Lesson 1 — The Resume Rewrite

By the end of this lesson, you’ll have a resume rewritten for one specific job — sharper bullets, the right keywords, the right length. The whole workflow takes about 30 minutes.

The 4-step workflow

1. Read the job posting carefully (5 min) 2. Have AI extract the recruiter’s “wishlist” (3 min) 3. Rewrite your bullets to match (15 min) 4. Final pass: tone & humanize (7 min)

Step 1 — Get your inputs ready

Before opening AI, have these in a single doc:

• Your current resume (any format — paste as plain text)
• The job posting you want to apply to (full text)
• One sentence about why you want this specific role (your own words, not AI’s)

Step 2 — Extract the wishlist

Recruiters write job postings in a specific way. There’s a “must-have” tier, a “nice-to-have” tier, and filler. Most applicants miss this distinction. AI doesn’t.

Paste this prompt:

You are a senior recruiter at the company below. Read the job posting and tell me:

1. The 5 most important skills/experiences this role requires (must-haves) 2. The 3 nice-to-haves that would set a candidate apart 3. The exact words and phrases I should mirror in my resume 4. What signals would cause an instant rejection

Be honest, not generic. If something looks like filler, flag it.

JOB POSTING: [paste the full job posting]

Read the output carefully. This is your target.

Step 3 — The bullet rewrite

This is the heart of the workflow. The prompt:

You are a no-nonsense career coach. Rewrite the bullet points below so each one:

- Starts with a strong action verb (not “Responsible for,” not “Helped with”) - Names a specific project or scope - Ends with a measurable result OR a clear outcome - Mirrors the language and skills from the job posting wishlist (which I’ll paste below)

Constraints: - DO NOT invent numbers. If I haven’t given you a metric, write [METRIC] for me to fill in. - DO NOT use the words: synergy, leverage, passionate, results-driven, dynamic, hard-working - Each bullet should be one line max (~120 characters) - Keep my actual experience honest. If a bullet is weak, say so — don’t pump it up artificially.

FORMAT: Show me my original bullet, then your rewrite, then a 1-line note on why you changed it.

JOB POSTING WISHLIST: [paste the wishlist from Step 2]

MY BULLETS: [paste your bullets, one per line]

You’ll get something like:

Original: Worked on email campaigns for the marketing team Rewrite: Owned email campaign strategy and execution, driving [METRIC]% increase in click-through rates across [NUMBER]+ monthly sends. Why: Stronger verb (Owned vs Worked on), specific scope, measurable outcome aligned with job posting’s “data-driven marketing” requirement.

Fill in the [METRIC] placeholders with real numbers from your work. Don’t invent. If you don’t know — ask a former coworker, look at your old reports, or write something honest like “led campaigns reaching ~50K subscribers monthly” without a fake percentage.

Step 4 — Section structure & summary

Now zoom out. Use this prompt:

Here’s my full rewritten resume. Tell me:

1. Is the section order right for this specific role? (Should I lead with experience, projects, or skills?) 2. Should I add or remove any sections? 3. Write a 3-line summary at the top that mirrors the wishlist and reads like a human (not ChatGPT)

Be direct. If something is bad, say so.

RESUME: [paste]

JOB POSTING: [paste]

The 3-line summary is the highest-leverage part of any resume. It’s the first thing read. AI gets you to a strong starting point in seconds; you make it sound like you in two minutes.

Step 5 — The “humanize” pass

This is the step most people skip. AI-generated resumes have a smell — too clean, too parallel, too many buzzwords. Recruiters in 2026 are tuned to spot it.

Prompt:

Read the resume below. Find the parts that sound robotic or AI-generated. Suggest small edits to make them sound like a human wrote them — slightly imperfect, a little less parallel, occasional phrasing that’s specific to me.

Don’t dumb it down. Just make it sound less like a template.

RESUME: [paste]

Apply ~3–5 of those edits. Don’t accept all of them blindly — you’re the editor.

Common failure modes

“My rewrites all sound the same.” → You’re using AI without giving it your real numbers and stories. Pause. Add 3–5 sentences of context per role: what you actually did, what was hard, what you’re proud of. Re-run the prompt.

“It’s writing things I didn’t do.” → Tell it explicitly: “Don’t add anything I didn’t tell you. If a bullet is weak, leave it weak — I’ll fix it myself.”

“The summary sounds like every other resume.” → Add a constraint: “The summary should include one specific detail that wouldn’t show up on anyone else’s resume.”

What you should have now

• A resume rewritten for one specific role
• All [METRIC] placeholders filled with real numbers (or honest descriptions)
• A summary that mirrors the role’s wishlist
• A few hand-edited “humanizing” passes

Save this as Resume-AIBP-V1.docx. Apply.

Where to next

Lesson 2 — Cover Letters That Don’t Sound Like AI →