Why You Shouldn’t Use AI to Write Your Resume
A lot of people are jumping on to the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon to write resumes, cover letters, and professional biographies. While AI may be all the rage, it isn’t intuitive enough to craft compelling career marketing documents that will get past applicant tracking systems and win interviews.
Keep reading to learn more about why you shouldn’t use AI to write your resume.
Just for the record, this isn’t a bash-artificial-intelligence journey. There will be resume prompts at the end which you can use to get the most out of ChatGPT, if you decide to use it.
What is ChatGPT?
Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is artificial intelligence that can provide hundreds (more if you pay for the premium version) of words based on a prompt you provide. There are a metric ton of artificial intelligence platforms out there; however, ChatGPT is the one that’s getting a lot of press lately because of its conversational nature.
ChatGPT was co-founded by Elon Musk and launched in November 2022. It’s being touted as the technology wave of the future for a lot of professionals, including those who seek new employment. However, the platform isn’t intuitive enough to fuse your experience, education, skills, and achievements with relevant keywords from a job description - at least, not without using the right resume prompts.
Remember the ATS?
Improperly using ChatGPT will likely leave your resume trapped in the applicant tracking system, because each resume you send should be tailored to a specific job. At the end of the day, the ATS can be a true thorn in your side because if it doesn’t find the keywords that the recruiter is looking for in your resume, your resume is likely to get overlooked. This means that the human beings at the company who make hiring decisions may not even know you exist.
When you can make your career history mirror the job description, you’re telling employers that you have what it takes to make the cut. You’ll be an asset to their team and fuel their success.
While customizing to each job to get past the ATS is a big reason to avoid using ChatGPT, there are other reasons, including:
Lack of creativity and personality
AI’s inability to recognize and leverage industry-specific jargon
Risk of plagiarism
Let’s look at those points in more detail.
ChatGPT is not very creative
The job market is a vast ocean of sameness - you must stand out from the crowd. You do this by showcasing your personal brand, as this is what makes you unique. Yes, your resume is supposed to represent your career history, but employers also need to get a sense of your personality. An artificial intelligence platform has no way of knowing how to align your personal brand with what employers are seeking.
Employers want candidates for a job to have the right technical skills (i.e., hard skills), but they also value soft skills. Soft skills reflect things like your values and work ethic to potential employers. When your resume is missing a sense of personality, the employer will have no way of knowing whether you fit within the culture of their company.
On top of missing out on reflecting on your personal brand, an AI-generated resume can leave a gaping hole in the text as it relates to what the company wants. Every company has unique requirements and qualifications; the one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it. When you take the time to align your resume with what the company wants, you demonstrate your commitment to that company and your ability to meet its needs.
ChatGPT doesn’t understand industry-specific jargon
You want to avoid using too much jargon in your resume, because of the potential for being unclear. On the other hand, every job in every industry has its own way of saying things. Using the correct language on your resume helps to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in a particular area. Industry-specific terms may not make it onto your resume if you use an artificial intelligence platform like ChatGPT to write your resume.
Think about how many different meanings there are to the acronym AP. In accounting, it means accounts payable, while in the tech field, it means access point. Depending on how it’s used in your resume, you could come across as not having a full understanding of the job.
Plagiarism can damage your professional reputation
You control what you type into the writing prompt on the ChatGPT platform. You don’t control what it generates. Since ChatGPT uses pre-existing data, there is a large possibility that the content will be the same as something else found online. A simple internet search about plagiarism in resumes will show you that recruiters and hiring managers do check applications for plagiarism.
What should you do instead?
Writing your resume can be a stress-inducing activity. It’s the first impression you make to a prospective employer and has to be written in a way that gets past the ATS and impresses a human being. Before jumping into writing, you should know what some of the most common resume-writing mistakes are so that you can avoid them.
Here are 4 common resume mistakes:
Too long
Your resume isn’t a dumping ground for everything you’ve ever done. It is a targeted marketing document that’s meant to speak to a specific job. As a general rule, keep your resume on one page if you have less than five years of experience, otherwise use two pages. The only time you should use three pages is if you’ve performed special research, have published a bunch of articles, frequently participate in public speaking events, or are writing a CV or federal resume.
Pro Tip: The most successful resume format is the reverse-chronological format.
No achievements
There isn’t a hiring manager alive who cares about every experience you’ve ever had. They want current, actionable content that shows how you make a difference for a company. Stick to detailing the last 10 years of experience and talk about things you did that show results. This is the time to break out the STAR method for writing resume points.
Typos and bad grammar
Believe it or not, the number of resumes floating around out there with simple mistakes is huge. The number of hiring managers who will instantly reject a resume because it has only one or two typos or bad grammar is huge, too. In fact, 77% feel that receiving a resume with typos and bad grammar is a deal breaker.
Over-generalising
Tailoring your resume to a particular job may seem to be the theme here, but it can’t be stated enough how important it is. Hiring managers and recruiters want to know that you can help them to solve their problems. When your resume isn’t customized to the job they have open, they don’t know what you bring to the table.
If you do use ChatGPT
As with anything, there is good and bad. The same holds true for ChatGPT. If it’s used properly, it can help you to word some parts of your resume. Remember, the most important thing about your resume is that it highlights relevant skills, experiences, and achievements – relevant being the keyword here.
It may have the entire world of knowledge in its grasp, but the system is not a mind reader. You have to be specific and clear about what you want. Here are some resume prompts that you can use in ChatGPT to help you get started:
To get a strong opening summary
In the ChatGPT prompt box, write details about your career, including how much experience you have, what you love about your career, and what you feel that you do that makes you the best.
Example AI resume prompt: I need a resume summary that expresses my passion for marketing and shows that I have 10 years of experience segmenting markets and bringing customers together with companies through robust differentiation plans
Of course, you’ll have to read through the paragraph that it generates to ensure the output matches your experience and tailor the keywords to the job to which you’re applying.
Identify your skills
In keeping with the marketing example, you could ask ChatGPT to make your skills list. Since ChatGPT is conversational, you don’t have to reiterate what you’ve already told it.
Example AI resume prompt: Can you identify some skills I need to include in my resume?
Again, be sure the skills that it generates matches your knowledge, education, experience, and relevant keywords from the job description.
Highlight achievements using action words
You can also use ChatGPT to craft bullet points surrounding your career. Remember to be specific. If you want to include an achievement, like “increased profits by 30%” you have to tell ChatGPT those details.
Example AI resume prompt: I need 3 bullets for my resume for a position I held as a Marketing Team Leader where I trained staff, created new strategies, expanded the territory to 3 new states, and increased profits by 30%
In closing
Yes, you can get a chatbot to write your resume for you; however, it will not get you to where you need to be in your career. The lack of creativity, personal branding, and customization is, in fact, the number one cause of resume rejection.
ZipJob has an amazing team of human resume writers. We will happily help you to navigate the path of your career journey. If you have a resume - whether written by yourself or AI - why not submit it for a free review?
Recommended reading:
Written by
Marsha Hebert, Professional Resume Writer
Marsha is a resume writer with a strong background in marketing and writing. After completing a Business Marketing degree, she discovered that she could combine her passion for writing with a natural talent for marketing. For more than 10 years, Marsha has helped companies and individuals market themselves. Read more advice from Marsha on ZipJob's blog.
