It’s OK to use AI to compose your resume, says recruiter

Are you considering a career change, but unsure where to start? We’re here to help.

CNBC Make It just launched a new online course, which will teach you how leverage your skills, expand your network, and gain confidence to make a successful career change. In this course, you’ll get practical tips from three expert instructors, and you’ll leave with a step-by-step plan to transition into a new role.

Register today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $67 (+taxes and fees) through May 13, 2025: https://cnb.cx/42lpA82

This is a snippet from the weekly CNBC Make It Work newsletter, written by Ashton Jackson.

If you want to use generative AI to save time and energy updating your resume but worry that you’ll be judged for it, don’t fret, says Kathleen Nolan, a senior recruiter at GrowthLoop, a remote-first tech company.

She personally reads every resume that comes to her, she says, and she fully supports candidates who look to generative chatbots for help writing their application materials. 

“Everyone uses AI for things like this,” she says. “It really doesn’t matter. If you’re using AI in the right way, no one’s going to be able to tell.”

Best practice is to feed a prompt to your generative AI platform of choice, like ChatGPT, get an answer, and then tailor the result before adding it to your document, Nolan says. You could input something like, “I am going to send you a job description and resume. Can you optimize my resume for this job?” 

Personalizing your results is crucial, since many AI tools are trained using existing texts and tend to spit out very repetitive, common phrases. At the end of the day, you want the voice you use in your application materials to sound something like yours, Nolan says. 

Remember to double check your revised resume to ensure the generated information is accurate, too.

It’s a good idea to have a few versions of your resume at the ready with small tweaks if you’re applying to very different roles. That said, “I don’t think that you should feel like you need to be completely personalizing [your CV] for every place you apply to,” Nolan says.

“Tailoring your resume within an inch of its life for every job — I don’t think the ROI is there,” she adds.

More from CNBC: