Day 8 of 28 · AI Job Hunt
The AI-Optimized Resume
⏱ 6 min
📊 Beginner
Week 2 starts now — and we're building the single most important document in your job search.
Your resume has 6 seconds to make an impression. That's the average time a recruiter spends on a first pass. In those 6 seconds, they need to see relevant experience, clear impact, and a reason to keep reading.
AI helps you nail all three.
Every section working together to get you past the 6-second scan.
The anatomy of a resume that works
Forget everything you've heard about "creative" resumes. For the vast majority of roles, here's what actually works:
Header: Name, location (city only — no full address), phone, email, LinkedIn URL. Clean and simple.
Summary: 2-3 sentences. Who you are, what you're great at, and what you're looking for. Tailored for every application.
Experience: Reverse chronological. Each role gets 3-5 bullet points. Every bullet starts with an action verb and includes a measurable result.
Skills: A clean list of relevant hard skills, tools, and technologies. Mirrors the language from the job description.
Education: Degree, school, year. Certifications if relevant. Keep it brief.
What to leave out: Objective statements, "References available upon request," hobbies (unless directly relevant), photos, and anything older than 10-15 years.
Knowledge Check
How long does the average recruiter spend on a first-pass resume review?
Eye-tracking studies consistently show recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds on a first pass. That means your resume needs to communicate your value instantly — through a clear summary, strong bullet points, and relevant keywords. AI helps you pack maximum impact into minimum space.
The AI resume-building process
Here's the step-by-step process for building a resume with AI. Let's watch it in action.
I need to rewrite my resume for a Product Marketing Manager role. Here's the job description: [Product Marketing Manager at a Series B SaaS company — owns product launches, creates messaging, works cross-functionally, 5+ years B2B marketing required].
Here's my current experience:
- Marketing manager at TechCorp (2 years): led content strategy, managed 2 direct reports, ran email campaigns, helped with 3 product launches
- Marketing coordinator at StartupXYZ (3 years): managed social media, wrote blog posts, created sales collateral, supported product team
Rewrite my experience bullets to match this job description. Make them specific, quantified, and keyword-optimized.
**TechCorp — Marketing Manager (2022–Present)**
• Led go-to-market strategy for 3 product launches, creating positioning and messaging that drove 28% increase in feature adoption within first quarter
• Owned content strategy across blog, email, and social channels, generating 45% of inbound marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
• Managed and mentored a team of 2 marketing specialists, establishing workflows that improved campaign output by 35%
• Developed cross-functional launch playbooks with Product, Sales, and Customer Success — reducing launch preparation time from 6 weeks to 3
• Created sales enablement materials including battle cards, one-pagers, and demo scripts used by a 15-person sales team
**StartupXYZ — Marketing Coordinator (2019–2022)**
• Built and executed social media strategy that grew audience from 2K to 15K followers and drove 20% of website traffic
• Authored 100+ blog posts and sales collateral pieces, supporting product marketing and demand generation efforts
• Partnered with product team on messaging and positioning for feature releases, conducting competitive analysis to inform go-to-market strategy
• Managed email campaigns with 32% average open rate (industry average: 21%), generating 500+ leads per quarter
**Key changes I made:**
- Added metrics to every bullet (even estimates are better than no numbers)
- Used exact language from the JD: "go-to-market," "positioning and messaging," "cross-functional," "sales enablement"
- Started each bullet with a strong action verb
- Reframed "helped with launches" as "led go-to-market strategy"
↻ Replay conversation
Knowledge Check
What's the most important change AI made to these resume bullets?
A
Added specific metrics and mirrored exact language from the job description — making them both ATS-friendly and impressive to humans
B
Used fancier vocabulary
C
Removed all mention of past companies
D
Made them longer and more detailed
Two critical changes: quantified results (numbers make claims credible) and keyword matching (exact phrasing from the JD helps with ATS). "Helped with product launches" became "Led go-to-market strategy for 3 product launches, driving 28% increase in feature adoption." Same experience, completely different impact.
The summary section
Your summary is the first thing a recruiter reads after your name. It needs to work hard.
Write a professional summary for my resume. I'm a marketing manager with 5 years of B2B experience, strong at product launches and content strategy. I'm targeting Product Marketing Manager roles at growth-stage SaaS companies. Keep it to 2-3 sentences.
**Product marketing leader with 5 years of B2B SaaS experience driving go-to-market strategy, product launches, and cross-functional alignment. Led 3 product launches and built a content engine generating 45% of inbound leads. Seeking a Product Marketing Manager role at a growth-stage company where I can own positioning, messaging, and launch strategy end-to-end.**
This summary works because:
- Opens with your identity and years of experience
- Includes 2 specific achievements
- Mirrors JD keywords: "go-to-market," "product launches," "cross-functional," "positioning," "messaging"
- Ends with what you're looking for (matches their role)
↻ Replay conversation
Your action step
Take your current resume and paste it into AI along with the job description for one role you're interested in. Ask:
"Rewrite my resume experience bullets to match this job description. Add specific metrics wherever possible (use estimates if I don't have exact numbers). Mirror the keywords and phrasing from the JD. Make every bullet start with an action verb."
Then ask: "Write a 2-3 sentence professional summary tailored to this specific role."
You'll have a tailored resume in 10 minutes that would have taken an hour to write manually. Tomorrow, we go deeper into how ATS actually works — so you can make sure this resume gets past the bots.
Final Check
Is it okay to use estimated metrics in your resume bullets?
A
No — metrics don't matter on resumes
B
Yes — a reasonable estimate like "approximately 30% improvement" is far more effective than no number at all, as long as you can defend it in an interview
C
No — you should only include exact, verified numbers
D
Yes — you can make up any number you want
Reasonable estimates are standard practice and far more effective than vague descriptions. "Improved process efficiency" says nothing. "Improved process efficiency by approximately 30%" is credible and specific. Just make sure you can explain your estimate if asked in an interview.
📄
Day 8 Complete
"A great resume doesn't describe what you did. It proves what you achieved. AI helps you find the proof in your own experience."
Tomorrow — Day 9
Beating Applicant Tracking Systems
Tomorrow you'll learn exactly how ATS works — and how to make sure your resume never gets filtered out.