Update your resume with AI without inventing a career

What you'll need

• Your current resume, even if it is old or messy
• One job posting you would actually apply to
• A few minutes to confirm dates, titles, and any numbers

Step 1: Ask for the gaps before any rewrite

You are helping me aim my real resume at one job. Do not invent employers, titles, dates, tools, or numbers.

Here is my resume:
[paste]

Here is the job post:
[paste]

First, do only this:
1. List requirements in the post that my resume already shows, in my words.
2. List requirements I might meet but did not write down. Ask me a yes-or-no question for each. Do not assume yes.
3. List requirements I should not claim, because nothing in my resume supports them.
Do not rewrite anything yet.

Answer the yes-or-no questions yourself. If you are unsure, the answer is no.

Step 2: Rewrite only the bullets you earned

Using only the facts I confirmed, rewrite my bullets for this one job.

Rules:
- Shape each bullet as what I did and what changed. If I did not give a number, do not add one.
- Use keywords from the post only where I confirmed the work.
- Keep my real job titles and dates exactly.
- Cut bullets that do not help this posting.
- Give me the new bullets under each job, then a short list of lines you refused to add and why.

Step 3: Read it like the interviewer

Close the chat. For each new bullet, say how you would prove it in one sentence. If you stall, delete the bullet.

Here is the resume I edited by hand:
[paste]

Mark any line that sounds generic, that sneaks in a metric I did not write, or that I would struggle to explain. Do not add new experience. Suggest a plainer wording only as a comment, not as a replacement I could paste blindly.

Step 4: Save a master, then a copy for this job

Keep the honest master resume. Save this version with the company name in the file name. Next application starts from the master, not from this tailored copy.

When you are ready to practice saying it, use Prep for a job interview. The letter that goes with the resume is Write a cover letter that sounds like you.

Common mistakes

• Pasting a job post and saying "make me a resume" with no resume of your own. The chat will fill the page with a fictional career.
• Accepting a percentage ("improved sales 40%") because it looks strong. If you do not have the number, the bullet does not get one.
• Stuffing every keyword from the posting into a skills line you cannot discuss.
• Sending the tailored resume to a different employer without reading it again.

Privacy: what not to paste

A resume is personal, but it is not a secret from an employer you are about to send it to. Still leave out your full street address, government ID numbers, and anyone else's contact details. Do not paste an offer letter, a performance review marked confidential, or a coworker's review. If you are employed and your company treats internal results as confidential, describe the work without the unreleased numbers.

Director check: look before you use it

• Could you defend every bullet in a live interview? If not, cut it.
• Are the dates and titles unchanged? Those are facts, not style.
• Did a number appear that you did not type? Delete it.
• Is this the file you will upload? Open the PDF, not the chat, and read the last page.

One extra tip

Once the bullets are yours, run the job search so this resume sits next to a short list of titles and a weekly plan, instead of one posting in a vacuum. More Work guides are in that hub.