Writing about yourself can be challenging, which may tempt you to turn to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or a similar artificial intelligence chatbot to write your resume. However, should you trust AI to write your resume and career documents? What alternatives exist to make writing your resume easier?
Here’s what you need to know before using ChatGPT to write your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, or other career document:
ChatGPT Can Hurt Your Chances Of Landing A Job
The primary goal of your resume is to stand out from other applicants and secure an interview. Using ChatGPT to write your resume is in direct opposition to this goal, as you’re leveraging the same inputs as tens of millions of fellow AI users have, meaning you’ll simply blend in with the masses.
As a career coach specializing in tech, I’m all for AI making my job more efficient and streamlined but find that I can quickly distinguish resumes developed using AI from those that were authentically written by the job seeker, which means recruiters can tell the difference too. If you want to stand out, ChatGPT isn’t your friend, at least not in its current stage of development.
ChatGPT’s Resume Advice Is Mediocre
With this in mind, you might be tempted to merely outline or edit your resume, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile using ChatGPT, which I also caution against. While AI chatbots are undoubtedly impressive, they’re in their infancy and have a significant ways to go before they’re ready to provide quality job search and career advice.
And, again, even when the advice ChatGPT offers is decent, you’re following the same suggestions that tens of millions of other users have access to, which means you won’t stand out.
To put it simply, much of the resume writing advice currently being regurgitated by ChatGPT is mediocre, and mediocre doesn’t land job interviews.
Providing ChatGPT With Sensitive Information Can Be Risky
Another concern when it comes to using ChatGPT for writing your resume or other career documents is inputting sensitive information into an AI chatbot. This is of particular concern if you have access to confidential or proprietary information in your role, as it can raise additional privacy and security risks.
3 Alternatives To Using ChatGPT To Write Your Resume
If you’re finding it challenging to write your resume and want to make the process more efficient, the following are three alternatives to using ChatGPT.
1. Harness the power of voice to simplify the writing process.
One alternative to using ChatGPT to write your resume is to “speak” your resume aloud. Since a lot of job seekers get intimidated by a blank Word document, I regularly encourage recording yourself talking about your career accomplishments. Then, listen back and type up your responses.
Here are some high-level questions to guide you through this process:
- What did your day-to-day work look like at [company]?
- What are you most proud of from your time at [company]?
- How would you measure the success of your efforts at [company]?
As you listen back to your answers, you can quickly convert the responses into resume accomplishment bullets by removing the first person language and translating the information into the “telegraphic” resume style. For instance, “I developed…” becomes, “Developed…”
2. Ask someone you trust to help you with the process.
If you find yourself getting stuck while using the process of speaking your resume aloud on your own, you can involve a friend or someone else you trust in the process. Provide them with the above list of questions and ask them to type your responses as you speak.
They can use the following prompts to guide you in sharing further:
- Mhmm…
- That’s fabulous!
- Can you tell me more?
- What else?
3. Hire a professional to support you in writing your resume.
Finally, if you’re still struggling, or simply want an expert’s opinion on how to stand out, consider hiring a professional to support you with the process of developing your resume and other career documents. Know that’s okay to turn to a professional for help if you find it difficult to write your resume by finding people who do this for a living.
Personally speaking, because I know where my expertise lies (career coaching), as well as where I struggle (anything remotely creative or involving taxes), I’ve hired experts including a graphic designer, a website manager, an accountant, and a financial planner over the years. These professionals have allowed me to save more hours and headaches than I can count, as well as really focus on my Zone of Genius. Consider whether it might make sense for you to do the same and ask for support with your resume.
Final Thoughts On Using ChatGPT To Write Your Resume
There are a lot of great use cases for ChatGPT, and these will only continue to expand in the coming years, but think twice before putting your career in the hands of AI. Your resume is the last thing you want to skimp on. You’ve got this!
