How to make your resume AI-proof

“Stay.” That’s the way Washington Post recently described the job market – not particularly in crisis, but the labor force is shrinking, and hiring is anemic compared to the dramatic growth seen after the collapse of COVID. The unemployment rate in the US has risen from 3-4 percent in 2022-2024 and stayed around 4-5 percent for the past few years, with external shocks like taxes, wars, and the AI ​​revolution shaking many industries. Silicon Valley saw more than 123,000 layoffs this year, according to the report Forbeswith productive AI identified as the main reason for the cuts.

If AI is one of the problems causing the job market, it is also seen by some as the solution. More than half of job seekers are using AI to rewrite their resumes, according to LinkedIn research. Employers are increasingly willing to use AI to screen candidates, with nearly 90 percent using it for rating or re-screening, according to the World Economic Forum.

Making your resume and cover letter appealing to AI is a lot easier than trying to slip through hidden words or prompts like some job seekers have done (many employers now have software that catches those tricks, reports the New York Times).

Mashable has linked with a number of career experts on how to (ethically) get your resume to the top of a bunch of algorithms. Our first expert, Jasmine Escalera, PhD, is a career coach who advises recruiting companies like Zety and Bold. Escalera said keep it simple when it comes to your resume – and don’t forget that people’s eyes will eventually be on your CV. again cover letter.

So many people think that the AI ​​is doing the first pass. Is that true?

It may be so. We know that the job market is very crowded. We know it’s a very challenging job market. We’ve seen jobs posted on LinkedIn, and within hours, they’ve had hundreds of applicants.

AI, when used by a company, is a first-round filter – being able to say, out of these hundreds of applicants, which no HR person can go through alone, how can we find the best-fit applicants for the position?

So, in the second round, people, with individual eyes, can go into the best talent in this group and really see who can move on to the interview process.

So, yes, and I know that can be very frustrating for job seekers, but we also want to understand the hiring process. Because of the job market and how challenging it is becoming, HR and employers use it [AI] really sifting through a very large applicant pool.

Is there an argument to be made that AI is leveling the playing field? Instead of someone sifting through a bunch of CVs and seeing someone who went to their alma mater, it’s a computer that doesn’t have that bias.

Well, I remember when I was looking for a job back in the day, when these kinds of AI tools didn’t really exist – there were applicant tracking systems, but they didn’t work the way they do now. We were told, “Apply for a job on Monday morning or Sunday night, so that your application will be at the top of the list.” Or, “Do not use on these certain days.” We were trying to come up with workarounds to be seen.

Now, the inherent bias is removed from the event. Because everyone who is looking for a job now knows that they have to pass [Applicant Tracking System] and using AI to help them build resumes, it made it more difficult because now everybody knows what the keyword is, everybody knows what skills they need to build a resume, everybody can use AI to help generate more superstar characters to stand out with measurable metrics. It made it very challenging, which is why AI can be very helpful in sorting this out [for HR professionals].

But, in the end, it’s a filter. When you get to that person looking at your resume, they’re probably looking for something completely different than what the AI ​​was looking for. foundation, [at that point] they know that the applicant pool will be stellar, that these applicants may have all the knowledge and skills they set. [the AI to look] for. Now, what they want is the dividers. What distinguishes resumes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G? And those differentiators are usually things that AI can’t create for you.

Does AI have a bias against AI-created startups?

It really depends on whatever program the employer is using, and I don’t have enough experience to know if these AI programs that employers use have AI-generated resume traps. However, there is an AI that tells.

There are specific ways in which AI creates continuity that tells itself that AI just generated this whole thing. It’s a lot of broadening of the experience. They have many talks there; [the job descriptions make] you sound like you’ve been to the moon. There are many additional words and verbiage.

So we want to make sure that if you’re using AI, and I believe every job seeker should be using AI to support their resume building – support the key word – you have to go through and make sure that this feels human-made, there’s that human element to it, there’s storytelling involved. You can’t create a story-based resume that focuses on why you’re especially perfect for this campaign because, when you were 10, you baked cookies and sold them, and now you want to work for the Girl Scouts and sell and market their cookies.

There are so many sites that claim to help job seekers boost their AI resumes. Can those websites be trusted?

It’s about researching and looking at the different platforms you’re interested in and making sure other job seekers have used them and been successful with them. Just as you would buy any product, you will want to know if that product will give you the best bang for your buck. A job seeker should exercise the same caution when it comes to platforms that help them build their CVs.

The great things about Claude, ChatGPT, and AI in general, outside of AI builders, is that they can help you create these character experiences and skill sets. Some of these other AI builders are also designed to help you create a structure, layout, layout for your resume. That’s one thing to consider.

Cover letters are even more important now because that’s an opportunity to tell a story.

Any tips on how to make your resume stand out from the algorithms?

The first thing is to make sure you use the job description as a template for your resume. You want to make sure that the job description on your resume is very similar, meaning the word they use, that you use.

If you’re applying for a client success manager position, but using “customer success manager,” even that small keyword change will make a difference. Follow the job description to a T. Generally, whatever letters they have at the beginning of the job description are usually the most important things in the position, in terms of experience, knowledge, and showing that you can do those jobs.

A good thing to do is take that job description and put it into Claude or ChatGPT and ask them directly, “What keywords should I make sure are on the resume? What are the highlights or job duties that this job is asking me to focus on?”

We’re talking about resumes, but one of the biggest things people often ask me is, “Do you really need a cover letter?” People hate cover letters. And now, because resumes can be designed very well and done well with AI, I believe that cover letters are very important because that’s an opportunity to tell a story. That’s an opportunity to say why this organization is important to you.

And you want to think about those differentiators – what will make me stand out on a resume? Where can I add specific elements that will really communicate the mission of this organization, and how can I use my cover letter to tell my story and myself?

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This interview is edited for length and clarity.