Love or hate AI, it’s reshaping how we apply to jobs. Whereas almost a 3rd of job candidates assume AI is hurting their job search, based on current research from Profession Group Corporations, the identical report discovered 62% of candidates utilizing AI to put in writing a résumé, cowl letter, or writing pattern for a job utility—up from 32% simply six months in the past.
So when you can’t beat ‘em, how do you be part of them and use AI to put in writing résumés that stand out in a sea of purposes? Résumé writing specialists say it’s necessary to keep away from common pitfalls and know when a human contact is irreplaceable.
The place AI shines
The commonest resume errors job seekers make is overlooking the truth that they should make a very good impression on hiring managers who’re strangers, Marc Cenedella, founding CEO of Ladders, a résumé and profession companies firm, identified. Résumés must be clearly formatted and free from errors to assist these strangers focus their consideration on attending to know a candidate, what they’ve already carried out, and what they might do in a brand new position.
AI can assist with the “frequent, foolish errors that find yourself hurting [candidates] within the job search,” Cenedella mentioned. A few of these errors will be mounted by merely asking AI to reformat or proofread a résumé. AI packages may also assist change the tone or phrase decisions in a résumé to match what a sure firm is in search of.
For individuals trying to change jobs or enter a brand new area, AI may also make a very good profession coach, mentioned Dana Leavy-Detrick, founding father of Brooklyn Resume Studio. It could actually assist brainstorm new roles that match a candidate’s present ability set, and it might probably analyze job postings to anticipate how a candidate’s résumé will stack up towards the competitors.
AI could make it simpler than ever to create a refined résumé. However with so many candidates utilizing AI, résumé specialists emphasize that human perception continues to be obligatory for crafting a résumé that can stand out to hiring managers.
“What I’ve seen is that the ground of resumes has gone up,” mentioned Keith Wolf, cofounder and CEO of ResumeSpice, a résumé session service. He identified hiring managers are seeing extra “okay” résumés, these he’d fee a 5/10. “It’s very easy to go from a zero or two to a 5 [due to AI], however there are such a lot of fives,” he mentioned
Taking your résumé to the subsequent degree requires understanding the right way to differentiate your self with a human contact.
The place human perception issues
Though AI is evolving quickly it nonetheless can’t talk the complete expertise of a candidate the way in which a human-written résumé can. “There are at all times nuances about your area and about the way in which people discuss experiences that AI doesn’t fairly choose up on,” Cenedella mentioned.
Utilizing phrases that precisely describe a earlier position—fairly than simply the phrases AI would possibly provide you with—helps lend credibility to a job seeker’s utility. This concern about credibility and authenticity is especially related provided that as many as 10% of job seekers admit to having lied on their résumé, usually utilizing AI instruments like Open AI’s ChatGPT to take action, based on a current survey from AI Resume Builder of almost eight thousand U.S. adults.
“It’s fairly straightforward to identify when any individual’s used AI to simply throw in a bunch of key phrases and terminology that doesn’t actually relate to what we all know any individual at that degree can be doing,” Cenedella mentioned.
Past capturing the nuance and proper terminology utilized in a job seeker’s area, AI may additionally wrestle to maintain up with modifications in hiring processes. Recruiters’ preferences about résumé formatting and the varieties of applicant monitoring programs they use are at all times altering, Wolf mentioned, so it’s necessary to customise a résumé earlier than sending it out—even when utilizing AI.
Easy methods to leverage AI
For job seekers who need to use AI of their résumé writing course of, résumé specialists say it’s necessary to not anticipate its first try to be an ideal match for the job you’re making use of to. As a result of AI depends on aggregating preliminary info, “at finest, you’re sounding like what’s already on the market,” Leavy-Detrick mentioned.
One strategy to keep away from writing a generic résumé, Cenedella suggests, is to ask the AI program to reply questions—resembling, What are 10 items of recommendation for enhancing this résumé?—from the standpoint of a recruiter. By asking this system to behave as a recruiter of their area, job seekers can get extra focused solutions.
One other key piece of recommendation, Cenedella mentioned, is to ask AI to assist candidates quantify the affect that they had in earlier roles. “Each job in each area on planet Earth in 2025 will be described in numbers,” Cenedella added. Including these numbers is an efficient means to assist recruiters perceive a job seeker’s potential, and AI packages can recommend methods to seamlessly add these numbers into the résumé.
Above all, the résumé specialists recommended staying true to your personal story and experiences all through the job search, fairly than letting AI take the reins.
“On the finish of the day, what you’re doing is getting a narrative throughout,” Leavy-Detrick says. “You need to put your personal voice on it. Belief your personal voice, as a result of [AI] can’t inform that story for you.”
