Expert Advice
Like many people, I compete with robots now.
However innovative I become, whatever tricks I pull out of my bag, AI is always right there, breathing down my neck, waiting to eat my lunch.
I’m well aware that the minute people find a bit of code that generates a resume that gets them a job, I’ll be out of mine. The robot’s resume don’t even need to be as good as a human’s; it just need to be good enough to get a job.
As a long-time professional resume writer, it breaks my heart a little to say this: that people would choose a mediocre resume over an extraordinary one, as long as it gets them a job. When it comes to looking for work, being special isn’t nearly as coveted as being seen.
But AI doesn’t care about my woes, nor do job-seekers for that matter, so I’ll get on with it.
Why am I no longer worried about my livelihood?
Because my clients tell me not to be.
Just yesterday, a client came back after 5 years. He came to me with a well-written, nicely formatted 2-page resume. It had a summary section, great action verbs, relevant job titles, and more keywords than you can shake a stick at.
He’d partnered up with AI to write it:
Dear ChatGPT,
Bam! In a few minutes, he had a resume, with almost zero effort. And precisely zero investment.
Brilliant.
Except…
It didn’t work.
He got no interviews.
“It’s well written,” he said. “…way better than I could do, but…”
And then he said the thing that bottom-lines the limitations of AI as a resume-writer.
“I don’t know what’s missing,” he said.
Neither does AI.
AI is amazing, almost magical in its production, because it consumes the entirety of the Internet and then spits it back out at you in elegant prose.
But, when it comes to writing your resume, it will never have all the answers. Because the Internet doesn’t have the answers. Not these answers.
Sure, the Internet has all the keywords. The internet has all the job listings ever posted, the Internet has data on your companies, your industries, your job titles… but how much information does the Internet have on you? And how good is it?
AI can’t possibly write about you, because it doesn’t know you.
Most of what’s out there online about you, and everything you tell it to know about you, is written by you. And, see, that’s the problem.
Although we are all experts on our lives, we’re ironically pretty terrible at describing who we are and why we’re great. We’re even worse – indeed, complete failures – at remembering things we’ve forgotten and seeing into our blind spots.
Here are some prompts Chat.gpt cannot help you with:
I no longer fear chatGPT for the same reason I stopped relying on questionnaires to get information from my clients: because, by the time clients come to me, they’re stuck on a story that doesn’t work. People come to me for the same reason they go to therapy, take on a new hobby, call up a friend, listen to music, or walk in the woods. They need to get out of their own confines. They need to find a new way of thinking, a new perspective, a new language.
You can’t possibly break free if you’re pulling prompts out of your head and feeding them into a machine that only knows the Internet. You’ll just keep recreating the same story that’s not working (albeit maybe more elegantly written). Worse than that, you’re likely to drift farther and farther from the truth, that being “you.”
That’s why my client came back.
He’d asked AI to describe him – his best moments, his greatest achievements, what he was capable of, and who he’d evolved into – and AI came up short, made stuff up, stretched the truth, and missed it completely.
So he came to me.
Instead of scouring the Internet for answers, we rummaged through his last 5 years in a Q&A.
This time, I was the one with all the prompts and he was the one spitting out the data, line by line.
But it was new data, information that hadn’t seen the light of day before, perhaps ever. Things he’d forgotten about. Things he didn’t realize were important. Things he didn’t know you were allowed to say, things he didn’t think were impressive, things that were found nowhere else but inside him.
We mined it all, that gold that’s tucked away in each of us.
And (to highlight another way in which ChatGPT will forever fail against humans), we had fun while doing it.
We discovered his new story, or rather, his now story, in all of its complexity, infused with numbers and nuance, keywords and caché – a resume that reflected who he was and all that he’d become. In the end, he not only had a great resume, but he truly felt like he could back it up, like it was really him being presented and not some unmarked skeleton key.
We created a story worth reading for a person worth hiring. We connected. We rebuilt. We designed.
And it worked.
Everyone hates writing their resume.
That’s why we came up with Resume Therapy.
In grad school, while I was getting my MS in Counseling, I paired up with like-minded SFSU professor and career counselor, Rebecca Toporek, who shared the belief that building a resume could (and should!) be a much more cathartic process than it actually is.
We invented a new type of coaching-infused resume-development model, which we eventually published in the Career Planning & Adult Development Journal (Vol 21, #4). It was Rebecca who, commenting on the therapeutic effects of using our method, came up with the monniker “Resume Therapy.”
Ah. Resume Therapy:
A collaborative process that leaves job-seekers feeling more confident, self-aware, focused, happy, and driven, in addition to churning out an actionable deliverable — that being a keyword-rich, uber-impressive, and authentically representational resume.
Based in proven therapeutic techniques, Resume Therapy draws from several psyschological modalities:
In plain terms, Resume Therapy leverages the therapeutic aspects of storytelling grounded in counseling psychology, human-centered coaching, and career development principles. Coaches guide the client in rediscovering their strengths, embracing unique talents, confronting shortcomings, and establishing congruence between what is and what could be.
It is a guided journey through your work history, bolstered by an intentional counseling approach designed to extract things you’ve forgotten, overlooked, or undervalued.
Resume Therapy is meant to be transparent; that is, you may not even realize it’s happening, until you reach the end of the session and you notice how energized you feel, how much more open your eyes are, and how many more (realistic and achievable) possibilities are in front of you.
It’s transformative, both for you and your resume.
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Each of our all-inclusive resume packages include Resume Therapy.
LinkedIn is going crazy with their whole AI game. I think their intentions are good, but I’m not sure they’ve thought through the end-game: how it impacts the hiring process and hiring managers.
What happens when everyone has the same resume? What happens when everyone is the perfect candidate (at least on paper)?
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00:01
I’ve been mucking about in LinkedIn, playing with all the A I tools they have.
00:06
That little star seems to show up just about everywhere, and so I’m playing around with the resume stuff and it seems like pretty cool ideas at first, right?
00:18
You can figure out how good of a match you are for a job, for example.
00:25
I feel like there is a shadow lurking here though, and I’m curious if people have thought about it.
00:31
Maybe I’m thinking about it wrong, but it seems like so you you put up your resume and it will tell you where the gaps are and then it will give suggestions if not actually do the writing for you, but to change like what you need to change, what you need to add.
00:47
And so I worry that people cause everybody wants the interview.
00:53
People want to have the best candidacy possible.
00:56
So what are they going to do?
00:57
They’re going to find a way to put things in their resume that may or may not be true, right?
01:04
Who’s going to really, when they get advice that they have gaps and they need to fill them, who’s going to walk away from that?
01:13
So I’m just sort of worrying that this is becoming a matchy, matchy game.
01:20
And not so much.
01:21
Hey, this is who I am.
01:24
Why don’t you look at that and figure out if I’d be a good fit?
01:28
It’s kind of more about did I check every box?
01:32
Do I have every keyword?
01:35
And I’m really curious to hear from people who have been hiring, from recruiters, from the people with the jobs.
01:41
Are you seeing a disconnect between what you get on a LinkedIn profile or a resume and what happens?
01:49
In the interview, cause I feel like that area is widening a bit.
01:55
And again, I don’t know, I’m not hiring on mass, so perhaps it’s not an issue.
02:03
I’m seeing like it might be.
02:05
Let me know what you’re thinking.
How good is an AI-produced resume?
HR and Hiring Managers already know the answer but it seems that jobseekers are still figuring it out.
A lot of folks are grabbing a template from Canva or going “high-end” with Etsy and then asking the robots to do the rest.
How effective are they?
Are AI-generated resumes good enough?
—–
00:01
It’s happening more and more.
00:03
I had yet another client show up and they had an A I generated resume.
00:10
This time it was a guy who was in the analytics industry, so I guess that’s not too surprising.
00:16
He had a resume that he created through an A I program.
00:21
And it wasn’t working.
00:23
He’d been using it for about 3 months and this seems to be a trend I’m seeing now.
00:27
People using a tool, there’s a lot out there building something, putting it to work and getting Zippo response, not including automated messages.
00:40
Of course A I can do a lot of things and perhaps one day it will be able to create.
00:47
A pretty good resume.
00:49
But even then, even when it can gather the most information from the Internet possible, which is already a heck of a lot, and even though it can compose some really good senses, it’s actually quite good at writing, at creating nice long 3-4 line statements.
01:08
But there is one place that a I cannot scavenge for information, and that is.
01:17
Your head A I can’t reach in and pull out what you don’t know, what you’ve overlooked, what you haven’t thought about.
01:26
So unless you’ve been journaling your life for the last 15 years and your career and writing down all your achievements and putting them up on a website, A I can help you with that.
01:39
So just remember, you don’t know what you don’t know.
01:43
And what you’re working with, what you’re giving A I may not be enough to impress people, to really get them to see who you are.
01:51
And that, my friends, is why people show up to me with these beautifully written A I generated resumes.
02:00
Looking for some actual results.
02:03
So we redo the resume and of course that involves talking with them in depth for an hour, even longer, to really help them figure out what they’re all about and what they’ve forgotten.
02:14
Then we build the resume off of that, and that is what makes the difference.
Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce… titans of Tech, supposedly too big to fail.
But we’re seeing some wavering. And employees are certainly feeling the quake.
Inflation is taking its toll, the global supply chain is still screwy, and consumers are pinching their pennies. As a result, profits are down, even for the big guys, and the #1 strategy of public companies to keep dishing out shareholder dividends is to cut the workforce. And fast.
Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off, in some cases 10%-50% of the workforce.
If you’re not lucky enough to be above the fold, you may find yourself dumping your desk tchotchkes into a cardboard box with an unrequested escort to the front door.
It’s not enough to work hard and be loyal.
When the chips are down, your salary can always be rescinded.
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Part of protecting yourself is knowing this to be true and taking precautions to be ready for when it occurs.
Life is uncertain. Companies have plenty of failsafes in place to protect them from sudden catastrophes.
Do you?
Everything’s automated now. So why not automate the process of building a new resume?
The benefits are obvious: a resume. And fast. You enter a few action verbs and phrases, pick a template, and presto, the resume gods spit out a brand-new resume for you. As a resume writer, I thought about building something like this. I still might but I always come back to the same reasons why I don’t think it’s a good idea.
They can hurt more than help.
If you’ve got a linear career path with no job gaps or short-term jobs, and your most recent position and company are directly relevant to the job you are targeting, then a resume builder should be fine for you. You should catch the attention of recruiters and HR folks easily. Well done toeing the line.
Another scenario where resume builders work well is if you’re applying internally. That is, a job opened up at your company, and you need a resume to apply for it. As long as the people doing the hiring know exactly who you are, then it’s not such an imperative that you wow them with words on your resume. A slight caveat, though: you may be surprised how little people know about what you do, including the colleagues you talk to every day.
Resume builders don’t allow you to pick and choose where to put content, such as titles, company names, dates, education, certifications, and skills. You’re stuck with a template. The template decides which foot you put forward first, and that can mean a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
For example, if you have a job gap or a short-term gap, having prominent dates could be a problem. If your job titles don’t match up with the industry, showcasing titles might trip you up. If you just got a groovy new certification, but the template forces you to put it at the bottom of the resume, under your education, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Resume-builders don’t allow you to have subheadings, sidebars, case studies, and other callouts in your Experience section. It’s tricks like these that help to tell an accurate story, visually and literally.
Another big gripe about resume builders: they rarely offer the option of creating a summary section. You’ll usually be allowed to create a massive keyword list, which is critical, but you won’t have a nice juicy intro on your resume saying who you are and what you’re about.
This leads me to the biggest issue with Resume Builders…
The content comes from you.
You’re already struggling with what to say. It’s hard to know what to include and what to leave out, what to infer and what to explicitly state.
No resume builder is going to help you with this.
There are a few paths you can take to free yourself of the burden of building your own resume (or outsourcing to a bot).
Sometimes a robot can’t do a human’s job. When it comes to mapping out your career and telling your life’s story on 1 or 2 pages, resume builders are usually going to come up short. It’s tempting to want to believe you can magically create a winning resume with the click of a button, but…
If your career runs a path that is anything but straight and narrow, think twice before you push that button.
As a former recruiter and professional resume writer, I’ve looked at a lot of resumes. I can tell you this: people seem to struggle with knowing how, where, and to what extent to include Responsibilities and Accomplishment on their resumes.
Most people have one or the other, the coffee or the cookie. Some have both, a 2-course delivery. Neither of these strategies is optimal.
To show you why Continue reading this entry »
What is it about resumes that they’re still around? Aren’t we well past the era of using 1- to 2-page documents to represent ourselves?
I’m a professional resume writer and I’ve been ready for the traditional resume to die for a while now, like a king in his castle looking down onto the battlefield at his battered and bruised knight, so proud but bracing for the inevitable.
But the knight just won’t go down. Despite all the swords blazing and shots being fired, the trusty-rusty resume keeps swinging.
There have been numerous attempts to take down the resume, to relieve it of its decades-long tyranny over the job search, but nothing has been victorious.
Here are some of the more modern sharpshooters that have promised to dethrone the chivalrous resume: Continue reading this entry »
There is a common misconception that the only purpose of the resume is to get you an interview. You’re short-changing yourself if you believe this.
I’ve watched resumes do many more things for job seekers, time and time again. Here are some of those things. Continue reading this entry »
Is anyone hiring?
Not really. There are, indeed, industries and companies that are going strong, but they’re not necessarily adding to their headcount right now. Everyone’s in waiting. HR departments are in an Arctic freeze. People with jobs are clinging to them like driftwood in the cold open sea. Unemployment numbers are rising, which means the competition for life rafts is growing.
It’s hard to be cooped up in your house, knowing all of this is going, feeling like you should be “out there” looking for work.
Still, it’s always better to take action during a crisis. Action delivers a sense of progress. It fans the flame of hope in the night while we pray for the sun to come back over the horizon.
Here are some ways to stay productive and generate your own warmth in this time of uncertainty: Continue reading this entry »
I had the privilege of engaging an HR panel who took the time to share what they wanted to see (and did not want to see) on a job candidate’s resume. Here’s what they had to say: Continue reading this entry »
Recessions tend to push hardworking people into two groups. On the one hand, is the layoff survivor handling the load of multiple former employees. On the other is the hyperqualified, abruptly laid-off job seeker who needs to explain the abrupt ending to their tenure. Different destinies but both types tend to struggle with how to present these career changes on their resumes.
Here are some tips: Continue reading this entry »
Had to dig this one out of the archives…
KQED called me up to be the San Francisco Bay Area career hero on the California Report with Scott Shafer. Scott let me use his own career as an example for how to use seemingly irrelevant work experience as an asset, not a liability. We also discussed taking a different approach to networking, and some of the things that employers look for in job candidates.
Check out the podcast; they even included the original take which has plenty more advice for people looking to beat a tough job market. Continue reading this entry »
Here’s an interview I did for a blogger, asking me some popular resume questions on behalf of her fellow graduates-to-be.
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Let’s start with the most common Resume question: Continue reading this entry »
I admit I’ve had a couple of challenging clients recently. It’s easy to write them off but it’s always best to look inward before casting blame.
So, what’s really going on? Continue reading this entry »
As a seasoned professional, you have much to offer but remember to make room for new experiences as well.
An effective resume will balance your strengths (i.e. what you can teach) with your areas for growth (i.e. what you can learn). In regards to the latter, I’m certainly not suggesting you claim ignorance. Rather, consider showing a recently developed interest in a new industry or field.
This is best done by illustrating how you’ve already Continue reading this entry »
Recently, a resume client of mine forwarded a newsletter article from a job board discussing ways to overcome “job gaps” of 3-6 months.
Here’s a snippet from the article, and my subsequent retort as to why we should redefine the criteria for a job gap: Continue reading this entry »
One of the best kept secrets in job-hunting: The government has offered to pay part of your expenses!
You read correctly: Career expenses, including fees incurred for career counseling, professional resume writing, and job-search coaching, are tax-deductible for everyone with only a few exceptions: Continue reading this entry »
What does one have to do to be deemed the World’s Best Resume Writer? lol
Here’s a press release explaining how Cliff won the title: Continue reading this entry »
In the past two days, three job seekers have complained to me about their experience with resume writers:
“This resume doesn’t say anything about me.”
“They left out the most important part.”
“They just didn’t get me.”
The common thread? Each of these three people Continue reading this entry »
