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How to use ChatGPT to optimize your resume
Whether you’re seeking to launch your career or you’ve been in the labor market for decades, there’s one thing we can all agree on — creating a resume that attracts the eye of hiring managers is a challenge.
How to use ChatGPT to write: Cover letters | Code | Excel formulas | Essays
Landing a job that aligns with your qualifications and expectations is hard enough. You also have to sum up all your professional experiences and strengths in one application — and your CV or resume is the heart of that application.
The ideal resume is a concise one-page document that highlights your academic, professional, and leadership achievements. It’s as difficult to assemble as it sounds, but OpenAI’s ChatGPT can make the resume-building process much easier.
How ChatGPT can help build your resume
You can use ChatGPT to generate ideas and bullet points for your role from scratch or to refine and optimize your current points that are not hitting the mark. Beyond key points, the AI tool can help you answer questions about putting together your resume. Here’s how to get started.
Side note: I’m using ChatGPT, but you can use any AI chatbot — there are plenty of capable AI chatbots to choose from.
ChatGPT will help you with the text in your resume, but you’ll need to pick a template before you get started. The program you’re using to write the resume — such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Canva — will likely have a resume template already.
Also: How to use ChatGPT to digitize your handwritten notes for free
A quick Google search for resume templates will also bring up hundreds of editable templates you can import into your program of choice.
On April 1, 2024, OpenAI stopped requiring you to log in to ChatGPT. You can now access ChatGPT simply by visiting ChatGPT’s website. However, if you want to take advantage of certain perks, such as being able to revisit the chat later, analyzing PDFs, or digitizing hand-written notes, you need to sign up to access those features.
Also: How to use ChatGPT: Everything to know about using GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini
Signing up is easy. Go to OpenAI’s ChatGPT homepage and open an account by creating an OpenAI login or using your existing Google or Microsoft account. ChatGPT is free, so the sign-up process is simple, requiring no credit cards or obscure information.
If you want ChatGPT to generate text for your resume from scratch, just ask.
Whether you want the tool to generate your professional summary or an individual bullet, ask it directly. For example, I asked ChatGPT, “Can you write a short, professional resume summary about my role as a tech reporter?” Within seconds, it generated what you see in the screenshot below.
Although ChatGPT can create content ready to be copied and pasted into a resume, you should tweak the text so it is personalized to your experiences and doesn’t look like a chatbot wrote it.
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Employers want to learn about what makes you unique. The chatbot can only access generic content about your role without your assistance. You can also use the Custom Instructions feature to share details about your role and interests before you start writing so that ChatGPT can reference this information when outputting the text to give it a little more nuance.
Whether you already filled out the template before using ChatGPT’s assistance or have an existing resume you want to enhance, ChatGPT is a great resource for polishing up text.
All you have to do is copy and paste your text and ask ChatGPT to make it better.
Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT and other interesting alternatives to try
For example, I asked ChatGPT, “Can you make this resume bullet sound better: ‘I write stories about technology.'” Within seconds, it outputted an elaborate bullet point that incorporated a professional tone and made that simple sentence more complex, as seen in the screenshot above.
Once you get your result, you can always tell ChatGPT to tweak it further with prompts like, “Make it shorter” or “Can you include [additional details]?”
FAQs
How much does it cost for ChatGPT to write my resume?
ChatGPT is currently free to use regardless of what type of writing you use it for, which includes resume-building assistance.
How can ChatGPT help me with my resume?
ChatGPT can generate text for different parts of your resume, including your professional summary and individual bullet points for each experience.
Also: How to nail the ‘Do you have any questions for me?’ part of the interview
The chatbot can also help enhance your current resume by optimizing your text. If you have any questions about how to format your resume and what to include, ChatGPT can give you some answers.
What should I put in my resume?
Ideally, you want a resume to highlight all your career accomplishments. This can include any educational, professional, and leadership experiences that are meaningful to you. You should also include as much detail about your unique experiences to make you stand out from other applicants.
