The useful result
A resume where every title, date, number and skill is traced to a line in your own facts sheet.
- Build a plain facts sheet that is separate from any AI-written draft.
- Run a claim-by-claim audit in a fresh chat and fix every stretched or unsupported claim.
AI is good at making a resume read smoothly. It can also add things you never said: a bigger number, a tool you never used, sole credit for team work. The University of Sheffield careers service warns that AI "could embellish on your achievements or make up facts" and tells applicants to check facts before including them. Anthropic's own candidate guidance says AI can polish how you communicate, but the experience described must be your own.
Invented claims are not rare. In a Greenhouse survey released 20 October 2026, 62% of US job seekers said they had tried tactics to get past automated screening, and adding skills or keywords they don't have was one of them, at 40%. Those claims tend to fall apart at the interview. This lesson gives you a simple audit: a second, separate chat that compares the draft only against your own facts.
Before you start
- An AI-polished resume or cover letter draft.
- Your own notes on jobs, dates, duties and results.
- A free AI chat that lets you start a new or temporary chat.
Review evidence
Documentation-based review · 2026-10-28
Sources opened and checked on 28 October 2026. Survey figures are dated and mostly US-based; they describe what people reported, not rules. Prompts and examples are illustrative; no model output or job-search outcome is claimed.
Write a facts sheet in your own words
Before you paste anything, remove your name, phone, email, home address, ID numbers, date of birth and referees' details. Write [NAME] or [CITY] instead. Never paste your current or past employer's confidential information, such as client names under contract, internal figures or documents. Then write a short facts sheet by hand, not by AI: each job title, employer type, month and year, your main duties, tools you have really used, training you finished, and any numbers you truly know. Write "about" where you are estimating. This sheet is the only source of truth for the check.
Check your result
Every line of the facts sheet is something you could explain or show in an interview, and none of it was copied from the AI draft.
Run the audit in a fresh chat
Open a new chat. If your app offers a temporary or incognito chat, use it, so the check is not mixed with the chat that wrote the draft or with saved memory. Paste the facts sheet and the draft, clearly labelled. Ask for a claim table, not a rewrite. A good result lists many small claims, including dates, numbers and words like "led" or "managed".
You are checking a resume for claims that are not supported. Use ONLY the FACTS below. Do not use outside knowledge and do not rewrite anything.
List every factual claim in the DRAFT: job titles, employers, dates, numbers, skills, tools, qualifications, and who did the work (me alone or a team). Label each one:
SUPPORTED - quote the matching FACTS line
STRETCHED - FACTS has something related, but the draft says more (explain how)
NOT IN FACTS - nothing in FACTS supports it
If you are not sure, say NOT SURE and ask me. Answer as a table: Claim | Label | Evidence or reason.
FACTS:
[PASTE FACTS SHEET]
DRAFT:
[PASTE DRAFT]Example / expected result
Illustrative example; not a recorded model result.
"Led a team of 6" | STRETCHED | FACTS says "trained 2 new staff"; no team lead role "Cut waiting times by 30%" | NOT IN FACTS | No number about waiting times "Cashier, Mar 2022 - Jan 2024" | SUPPORTED | FACTS: "Cashier, March 2022 to January 2024"
Check your result
Pick three SUPPORTED rows and check the quoted fact yourself. If any quote is wrong or missing from your sheet, treat the whole table with caution and re-check every row by hand.
Fix by hand, then run it again
Fix the draft yourself. NOT IN FACTS: delete it, or keep it only if it is true and you add it to the facts sheet first. STRETCHED: use honest wording such as "helped", "part of a team of", "about" or "trained 2 new staff". Then open another fresh chat and run the same audit on the fixed draft. Repeat until nothing is NOT IN FACTS.
Check your result
The last audit shows zero NOT IN FACTS rows, and you have read every number and skill aloud and can say where each one came from.
When it goes wrong
A second chat is a helper, not a proof. It can miss a claim, mislabel one, or quote a fact that is not there, which is why you spot-check by hand. It cannot know if your facts sheet itself is true; only you can. Some apps carry memory between chats, so use a temporary or incognito chat where offered, and check your app's privacy or data settings. Employers can check degrees and past jobs, and rules on false statements differ by country.
Make it your own
Take the last AI-polished resume line you liked most. Run the audit on that one line with your facts sheet. If it comes back STRETCHED, write the honest version and compare which one you would rather defend in an interview.
Useful next resources
Sources and review
- University of Sheffield Careers: Using AI for applications
- Anthropic: Guidance on candidates' AI usage (updated 10 Jul 2025)
- Greenhouse: 2026 job seeker survey press release (20 Oct 2026)
Last checked Oct 28, 2026. Features and account limits can change. Verify important results against your original material.
Did this help you complete your task?
Tell us what needs improving. No account or private output required.
Report incorrect information or a broken linkGenius Forges Editorial
Practical job-search exercises based on checked sources. Examples are illustrations, not recorded model results.
