How to create a resume with ChatGPT

Even strong writers struggle to find the right words to fill a blank page. But when that blank page is a draft of your resume, you need to find a way to jumpstart the writing process — especially if your job search has a ticking clock.

When drafting your resume, it’s paramount to choose each word carefully. After all, it’s likely the first touchpoint between you and hiring managers. A well-written resume sets a strong foundation for your candidacy and might just be what persuades a company to invite you for an interview. 

Not everyone is a natural wordsmith. That’s okay. Instead of staring down the blinking text cursor pondering action verbs and compelling skills, try delegating some work to artificial intelligence (AI). That’s right: you can ask a robot to help you write your resume.

AI tools can analyze a job posting, brainstorm ways to tailor your experience to the role at hand, and keep language professional and efficient. But AI chatbots like ChatGPT are far from perfect, so copy-pasting an AI-generated resume word-for-word isn’t the best use of this tool. To create an effective ChatGPT resume, you must learn to leverage AI for its efficiency while maintaining your unique voice. 

What’s ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool developed by OpenAI. The AI language model can understand and generate human-like conversations because it draws from a data set developed by human AI trainers and approved online content.

ChatGPT has various professional abilities, including summarizing reports, drafting emails, and breaking projects into to-do lists. Likewise, it can work as a cover letter generator, help you prepare for interview questions, and brainstorm how to represent your personal branding. 

When it comes to crafting the perfect resume to land your dream job, ChatGPT is capable of assisting with:

• Choosing a resume template and guiding the overall structure

• Providing industry-appropriate suggestions based on your relevant skills, work experience, and know-how

• Drafting an objective or summary statement that highlights your best qualifications

• Analyzing the position’s requirements and identifying your key competencies

• Suggesting ways to include education, certifications, and extracurricular activities to show off your soft skills

• Inserting industry-specific keywords and terminology to optimize your resume for applicant tracking systems

• Writing concise and engaging descriptions about your previous roles to showcase accomplishments and professional growth

How to write a resume using ChatGPT

To write a resume using ChatGPT, you must provide the chatbot with a prompt (the instructions you tell the AI to elicit your desired response). But crafting the perfect prompt takes careful thought and consideration — it’s not as simple as asking the program to spit out a resume.

Here’s how to create a resume prompt for ChatGPT: 

1. Prepare your information

Start by compiling all of your professional information. Jot down the following details about you:

• Full contact details, including a professional email address and phone number
• Work experience, relevant skills, and a brief description of your roles and responsibilities and the key achievements in each role. Provide metrics for work achievements, if possible.
• Education information, including years of study, degree(s), certifications, and any honors or awards
• Skills relevant to the job postings’ requisites and responsibilities
• A copy or key highlights of the job posting, including the description of the role, ideal candidate, and company culture
  

2. Begin the prompt 

With your information handy, build out the prompt. Start by providing the chatbot with the information shared in the post for the open position. 

I need help drafting my resume. Please emphasize my most relevant education, experiences, and skills to align with the job requirements and responsibilities in the job description. Here’s a copy/summary of the posting: [Insert job posting].

3. Insert your personal details

Next, include the personal and professional information you assembled in step one. It’s key to organize these details in a way that’s easy for the chatbot to read and understand. To avoid errors, separate your contact details, skills, education, experience, and extracurriculars into different sections. Use concise paragraphs and bulleted lists to explore each section in greater depth. 

This is the personal information I’d like to include in my resume: 

• Contact information: Include your name, phone number, email address, and any other relevant professional platforms (such as a LinkedIn profile or portfolio website).

• Work experience: Summarize your relevant professional experience while keeping things concise. When deciding how far back to go, we suggest leaving out jobs from more than 15 years ago and roles irrelevant to the open position. 

• Education: State the year you graduated, your degree(s), the institution(s) you studied at, and any academic accomplishments. These include an impressive GPA, scholarships, and relevant certificates.

• Extracurriculars and achievements: Share any work or experiences relevant to the position in and out of the professional world. Volunteering, industry awards, and special projects all qualify.

4. Provide pointers

Finally, establish additional guidelines to help you meet the hiring company’s expectations. This is also a great opportunity to ask the chatbot for additional assistance in areas of writing you struggle with. For example:

• Tell me: How should I organize this resume?

• Suggest 15 action verbs with use case examples to describe my accomplishments and work experiences

• Provide me with a list of 10 other valuable soft skills for this role

• Rewrite this section using professional language

• Provide me with two options: a functional resume and a chronological resume

• Create three options for a possible personal brand statement or resume summary that leverages my best skills against the job’s top requisites

• Based on my resume, what are 10 transferable skills I possess that would benefit me in this position?

ChatGPT prompt example

To help you visualize an effective prompt, here’s a sample. You may choose to edit it based on your specific job search.

I need help drafting my resume. Here’s the job description:

“Junior Public Policy Analyst at Center for Public Policy. Seeking a highly motivated and intellectually curious Junior Public Policy Analyst to join a dynamic team. You’ll be working with senior analysts, researchers, and policymakers.  

Responsibilities: 

• Collect and analyze data, review literature, and stay up-to-date on relevant policy developments

• Develop research reports, policy briefs, and recommendations

• Support senior analysts in providing workshops, consultations, and open forums

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s in political science, economics, or a related field

• Proven research and analytical skills

• Ability to synthesize complex information 

• Strong time management, organization, and attention to detail

• Can work independently and collaboratively

About us:

We are a think tank committed to conducting and shaping public policy with a high impact on national policymaking. Our team is dedicated to evidence-based analysis, ethics, and transparency.”

These are the personal details I’d like to include:

Contact information: Jane Smith, (XXX) XXX-XXXX, janesmith@organization.com. 

Work experience: I was an assistant consultant for Policy Innovation Lab from 2019 to 2022. I was promoted to Junior Consultant in 2021. I assisted in researching and drafting policy recommendations for funding non-profit organizations focused on sustainable community economic growth. I also became proficient in both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods.

Education: I earned a BA in Economics from the University of Washington, where I studied from 2015 to 2019. I graduated summa cum laude. I also have a minor in Spanish. 

Skills: I have excellent time management skills, am highly organized, and possess strong attention to detail. I enjoy working alone and contributing in a team environment. I’ve developed my active listening skills, am a strong writer, and feel passionate about research.

Certifications and training: I received a Certificate in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School in 2020.  

Achievements: I consulted on two policy briefs for an acting senator, both of which were successfully drafted into law.

Please provide me with engaging action verbs to describe my accomplishments. Help me brainstorm the best soft skills for a junior public policy analyst and leverage my skills and experience to fit the requirements in the job description. 

Here’s an example of ChatGPT’s response to this prompt:

Tips for using ChatGPT

While ChatGPT can help you write or improve your existing resume, the technology is best used as a tool to complement your work. It’s not a replacement for a career coach, resume builder, or professional resume writer. That said, if you use it correctly, the chatbot can get you close to a final product.

Once you finish writing out the prompt, follow these six tips to optimize ChatGPT’s response:

1. Provide all relevant information: You can think of ChatGPT as an assistant who needs to be onboarded. The more information you provide, the more likely it is to build a resume that’s accurate and truthful about your potential. Take stock of your most valuable work experiences, skills, education, and certifications, and lay them out clearly in your prompt. 

2. Have a conversation: AI chatbots like ChatGPT were developed to have back-and-forth conversations in plain language. To get the best results, collaborate with the chatbot and request multiple interactions of its answers when necessary. Ask for clarification, provide feedback, and play around with the requisites you provided to refine and improve the resume in real time. Note that, at the time of writing,  ChatGPT has a limit of 50 questions within a 4-hour time frame.

3. Use AI as a starting point: ChatGPT’s suggestions are just that: suggestions. The results can’t replace your knowledge about your experience and capabilities — you're the expert on what you have to offer. Use its answers as inspiration and modify them to reflect your unique worth. To add another layer of humanness to your AI-generated resume, consider working with a career coach to identify the unique strengths and experience you would bring to the role. Together, you and your coach can refine the draft into the best possible version of your resume.

4. Double-check everything: ChatGPT wasn’t designed as a resume builder. It pulls from the information you provide and the content it’s trained on, which means it isn’t all-knowing. Ensure all industry-relevant skills, experiences, and know-how are represented accurately so no incorrect claims slip through the cracks.

5. Proofread the writing: ChatGPT can make grammar errors, produce awkward phrasing, or miss critical stylistic details for different types of resumes. These simple errors can cost you a job interview. They show a lack of professionalism and attention to detail, which potential employers may associate with your performance. Always proofread for mistakes and adapt the language to sound natural. 

6. Ask ChatGPT what it needs: If a prompt isn’t working as you’d hoped and you’re not sure why, you can always ask. Inquiring, “What additional information does ChatGPT need to help me build my resume?” allows the chatbot to highlight the essential resume elements you might be missing. 

Land your next job with AI

Artificial intelligence is a new and exciting advancement. Now that chatbots are widely available for anyone to use, you can leverage this technology to speed up the job application process and stand out to recruiters. 

Remember that you likely won’t get a perfect ChatGPT resume on your first try, but don’t give up. Gathering the most accurate information, writing a prompt that’s clear and specific, and refining the results to your needs will put you one step closer to a winning application.