The job posting closes Friday. Your resume has not been updated since 2023, and the cover letter does not exist yet. You know what you did at work, but turning it into clean sentences about yourself always feels awkward.

Give it the facts

AI helps here because it is not you. It has no feelings about your experience, and it organizes what you tell it into a draft. Say you are a project manager. You might type:

Help me update my resume. I am a project manager with 6 years of experience. In my latest role I led a team of 8 on software projects. I managed budgets up to $500K and delivered 90% of projects on time. I want it to feel modern and friendly. Only use the facts I give you.

You get a draft with bullet points that start with strong verbs and sections in a sensible order. For a cover letter, paste the job posting with two or three sentences about your relevant experience. Then ask for a first draft under 300 words.

Your resume, past the blank page. You type a short prompt: project manager, six years, led a team of eight on software rollouts, budgets up to $500K, 90% of projects on time, make it modern. AI returns example bullets: led a team of 8 to deliver software rollouts across the business; managed project budgets of up to $500K; delivered 90% of projects on time. A reminder: check every line, and remove anything you did not tell it or did not do.

Check every claim

AI sometimes adds achievements or numbers you never gave it. Read the draft line by line and check every claim against what you told it. Remove anything that isn’t true. An employer may ask about any line on your resume.

Leave your home address and phone number out of the prompt, along with your references. Add them by hand to the final version.

Try it tonight

Fill in this prompt with your own details:

Help me write a resume for a [job title] role. My experience: [your roles and years, with two key results for each]. Use clean bullet points and strong action verbs. Keep it to one page. Only use the facts I give you.

Then change any words that don’t sound like you. If the draft feels stiff, ask it to sound more like you talk.

What part of your resume has you stuck right now?

Yesterday was the fine print in plain words. Day 10: two options, one decision, and a comparison without the spreadsheet.

The project manager example is a constructed scenario. How this was made: AI helped in formatting. See the AI use and editorial policy.