How to Use AI to Write Your Résumé: A Complete Guide

Although artificial intelligence has lately been dominating news headlines in a rather fear-mongering fashion (“AI will steal your job” — it won’t… at least not yet, anyway), there is no denying how much it has positively contributed to the advancement of humanity, from as early as the 1950s.

Indeed, between analyzing bank transactions to detect (and prevent) fraud, recommending series and movies to next watch on Netflix, and finding the most efficient routes for our commute to work, AI has seamlessly been integrated into the fabric of our daily lives — and made them a whole lot better and easier in the process.

But the application of AI doesn’t stop there. It’s also a great — and often downplayed — tool to use in the marathon called the job search. That’s right: it can help you strategize your job-hunting efforts, prepare for job interviews and even write your résumé.

And that’s what this article is about: using AI to write a résumé that stands out and lands you your dream job.

What is artificial intelligence?

First things first: the burning question on many people’s lips who might be a little too embarrassed to ask out loud.

In very simple terms, artificial intelligence (or AI, for short) is technology that enables machines and computers to mimic human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities. It does this by processing large amounts of data through algorithms, learning patterns, and making predictions or decisions based on those patterns.

How can AI help you write your résumé?

Whether you’re writing a résumé from scratch or you’re fixing your existing one, it requires a lot of effort — and a deep understanding of résumé writing best practices as well as the ins and outs of applicant tracking systems. And that’s where artificial intelligence can be immensely helpful.

In fact, using a generative AI tool (basically a tool that creates AI-generated content, like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot or — perhaps the most famous example of all — ChatGPT) can make the whole résumé creation process a whole lot easier for you. And faster, too.

Specifically, AI-powered tools can help you put together a job-winning document by, among other things:

• Recommending an appropriate résumé format based on your experience and specific career situation
• Creating an outline to customize with your skills, experience and qualifications
• Suggesting keywords to include based on job descriptions and industry standards
• Advising you on ATS-compliance best practices
• Providing content suggestions for bullet points and even entire sections (including your summary and work experience sections)
• Recommending layout, formatting and style options
• Answering questions about the entire résumé-writing process (like “Should I mention that I was named Employee of the Month on my résumé?”)

Okay, but…

Should you use AI for résumé writing?

Much like the heated spicy debate surrounding the use of the Oxford comma (opposed by yours truly — most of the time, anyway), writing a résumé with AI has been met with raised eyebrows and controversy from users and commentators alike, particularly from an ethical standpoint.

After all, isn’t it just a form of plagiarism? Well, yes — if you’re just doing a simple copy-and-paste job. Then it is plagiarism (See: Stealing and cheating. Also: Highly discouraged.)

But that’s not how generative AI tools are intended to be used. They’re meant to help you write your résumé, not actually write it for you. And that’s because, beyond the whole cheating thing, a machine — no matter how advanced it is — can’t effectively capture your unique voice, personality, career journey and, most importantly, humanity.

Ultimately, it’s not a question of whether you should use AI-powered tools like ChatGPT to write your résumé — but rather how you should use them. Specifically, as a source for inspiration and guidance to write a first draft.

How to use AI to write your résumé

And now for the juicy bit: actually using AI to write your résumé. Here’s how!

Step 1: Gather your information

Before you set out to write your résumé (with or without the help of AI), it’s a good idea to first gather all the information you will need for the task at hand.

A great starting point is to compile a list of all your experiences, skills, qualifications and achievements, as well as your contact details, certifications and anything else for potential inclusion.

This is what we call in the industry a “master résumé”. Essentially: a simple document, free of formatting and stylistic choices, that catalogues your entire professional and educational journey in one place so you can choose relevant information to tailor your (final) résumé to the specific job you’re applying for.

It’s also a good idea to gather any relevant documents in a desktop folder, too, like your current résumé and cover letter, portfolio, and even performance reviews, as well as links to your LinkedIn profile, website and the job ad itself.

Why do this? Well, having everything on standby will save you the time and trouble of having to remember specific career details or locate important documents while you’re deep in the résumé creation process.

Step 2: Choose an AI tool

The internet is so crammed with generative AI tools (with more and more seemingly popping up every day) that you’re truly spoiled for choice.

Beyond the usual suspects (like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini), you’ll also find tools that are specifically intended for writing a résumé. This includes résumé builders like Rezi and Kickresume, which offer a selection of templates to use as the basis of your résumé and provide content suggestions to put it all together. That said, they usually lack the flexibility of more “traditional” generative AI tools — in the sense that you can’t “converse” with them to plan and optimize your job application documents.

Whichever tool you decide to use for résumé creation, though, it’s important to weigh your needs against the potential capabilities and limitations of the tools you’ve shortlisted. Equally important is to consider the tool’s reputation, output quality, accuracy, ease of use, security and even pricing (most AI tools work on a freemium model).

Step 3: Craft thoughtful prompts

This is the point where you actually start writing your résumé with AI, and it all begins with carefully crafted prompts — basically, questions or instructions that you feed into the generative AI’s interface to get responses.

The best kind of prompts are clear and specific, and they — above all — provide context to get the most relevant and useful responses. For example, simply telling the AI tool “I need help writing my résumé” will only provide you with general tips and advice. But if you also explain that you’re a recent graduate or you’re changing careers, the responses you’ll receive will be more tailored to your background, current situation, and career goals.

That said, crafting the perfect prompt might take a bit of trial and error. If you don’t get a response that you’re completely satisfied with, spend some time refining your initial prompt, asking follow-up questions, offering additional information and context, and clarifying exactly what you need.

Indeed, the more you “converse” with AI, the better it will perform and the better the results it will deliver — and the better at writing prompts you will get.

Step 4: Provide assets to ensure customization

Remember those documents and links you have on standby? Your current résumé and cover letter, performance reviews, portfolio, and all that? These are the assets you’ll need here.

When feeding prompts into the AI tool, you’ll want to provide as much detail and context as possible (as we discussed earlier), and this often involves providing relevant assets so that AI can really understand the assignment and work its magic.

You can either copy-and-paste the content of your documents directly into the tool’s text field along with your prompt, or simply add it as an attachment. (Most AI tools can “read” images, too, so you don’t really need to worry about file types.)

Once you submit everything, the AI tool will then scan the files and links you’ve provided, and finally personalize its responses as best as possible according to your specific needs and goals.

Step 5: Review and edit

One of the biggest misconceptions about using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools is that you’re meant to copy the content it suggests over to your résumé verbatim. But, as we touched upon earlier (and I will keep reminding you this), AI should act as a résumé-writing assistant, not a résumé writer.

(Side note: If you would like someone to write your résumé, then you might want to consider our professional résumé writing services. Yes, some self-promotion here. No, we’re not even sorry.)

Once AI responds to your prompts, the wise thing to do is to review and rework (or even fully rewrite) any content suggestions before copying them over to your résumé. Remember: even though AI is tailoring responses to your needs as much as possible (provided that your prompts are on point), it will never know you as much as you hopefully know yourself.

What does this mean? Only you can provide accurate numbers and stats as proof of your professional achievements, or effectively communicate your background, skills and expertise to potential employers.

Résumé writing AI prompt examples

We’ve broadly talked about AI writing prompts, but what are some good examples? Here are 10 to get you started:

1. Choosing a résumé format

2. Creating an outline

3. Finding keywords

4. Writing a career summary

5. Finding action verbs

6. Highlighting achievements

7. Listing skills

8. Asking general questions

9. Asking for feedback

10. Proofreading

AI résumé-writing best practices

We’ve discussed how it’s okay to use AI to write your résumé, and we’ve explored how to do just that. Now, let’s take a look at some final tips and best practices to keep in mind throughout the entire process:

• Don’t rely on AI to write your résumé. Remember: it should be used to guide you through the process — not do all the work for you. Be prepared to invest the same amount of time and effort you would if you were writing your résumé on your own.
• (Always) Provide the job description. This will help AI better tailor its responses to your prompts. (You can do this by providing the link, pasting the description into a prompt, or adding it as an attachment.)
• Have a conversation. The more you converse with AI, asking follow-up questions, asking for adjustments and referring to previous prompts, the more optimized AI’s responses will be. (Saying “please” and “thank you” is optional, but it just might mean you’ll survive the robot uprising, if it ever happens.)
• Verify information. No matter how helpful generative AI tools are, they’re not completely up to date. ChatGPT, for example, only has access to data up until 2022, which means it’s not aware of the latest résumé trends and ever-changing writing conventions.
• Proofread. Just as you would if you wrote a DIY résumé, it’s important to manually proofread your document before submitting it to potential employers. This includes double-checking employment dates and contact details as much as grammar and spelling.
• Ask for human feedback. Once you’ve finished your résumé, ask a friend, relative or résumé expert (some more shameless self-promotion) to go over it too, and get their feedback on any potential problems.

Key takeaways

Using AI to write your résumé is a pretty straightforward process once you get the hang of it, while it can transform an otherwise daunting task into a streamlined and efficient experience. The key, however, is to use AI thoughtfully.

To sum up:

• Gather your information. Compile a master résumé with all your experiences, skills and qualifications.
• Choose an AI tool. Select a reliable generative AI tool that meets your specific needs.
• Craft thoughtful prompts. Provide detailed and context-rich prompts for the best AI-generated responses.
• Review and edit. Customize and refine AI suggestions to ensure your résumé accurately represents you.
• Follow best practices. Continuously engage with AI, verify all information, and seek human feedback.

Got a question? Let us know in the comments section below!