
- Responsibilities and accomplishments from previous jobs (using specific numbers when possible)
- Skills that may be relevant to the intended role
- Previous companies you've worked for
Because ChatGPT only knows as much about you as you tell it, it's important to give it a full picture of who you are and why you would be a good fit for each potential job.
Set Expectations on ChatGPT's Capabilities
As you become more familiar with ChatGPT and what it can or can't do, it's important to remember that the AI has very real limitations as to what it can accomplish. While it can serve as an incredibly powerful tool with the right prompts and handling, it can never truly replace human thinking and creativity.
Additionally, it's vital to double-check ChatGPT's responses to make sure it hasn't given outdated, inaccurate, or exaggerated information. While this is less and less common as the AI continues to be updated, it's still very possible. You should always independently confirm specific numbers and details before submitting a resume.
If, after using ChatGPT to create a resume, you find you still want a bit more help and guidance, consider reaching out to a career coach or testing service for even more insight and personalized advice.
Optimizing Individual Resume Sections with ChatGPT
With your background information and job description ready, you're ready to start assembling your resume. As you do, follow these tips to optimize each resume section using ChatGPT:
Choose the Most Effective Format
Often, the format of your resume can be just as important as its contents. When you only have those seven seconds with a hiring professional’s attention, it's crucial to use an eye-catching format.
To achieve this, a sample prompt would be something like:
"Based on my background in (your field), should I use a reverse chronological or functional resume format for (target role/company)?"
Craft a Compelling Career Objective
Once you've given ChatGPT your background, personal details, and a description of your intended new job, it can help you create a more compelling personal profile or mission statement.
A sample prompt would be something like:
"Using the information I provide, write a clear, professional person’s profile highlighting my relevant skills, experiences, and strengths for a (target role) position at (target company)."
After ChatGPT has given you its output, tweak and refine it by hand to ensure it aligns with your values and history.
Expand on Work Experience and Achievements
As we mentioned earlier, giving ChatGPT specific numbers and statistics related to your work history and achievements can greatly improve its output.
A sample prompt to incorporate statistics would be something like:
"Rewrite this resume to incorporate the following statistics, numbers, and achievements: (include data here). The section to rewrite is: (include section here).
Highlight Your Skills and Competencies
If you're unsure how to translate your work experience into the hard skills and strengths needed to land a specific role, you can use ChatGPT.
A sample prompt would be something like:
"Using the resume I've supplied, what are the skills or competencies that would transfer best into my new role as an (insert position here)?
Navigating Common Mistakes and Challenges
Outside of support from a career coach or other human-based service, ChatGPT is one of the most powerful tools a job seeker could have. Even so, it's important to keep in mind the potential mistakes and pitfalls associated with using AI. As you continue to use ChatGPT, make sure to:
- Not over-optimize your resume using forced, unnatural keywords.
- Avoid exaggerating or over-embellishing your experience to sound more impressive. When left to its own devices, ChatGPT can also do this, so always double-check.
- Review everything ChatGPT produces to make sure that the details are correct.
- Add your own personality to the writing. ChatGPT can make things more eloquent, but your voice still matters.
- Triple-check formatting and outlines to make sure nothing has been lost during the creation process.
Embracing the Future of Job Applications
Whether you choose to use it or not, advanced AI like ChatGPT has revolutionized the way we write resumes. When used intelligently and strategically, this technology can help you optimize your resume's format and the way you communicate your personality, achievements, and skills.
To make the most of this revolution, however, it's important to first have a clear picture of who you are and what you want out of your professional life. If you need help with that piece of the job hunt, JobTest.org's advanced career test can give you powerful, crystal-clear insights into your work personality and values. Once you have that information, it can be used to polish and refine your resume and overall job search even further.
The future of resume writing is here—all that's left is to embrace it.
Taking the Next Step: From ChatGPT Resume to Career Path
Now that you've crafted an amazing resume using the power of ChatGPT, it's time to go out and land your dream job. For those who want to arm themselves with even more tools and information, however, the right career assessment or coach can make all the difference in the world.
With JobTest.org's powerful, AI-fueled career test options, you can gather the insights and perspectives you need to find greater success in your job hunt. With a careful balance of compassion and computing, we blend the best that technology has to offer with human, time-tested methods to get you the best results possible.
From help from our career coaches with interview prep and knowing your values to new methods of "selling" yourself, we'll be there every step of the way until your first day at your dream job.
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