The Truth About AI Resumes

I must get asked 20 times a day how AI is changing the resume business. People ask why make an investment of time and resources into creating a document that can be computer generated in less than 5 minutes.?

AI resume generators are all the rage, but let's talk about why they might not be your best bet for landing that dream job.

Your resume is meant to tell your career story. It is a way for those who don’t yet know you to draw connections between you and the position they are looking to fill. It's not just a list of jobs and dates; it's a narrative, a written story of your career journey, that showcases your unique journey, skills, and accomplishments.

Here's why a human-crafted resume wins every time:

• Authenticity: AI is not able to capture the nuances of your experiences and weave them into a compelling story that resonates with hiring managers.

“Almost everyone has the word Dynamic” says career coach Deanna Emberg. Another pitfall of ChatGPT resumes is the use of “excessive adjectives”, says data science leader William Reith.? “It thinks every bullet is the cure for cancer.”

• Emotional Intelligence: Humans understand the emotional undertones of career transitions. AI does not have the capabilities to craft a resume that is able to make connections through paper.

Jennifer Fink, career coach and owner of Fink Development, warns that some AI-generated resumes that she’s read have “sentences that kind of sound good, but don’t actually hold any substantive value. They are just a collection of buzz words strung together.”?

Executive resume writer, Adrienne Tom, added that having “no? specifics, no metrics, no context, and nothing that makes you unique” won’t get you anywhere.?

• Customization: Your resume should be targeted to each specific job you apply for, highlighting the skills and experiences most relevant to the role.

Recruiter, Kristen Fife, thinks AI can be a ?“great STARTING point” for crafting a compelling resume. She says that the “problem is that people are not EDITING the output.” Kristen also warns job seekers of the “purple prose” or “overly ornate text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors” She’s written extensively on AI prompts and has several helpful guides.

Ireland based resume writer, Gerald Luby, also warns job seekers that ChatGPT uses? Americanised spelling. This can be confusing if you are from a part of the world that uses British English.

• Strategic Storytelling: A skilled resume writer knows how to position your achievements to demonstrate impact and value.

“As a Master Resume Writer, I like to tell a story. ChatGPT falls short. Too much fluff! It takes an expert to listen to their client and flesh out nuances like personality, accomplishment stories, focus, etc. The creative process is missing.”-- Laura Slawson ?owner of the Creative Advantage

There are a lot of things that AI is really good at - and can save time and resources by doing quicker and more reliably, however writing your career story is not one of them.

Don't let your resume get lost in the sea of generic AI-generated documents. Invest in a human-crafted resume that truly reflects your personal brand and sets you apart from the competition.