Simple 5-Step ChatGPT Resume Writing Guide

It feels like job applications should include ‘writing an amazing resume’ under necessary skills and experience. Crafting the perfect resume can make you feel like you’re writing in a different language. It’s super disheartening to spend hours tailoring your resume to various positions but never getting any job interviews. You have the proficiencies, education and experience, yet you don’t hear back from hiring managers.

We’re here to let you in on a secret (well, maybe it’s not so secret). Most employers use AI to make hiring decisions. According to a February 2022 survey from the Society of Human Resources Management, 79% of employers use AI and/or automation to hire and recruit. You’ve heard the expression, don’t fight fire with fire, but here at AddictiveTips, we believe you can (and should) fight AI with AI. That is, leverage AI to help you get hired the same way your future employer uses AI to hire you.

To help you get your dream job, we’ve compiled a list of five tips that will help you build the best resume. Once you’ve gotten ChatGPT’s help with your resume, maybe you can use it to hone your Excel Skills. Don’t give us that look… We’ve all exaggerated our Excel proficiency.

1. Find A Job And Make Sure Your Resume Is Up-To-Date 

First and foremost, you’ll need to find a job to apply for. For the sake of this article, the writer found a Senior Copywriter job description for a large marketing and communications agency.

Here is what they’re looking for:

“Day-to-day responsibilities include: 

• Generate strong concepts and champion ideas with enthusiasm.
• Apply your love of words and exceptional language skills to create compelling copy for integrated campaign work.
• Present concepts and rationale to key clients.
• Work closely with other members of the creative team, strategists, account group and everyone else involved in creating great work.

What You Bring to the Table:

• 4+ years experience in an agency environment
• Experience with big, national or global brands
• 360 campaign experience with a strong digital lens
• Strong strategic and conceptual thinking – as demonstrated by your portfolio
• Natural ability to present ideas in an inspiring and persuasive manner to both internal and external stakeholders
• Exceptional people skills
• Up to date on the latest social trends and marketing technology.”

Now, take your resume, and ensure it’s updated with your most recent experience. You can remove your name, address and education since you won’t need ChatGPT to optimize that. Please don’t ask it to optimize what university you went to; it won’t bode well for you. Employers have ways of figuring out whether or not you went to Harvard.

2. Personalize Your Resume

Like snowflakes and fingerprints, every job application is unique and special. The same should go for your resume. If you send the exact same resume to every job application, it should come as no surprise that you’re not hearing back from any hiring managers. But we get it. It’s tricky to tailor your resume according to different specifications from different employers. This differentiation is where ChatGPT comes in handy. Copy and paste your resume into the platform and ask it to rewrite and tailor it to the job description. See the prompts highlighted in grey below:

3. Make Tweaks

Have a read-through of your revised resume. Like a pop quiz, ChatGPT will need you to fill in many blanks, including job titles, employment dates, contact information, etc.

Your resume won’t be perfect in this first round. Luckily, we can use ChatGPT to make further edits.

Here are a few great ways you can optimize your resume using ChatGPT:

• Make your resume fit on one page.
• Add more metrics with measurable outcomes.
• Add more specific skills.

It should go without saying that you will need to adjust the metrics and skills so that they reflect your actual experience. We’re not suggesting or condoning using ChatGPT to lie on your resume because this will come back to haunt you once you start the job. Have you ever seen the TV show Suits? Proceed with caution!

4. Boost Your Bullets

According to Austin Belcak of Cultivated Culture, the highest-performing formula for bullet points on resumes is as follows:

• 12-20 Words
• 35% hard/soft skills
• 35% common words
• 15% action words
• 15% measurable metrics

With this formula in mind, use ChatGPT to perfect all the bullet points on your resume.

Copy and paste any bullet point from your resume and ask ChatGPT to make changes according to the formula.

If you’re unhappy with ChatGPT’s answer, simply click regenerate response or change your prompt until you’re content with the revised bullet. Rinse and repeat!

5. Get Out Your Fine-Toothed Comb

Once you’re happy with all the individual bullet points, you might have a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster of a resume. Compile all optimized bullets properly, ensuring they’re all under the right headings (Experience, Skills etc.). You should also use a customizable template so your resume is nicely laid out and easy to read. Once everything is in its right place, proofread it to ensure it’s grammatically correct. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, you can also use another AI program like Grammarly to help you with this.

While proofreading for grammar, make sure your ChatGPT-enhanced resume paints an accurate picture of you because resumes are only the first step in getting the job. Remember, when you get the job interview, you will have to back up everything on your resume. You might even have to complete assignments before your future employer is ready to hire you, so don’t let ChatGPT optimize your resume so much that it’s selling a completely different version of you. This means making sure all of the measurable metrics are accurate and you can prove their accuracy.

Also, double-check that you actually possess the skills your resume says you do. For example, if ChatGPT says you’re proficient with a program you’ve never heard of, hit that backspace key and remove that bullet point. Then again, as aforementioned, you could always use ChatGPT to hone your skills before the interview. However, that’s another article for another day.

Happy job hunting, we hope this guide helps you out on your search!

Want more ChatGPT tips? See our other articles like How To Use AI and ChatGPT to Improve Your Writing and 4 Tips on How to Use AI at School to Level Up.