Will you get what you need with an AI-generated leadership resume?
Now that ChatGPT and other AI tools have taken the world by storm, you might be wondering about its application in your job search – namely, to write your resume or other materials.
It takes work and introspection to write about yourself, even with the help of AI.
A compelling, branded resume MUST SET YOU APART with unique content… ensuring others can’t claim your achievements or own your professional perspective.
Importantly, major media including New York Times have reported that employers are frustrated with a flood of AI-produced, nearly identical resumes.
Therefore, no matter what AI tool you use, both you and the bot must dig deep to convey a distinctive value proposition.
Here are 5 considerations for using AI to help produce your resume:
1 – Resist the urge to use generic content in your resume.
Recruiters and employers have been unimpressed by bland resumes for YEARS.
These resumes fail to provide the context crucial to describe your specific contributions.
If you already know someone at the company, you might be in luck. But if you’re planning on targeting an executive role where you’ll face stiff competition and a grueling interview process, think again before cranking out an AI-assisted resume and calling it done.
The text will look professionally done, but will it convey the heart and effort behind YOUR career success? Therefore, when you use AI to write your resume, be ready to supply your own career data – leveraging the app as a resume-writing framework.
This approach can help you produce distinctive language to differentiate your skills.
2 – Realize that AI might be helpful if you have a traditional career path.
If your career aligns with the typical trajectory in your field, using AI might help you get started.
If your career has taken a few left turns, however, it’s important to build a writing strategy that describes your penchant for your field, echoes your leadership philosophy, and helps employers realize why you’re a good fit despite some bumps in the road.
ChatGPT, MS CoPilot, and other LLMs won’t automatically produce strategies for a work history with gaps, career detours, or other setbacks, where you might need:
- Your last several jobs to appear on the first page (where they can take center stage). If this is the case, each entry must be short and crisp. AI does NOT produce tight content (see point #5).
- A strategy for explaining how your career path adds up to a new, high-level role that could be a slight detour from your previous experience.
- Formatting that features some experience over others, especially if you’re aiming for a position reflecting only a segment of your skills.
- Deeper explanations of your expertise in new industry trends.
If you’ve encountered these issues, you already know you need a plan to address them.
So keep in mind you may need a compelling way to craft your STORY, not just assemble the components piece by piece.
3 – Use caution when using AI to describe your achievements.
If you’re pursuing an early career position, some of your accomplishments and career path might look similar to other professionals.
For example, an IT security analyst should be able to describe how they’ve engineered threat detection solutions, and an RN should have a good grasp of patient safety.
However, when you’ve amassed decades of leadership experience, your resume (and LinkedIn) should also capture your leadership style, pattern of success, career trajectory, and personal brand reputation.
You’ll find that bots can prompt you for individual achievements, but function best as a foundational tool for a resume. Remember, recruiters are looking for the human element in your background, not just picture-perfect achievements.
4 – Carefully vet AI-generated content for an executive resume.
Targeting an operations manager, chef, or medical technician position? AI tools can dig up and leverage MILLIONS of related job descriptions before you can even blink.
However, there’s only one CEO, COO, or CFO (and a select number of SVPs, EVPs, or Directors) at most healthcare, technology, manufacturing, financial, or other employers.
The more esoteric your career pursuits, the more difficult it will be for AI to provide the distinctive content needed for your career.
In Should You Write Your Own Executive Resume?, you’ll see that the task of setting yourself apart requires some introspective thought about your personal brand and career contributions.
Your resume must address the tough questions likely to be posed at a leaderrship level in order to be effective.
This is true whether you rely on a professional writer, bot, or resume template, and even MORE important when you’re approaching or targeting the C-suite.
5 – Take the time to edit AI-produced text.
In 2025, your resume must hit the mark quickly – while DIFFERENTIATING you.
Prompting AI models for resume content will produce lengthy, often generic sentences. If you’re unsure how to make each sentence your own, or how to roll up each bullet without losing its meaning, you may need more help than a bot can supply.
The verdict?
In summary, cautiously use AI for resume help only if you’re already familiar with your career successes, have a non-executive career goal, or you’re comfortable fine-tuning the results.
It’s important to ensure your resume is powerful enough to support your ascent to the top.
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