Cross analysis: resume to job description

If you’ve met with a career advisor for a resume review, you may have been advised to use job postings of interest to help you tailor your resume. You can manually review a job posting to pick out the skills and qualifications an employer is looking for. Then, review your resume to see which of those you’ve already highlighted, which ones you haven’t emphasized, and which you may not have experience with yet.

This is a great step not just to help you present yourself effectively to potential employers, but also to help you recognize and prepare to discuss any gaps there may be between your experiences and what an employer is seeking. AI is a tool you can use to help with this process, and which could also provide an even greater depth of cross-analysis. 

As a start, one strategy is that you could use AI to compare action verbs between your resume and a job posting. For example, you might ask, “how can I make my resume align more with the language in the job posting”? One caveat here is that you may need to give AI some guidance on what part of the job posting you want it to focus on. For example, putting in a prompt to pay attention to “non-negotiable” vs. “preferred” sections. 

As a next step, you could ask AI more detailed questions to help you learn more about your fit for the job. For example, you could ask: 

• “Based on my resume, what aspects of this job do you think I would do well in?” 

• “Based on my resume, what aspects of this job do you think I have less experience in?” 

Questions like these can help you identify and prepare for possible areas of weakness in your application, but can also serve as a good reminder that sometimes experiences that seem to be less relevant can actually be great ways for you to highlight relevant skills. AI may also identify a weakness in your resume that you do already have experience with but hadn’t included or emphasized in your application materials, allowing you the opportunity to make mention of those skills. 

Working on bullet points

An effective use of AI tools is to edit your resume bullet points. Consider asking the tool to analyze factors such as redundancy between bullet points, or whether or not you are utilizing strong action verbs.  

It is important to provide instruction when asking for analysis. Consider instructing it to check if you are following PAR statement (project, action, result) framework, for instance. It can offer suggestions of ways you can better follow the PAR statement method.  

Another interesting prompt could be to describe to it how you want to come across via your different experiences. For instance, do you want to display your research capabilities, or that you can work well across disciplines? Or perhaps your communication skills are what set you apart? Describe this to the AI model and ask if you are effectively representing that version of yourself. With that insight, or “fresh pair of eyes,” you might realize that you aren’t describing yourself as you think you are.  

Setting guide rails

Setting instructions for the AI model is a must if you want to make the most of it and use it ethically. These rules, otherwise referred to as “system prompts,” allow you to mold the results that you receive into a form that makes the most sense for your needs. In essence, you are explaining to the model how you want a task to be completed. 

In addition, you can ask the model to make sure to incorporate your own voice in any edits that it suggests. If you ask it to analyze your own resume writing style, it can factor that into any recommendations that it makes. This can help to keep your resume feeling authentic to you and true to your voice.  

Becoming reliant and not being critical of results 

While AI can certainly be a valuable tool to help you prepare your job application materials, it’s best used as a starting point and to help you generate ideas. Being able to present yourself and your background, skills, and accomplishments is a valuable skill to learn and practice for yourself. While you can use AI to help you prepare, you will still need to be able to present yourself during interviews, career fairs, and networking conversations so be aware of becoming too reliant on AI’s help. 

One strategy to challenge yourself to use AI truly as a starting point is to ask it not to generate content. Instead, you might have AI help you to grow as a resume writer by asking you questions to help you reflect or expand on your experiences. Consider providing it with a system prompt that instructs it to serve in the role of advisor, asking it to be supportive and detailed in its feedback. You could also ask it to explain its reasoning, allowing you to build up your own understanding. 

Be sure to also carefully review any AI analysis as it may sometimes say something that is incorrect or doesn’t make sense. It may even make up an experience in order to fit your resume to a job posting, otherwise known as AI Hallucination. You certainly wouldn’t want to be asked in an interview about an experience that AI created but that you’ve never had, so be sure to review any AI analysis or content. 

Data protection

Data security is an important topic when it comes to working with AI tools, and that holds true when working on your resume. If you are uploading the contents of your resume into an AI model, it is worth considering ways to safeguard your data, as resumes can contain sensitive information, like contact information. 

Most mainstream AI tools have ways to ensure that your data is not saved in the system. For instance, ChatGPT allows you to turn off “Improve the model for everyone,” meaning that your data is not used to train the model in the future. Other models have similar systems. Regardless of the model, it is worth it to look into what data security options exist, and to always be mindful of what you are choosing to provide to these models.  

Conclusion 

AI can have tremendous benefits for your resume writing, assuming that you use it in an intentional and thoughtful manner. By using some of the tips above, you can get efficient help in the present while also growing as a resume writer for the future.  

If you want hands on help with your resume, schedule an appointment with CAPD – we’re happy to help! 

If you feel that you are constantly throwing your resume into a black-hole, there is a chance that your resume is not well-suited to make it through the ATS. Here are some tips to improve your odds of effectively navigating the ATS.

Need additional support on your resume, CV, cover letter or job application? Schedule an appointment with us.

*Although this article is about resumes, much of these tips can also apply to other documents you may upload including CVs and cover letters.

This guide will help provide the basics, and as you have specific questions not addressed in this guide, be sure to schedule an appointment with us in CAPD.

Alternatively, you can follow this more closely guided hands-on module!

Your resume

With your resume, you basically have an 8½ by 11-inch piece of real-estate to demonstrate to your prospective employer that you are a good fit for the position. Your resume is a marketing piece—you are the product. You want to be relevant, concise, and formatted. An unformatted, full description of everything you have done will not be helpful as your reader may spend only six seconds on initial review.

If you are completely lost as to where to begin, you may want to start by looking at example resumes, or here are some sample layouts (A, B) you can borrow.

Through this article, I want you to feel more confident about the message you are sending to your targeted reader. After all, it is your name that will be at the top of the document, so you should feel confident in what you put your name on.

Whether you are updating an existing resume or starting from scratch, here are some tips to help you write a stronger resume:

Relevance

The key to writing a successful resume is to keep in mind: “Who are you writing it for?” You will probably send your resume to a recruiter or hiring manager, a professor for a research opportunity, or the president of a student organization you wish to join. Depending on whom you send it to will determine several aspects of your resume.

Relevance is my short-hand for “consider your reader.” Throughout this post I will refer to relevancy and how it may impact your document. A couple of things that I think are beneficial to help you think about relevance can be located in the job description:

1. Action verbs
2. Job-specific terminology
3. Location in the description

Avoid being your own roadblock. If you have done something (or have an associated skill set or ability), try to make sure it is reflected on your resume. Pull from your:

• Past/current experiences
• Projects or coursework
• Skills you have developed on your own
• Past education
• Anything you have done

The job description is not the only place you can find information to leverage in your resume. You may also want to review other jobs at the organization, or language from the organization’s website. Likewise, having informational interviews with different contacts in the company (some of whom you may find through Advisors Hub, the Alumni Directory, or LinkedIn) may also highlight additional information you might want to include in your resume.

Basically, with your resume, you want to demonstrate that you understand what it may take to do the job that they need done. You want to be relevant to the position.

Content

The content of your resume is the key to being relevant. You will want to organize your content into different sections. Think of sections similar to a table of contents in a book or periodical—it will help the reader navigate to relevant sections faster. The most common sections are:

• Education
• Experience
• Skills

There are a host of other sections you may want to include depending on your background, and type of role you are targeting. You may also have multiple sections that are similar but that go by slightly different names (e.g. “Professional Experience” and “Volunteer Experience”).  You could have sections for awards/accomplishments, publications, licenses/certifications, trainings, projects, coursework, interests, and anything else you think might be relevant to your prospective employer.

Here are some of the different sections and some considerations for organizing content within a section. Remember that you will always want to make certain the most relevant content is presented to your reader.

Header

The goal of your header is to provide contact information and to efficiently use the space provided so that you can maximize the other sections of your resume.

At a minimum, you should include a contact email address and phone number. For your phone number, make sure you have a professional voicemail greeting. For your email address, make sure it is something that looks professional. Conventionally, you can include your address, or provide at least your city and state to provide a general geographic location if space is limited. You may also wish to include links to e-portfolios, professional websites, or online work samples if space permits.

Now, check your resume:

Education

The Education section can help the reader understand a bit more about what you know. In this section you can include degrees and completion information. You may also want to include coursework, test scores, awards, and activities. As a first-year student, you may want to keep high school or secondary school listed on your resume as a means to show additional coursework, test scores, or GPA. Over time, you may want to remove high school information as space is needed for more recent information on your resume.

Similar sections to education might include training, certifications, and licensure. Although you may see education at the top of most resumes, it might not always go there (especially after you graduate and build experience), but for most first-year students I recommend keeping it at the top.

Now, check your resume:

Experience

Experience is a broad term that basically encompasses things that you have done—so use that to your advantage. You could certainly have a single “Experience” section, but you may find it beneficial to think about clustering or grouping your experiences into meaningful sections. Sometimes I group experiences into two sections:

1. Relevant Experience; and
2. Additional Experience

Now, “Relevant” and “Additional” are just placeholder terms. Are you going for a computer science position? Consider having a “Computer Science Experience” section if you have some entries that will support that section title. You might have sections called “Projects”, “Leadership Experience”, “Service Projects”, etc.—basically, keep in mind how these sections are relevant to your end reader and curate your experiences that align with what they are looking for.

Each experience should have information on your job title or role, the organization/company, location, and dates (month and year). You may choose to clarify your experience through bulleted PAR (Project, Activity, Results) statements.

These bulleted PAR statements allow you to morph the experience into different directions depending on what you did in that role. For example, if you were a grocery bagger at a grocery store, you may not find it beneficial to have a bullet point that says you “bagged groceries”—since that may already be understood. However, if you assisted with analysis for inventory, or helped with asset protection, or maybe even supported cash-handling—those are the bullets that will help your reader achieve a deeper understanding of what you are capable of—provided they are relevant.

Here is a way to craft a PAR statement:

Start with an action verb, add in a relevant task and extend it to either an outcome or accomplishment. When possible, try to quantify your work and outcomes to help deepen the understanding for the reader. Estimations and approximations are fine at the start, but over time start to keep metrics around your experiences.

Now, check your resume:

Skills

Your skill section provides a quick way for your reader to see the different skills you have acquired over time, regardless of context. Yes, you can still mention the skills you used within your experience bullets, but a skills section provides a quick way for many readers to quickly identify if you have the skills needed for the role. Depending on the quantity of skills you choose to list, you may want to organize this section into sub-sections.

I do recommend keeping this list to technical, procedural, language, or laboratory skills, and avoid social or interpersonal skills that might benefit from the additional context of a bulleted experience (e.g. leadership, teamwork, etc.).

Now, check your resume:

Other sections

There is no limit to the sections you can have on your resume, provided you always keep in mind the interests of the end reader. You might have sections that cover awards, accomplishments, service work, publications, coursework, patents, interests, etc.

Now, check your resume:

Formatting & organization

Now that you have your sections, it is important to make certain that they are organized and formatted to help your reader see the content they find most relevant.

Formatting

No matter how impressive your background is, if your document is formatted poorly, it may make the reader think twice about reading your resume. Overall, your format should be easy to read for both your human reader and applicant tracking systems. Here are some key things to consider when formatting your resume:

Font

Is your font accessible and easy to read? Common fonts like Arial and Times New Roman are examples of fonts that can work, and avoid heavily stylized, curly, or silly fonts. You will want to make certain that your font is legible in print, so avoid going under a 10-point size (11-point works for most fonts). You can use text emphasis like bold, italics, or underline—but use them sparingly.

Margins & whitespace

Although relevant content is the star of your resume, avoid filling an entire page with it. Line breaks, margins, and indentations can help improve the readability of your document. Keep margins uniformly between ½ inch and 1 inch, and leave white space to make it easy to read and see the different content sections.

Consistency

Attention to detail is a sought-after ability by many employers, and a quick way to undermine that is to be inconsistent. If you use a specific date format, a specific font size for headers, or a specific shape of bullet—be consistent.

One area you do not have to be consistent with is in quantity of experience, bullets, or entries. Too many times I have seen students try to have exactly two bullets for each experience. If you feel that you only had one meaningful bullet from an experience, list one. If you feel you had three, list three.

Notes on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

ATSs are systems (usually algorithms) that review an application before it is sent to and reviewed by a human being. Formatting your resume for an ATS is important so that your resume can get further into the process. Since ATS is an umbrella term for a suite of different software packages and in-house solutions, it is hard to find a uniform agreement as to how best to format a resume to get through to a human being. Here are some things that usually help:

• Avoid text boxes, templates, and tables
• Avoid colors, images, or graphics
• Focus on relevant content (specifically keywords)
• Use common, easy to read fonts
• Submit documents in DOC/DOCX or PDF

Here are additional tips to make your resume ATS-friendly.

Organization

Regardless of the sections you have, you will want to make certain you prioritize the sections from most-relevant to less relevant.

The key with the order you choose is to hold the reader’s attention and to keep delivering information that they consider relevant. The one section I recommend keeping fixed at the top is your header. Ultimately, this is your document and you can position sections where you see fit.

Within the sections, there are two ways you need to organize content:

• Dates
• Relevance

Some resume formats place a greater emphasis on relevance over dates, however the most common resume structure, Chronological, is what we are focusing on here. The rule of a Chronological resume is simple: if a section has dates, you will organize by dates; if not, you can organize by relevance.

Keep in mind that dates are listed in reverse chronological order, meaning you will start with the more recent (or current) items and work backwards.

Now, check your resume:

Final remarks

Now that you have written your resume, think about how you might modify it for different positions. You may find it beneficial tailor your resume if you are applying to different roles in different companies–really make certain you are being relevant to each position. Now, you may feel that this is a lot of additional work, but if you want your resume to get past the dreaded ATS and into the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager who will see your relevant attributes, you need to make certain you give them what they are looking for. In applying for positions, I recommend leaning more on the quality of your application more than the quantity of applications.

In the end, this document will carry your name so you should feel confident about it. If you are not feeling confident, or feel you might benefit from additional insight, I do encourage you to schedule an appointment with CAPD or an Alumni Advisor. You should keep in mind that if you show your resume to five different people, you might receive five different pieces of advice, so also incorporate your own view points into your finished document.

Many of us in Career Advising & Professional Development (CAPD) have had an opportunity to play around with the latest disruptive technology: ChatGPT from OpenAI. ChatGPT, a chatbot prototype launched in November 2022, has demonstrated use in reviewing code, compiling ideas, answering general questions, and writing full documents including poems, plays, letters, essays, and more. So, naturally, we wanted to factor in how ChatGPT may, or may not, be helpful with career related topics including resume writing, interview preparation, and personal statement writing.

Here are four considerations in deciding whether to leverage ChatGPT (or similar technology) for your career:

1. It’s only a tool

ChatGPT is a tool, and as such requires some guidance and constraints in using it for your career. You may find it helpful to develop resume templates, draft cover letters, or develop outreach emails, but when the template no longer suits your needs—it’s better to build upon it (or scrap it altogether). Make certain you take the time to present yourself as you would like to.  Use it to examine possibilities, but stop short of fully relying on it. ChatGPT is a starting point, do not let it be your finishing point.

2. Evaluate your sources

ChatGPT relies on a vast amount of input data, so it may be challenging to determine if the information you are getting is good or valid. There are also concerns about whether information is true or if it is copywritten. Cross reference the output of ChatGPT with insights you obtain from your network connections, recruiters/hiring managers, and other reliable resources. And trust your gut; if you feel that something is not right, it is healthy to be skeptical, ask additional questions, and seek deeper understanding of your topic.

3. Safe guard your privacy

This AI learns from having information added to it by both the developers and the users. If you share something with it, it can learn and retain this information for much longer than you may expect. You should read more about OpenAI’s privacy policies and consider whether you want to share potentially sensitive information with it. Be careful sharing—as the saying goes, diamonds are forever and the internet comes close.

4. Be an above-average human

Since ChatGPT indexes web pages to “learn” what to write, it is probably starting off with giving you a very basic and average response. We know that many of you seek to be above average (after all, you made it into MIT!), so take the time to share out what makes you shine! Allow ChatGPT to help you get started, but take time to create something worthy of your humanity. When I asked ChatGPT to write a resume for me, the result was less than impressive. The content lacked rich details, because it doesn’t know everything about me. I could coach it through things I contributed to or experiences I had, but that would take a lot more work. Likewise, as AI-generated documents become more common, organizations may use technology to counter it as well.

We understand that there are many tools available to assist your career, with new ones appearing all the time. Keep in mind that CAPD is one of them. Feel free to schedule an appointment with a Career Advisor to help you navigate these tools and your career.  

PAR Statements

To demonstrate your skills and achievements, use PAR statements to clearly and concisely describe your experiences:

Start each bullet point statement with a strong action verb (i.e. ACTIVITY), followed by the PROJECT, and then tell the reader the RESULT of your actions. In other words, answer the following questions: “What did you do?”, “Why did you do it?”, and “What was the outcome?”

Here is another way to visualize and construct PAR statements:

Start with a strong action verb that relates to a skill the employer is seeking. Then, provide context to the reader by adding the relevant task. Reflect keywords, action verbs, and industry-specific language you have found in the job description. Extend this relevant task to an outcome to demonstrate the purpose or the “why?” behind it. Lastly, include any meaningful or noteworthy accomplishment that came of your actions.

Using numbers to show impact

Metrics, or quantitative language, helps your reader see the impact and the tangible outcomes of your efforts. There are several ways you can effectively quantify the results of your work:

• Financial performance

  Demonstrate financial performance by citing revenue, net profit, or sales generated. Include the specific dollar amount.

  • Designed and executed company’s marketing strategies that drove a $500k increase in annual revenue
  • Organized a series of fundraising events with 150+ attendees; generated $10,000 in donations

• Increased (or reduced) x by y%

  Show how you made a difference, improved processes, productivity, employee satisfaction, and other aspects of the workplace.

  • Performed electromagnetic compatibility testing on medical equipment, reducing RF emissions of equipment by 50%
    
  • Improved user experience on client platform, contributing to a 20% increase in subscribers over 6 month period

• Quantity of work

  Make the scale of your accomplishments clear to a hiring manager by including quantifiable metrics like the size of your department, event, budget, or data set.

  • Developed prototype to identify key influencers on Twitter using clustering techniques over 100,000 data points in Python
  • Managed project re-design process to improve and consolidate end-to-end service; restructured communication flow among 10 departments, and cut down paperwork by 75%

See more: How to quantify your resume (50+ examples)

How to best represent your experiences

Remember that an employer is only scanning your resume document for a few seconds. Writing descriptions in paragraph form can make it tricky for the reader to find important information easily. Instead, use bullet points to separate the information into bite-sized chunks, keeping each statement to 1-2  lines.

 Another common mistake to avoid when writing your resume is the use of first-person pronouns. It is understood that everything on your resume is about you and your personal experiences. Communicate your experiences in a clear and concise way, as shown in the examples below.

• Sample First-Year PAR statements

  Math Team Captain: Organized review sessions for 15 participants and scored practice tests, leading team to top 5 finishes in Arizona’s State Math League

  National Honor Society Service Chair: Coordinated the Senior Citizens Ball, raising $1500 for a new Senior Activities Center

  Swim Instructor: Taught children between the ages of four and six basic swimming techniques to promote water safety and awareness

  Radio Shack Assistant Manager: Communicated product details and provided exceptional customer service to 50+ people per day; Promoted from cashier to Assistant Manager after only four months

  Burger King Team Member: Collaborated with food service team in a fast-paced environment to prepare orders based on customer specifications; received food-handling and cashier training

• Sample Upperclassman/Graduate Student PAR statements

  Undergraduate Researcher: Investigated effects of gas phase oxygen concentration levels on Chinese Hamster Ovary cells in order to establish optimal settings for cell growth, reducing cell division time by 30%.

  Safety & Regulatory Engineering Intern: Performed electromagnetic compatibility testing on X-ray, ultrasound, and CT devices to ensure proper functionality; Reduced RF emissions of medical equipment by 50%.

  Project Manager for Senior Design Team: Collect and interpret flow data and presented results to 5-person management team.

  Software Intern: Incorporated new algorithms into pipeline simulation modules and achieved a tenfold increase in speed

• Additional resources

  • Enhance your resume: A guide for first-year undergraduates (with templates)
  • PhD resumes for industry jobs
  • Five steps to writing a great resume
  • Resume action verbs
  • Resume checklist
  • Sample resumes

General format

Contact information

Education

Experience

Skills

Activities/Honors/Leadership

When’s the last time you read a job description? If you’re currently job hunting, your immediate answer might be something like “last night” or “a few minutes ago.” But ask yourself: When’s the last time you really read a job posting, taking the time to absorb every word and truly reflect on the content? Your answer might be different.

“A lot of job seekers will do a cursory glance [at] a job description and then apply, without ever thinking about or referring to the job description again,” says Muse career coach Jennifer Fink, CEO and founder of Fink Development. It’s easy to fall into this kind of rhythm, especially when you’re trying to apply to as many openings as you can. But “this is a mistake,” Fink says—one that can prolong your job search or cause you to miss out on a job you might have loved.

Thoroughly reading every job description, noting certain information, and using it the right way can not only lower the number of applications you need to submit to land a job, but also increase your chances of getting interviews, help you prepare for those interviews, and ensure you can make an informed decision about whether a job is right for you.

(Still looking for jobs to apply to? You can find hundreds of thousands of postings on The Muse!)

What’s a Job Description and Why Is It So Important to Read One Closely?

What’s Actually in a Job Description?

What Should You Pay Attention to as You Read a Job Description?

How Can You Use a Job Description Effectively in Every Phase of Your Job Hunt?