Episode 4 of 10Write it35 min

Tailor your resume without inventing anything

Rewrite your resume bullets for one job using only your own true stories, with each bullet tagged to the story it came from and a clear list of what is still missing.

You will have: New resume bullets for one job, each tagged with its source story, a list of the job's needs you cannot yet show, and simple formatting notes so hiring software can read your file.

Before you start

Your five stories from Episode 2 and your job post breakdown from Episode 3
The work history part of your current resume, as plain text
Before pasting, remove your name, phone, email, home address, ID numbers, date of birth and referees' details. Put [NAME] or [PHONE] in their place and add them back at the end
Take out anything confidential from your current or past employer, such as client names or internal figures

Make it yours

Change the example (operations job search (fictional)) to your own. Your answers are saved in this browser and used in every episode.

Job you are aiming forOne job title you want to apply for. Episode 1 helps you choose it.Your backgroundOne sentence about your work or study so far. Keep it true and short.CountryWhere you want to work. Hiring and pay rules differ by country.Type of employerFor example: a hospital, a small agency, a school, a bank.

Other series keywords (1)

AI chat you useChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another free chat.

Your prompt

Paste into: A normal AI chat (ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini). Copy the bullets you approve into your own resume file; do not paste the AI's whole answer as your resume.

You are a careful resume editor. Help me tailor my resume bullets for one Operations Coordinator job in United States at a mid-sized logistics company. My background: 4 years as a retail assistant manager, moving into office operations.

My true work stories:
[PASTE YOUR 5 STORIES FROM EPISODE 2]

What the job needs (from my job post notes):
[PASTE THE MUST-HAVES, NICE-TO-HAVES AND HONEST KEYWORDS FROM EPISODE 3]

My current work history:
[PASTE THE WORK HISTORY PART OF YOUR RESUME]

Answer in plain text with these 3 parts.

1. New bullets: for each job in my work history, write 3 to 5 bullets. Start each with a plain action verb and keep it to 2 lines or less. Put the most relevant bullets first. End each bullet with its source in brackets, such as [Story 2] or [Old resume]. Use the job post's words only where a story truly proves them.

2. What is missing: list each must-have from the job post that none of my stories or resume lines prove. For each, suggest one honest option: a question to ask me, leaving it out, or a true line such as "currently learning". Do not write a bullet for it.

3. Formatting notes: remind me in one line each to use one column, plain section headings, contact details in the main body (not the page header or footer), no tables, text boxes or images, and a Word file or text-based PDF. Flag anything in what I pasted that breaks these.

Strict rules:
- Use only facts in my stories and current resume. Never invent numbers, employers, job titles, dates, tools, skills, certificates or degrees.
- Keep my job titles, employer names and dates exactly as I wrote them.
- Copy numbers exactly. Keep estimates with "about". Where a number is unknown, write [?]. Never fill one in.
- Keep team work as team work.
- No hidden text and no keyword lists stuffed in.
- If something is unclear, ask me instead of guessing.

Review the prompt, then copy it. Never paste real passwords or API keys into a chat.

How to check it worked

Every bullet has a source tag, and the story or old resume line it points to really says that. Delete any bullet you cannot trace
Job titles, employer names and dates are exactly the same as in your real history
No number appears that is not in your stories. Fill in each [?] with a true figure or remove it before you send
Read each bullet aloud and ask: could I explain this in an interview? If not, cut it
Formatting: one column, normal headings, your name and contact details in the main body (not the page header or footer), no tables, text boxes, columns or images
Save as a Word file or a text-based PDF, not a scan or photo. Open it and check that you can select the text

Sample result

Example: operations job search (fictional)

Fictional example: Maya Torres's tailored bullets for the Northline Logistics post (a made-up company).

If something goes wrong

A bullet sounds impressive but you do not recognise it.: Reply: "Which story is bullet [number] from? Quote the sentence." If there is no clear source, delete it.
The AI changed your job title to match the post, for example from Assistant Store Manager to Operations Coordinator.: Change it back. Your real title must stay. Show the fit through what you did in the bullets instead.
The bullets are packed with words from the post and read badly.: Reply: "Use at most one job post keyword per bullet, only where it is true, and write the rest in plain words."

Free. Good to know: the help page of Greenhouse, a widely used hiring system, says resume reading can fail with files over 2.5 MB, scanned or image-only files, tables, columns, text boxes, and contact details placed in a header or footer (as of October 2026; check the current page at support.greenhouse.io). Other systems differ.

More in Write it

This is part of the series From no replies to interviews: a 10-step AI job search. See all 10 episodes, the tools used and answers to common questions on the series page.