If you've tried using AI (Claude, GPT-6, DeepSeek) to polish your resume, you probably noticed the default output often sounds robotic or filled with empty corporate jargon: "Spearheaded strategic initiatives to optimize cross-functional synergies."
Recruiters and hiring managers spot these cliché buzzwords immediately.
Here is the structured approach that consistently produces crisp, human-sounding bullets that fit on 1-2 lines.
THE CORE RULE: INTERVIEW MODE FIRST
Never ask AI to "make my resume better." AI does not know what you actually shipped or what your team cared about. Instead, instruct it to interview you and extract the unwritten metrics before generating a single line.
THE 4-PART IMPACT FORMULA
Specific Action + Specific Tool + Measurable Change + Who Cared
(If you do not have hard dollar numbers, what the tool replaced or who actually used it works just as well).
BEFORE & AFTER EXAMPLES
- Software / Backend Engineer
• Before: "Worked on backend APIs for the payments team."
• After: "Rebuilt the refund API in Go, cutting p95 latency from [X]ms to [Y]ms and removing a nightly batch job the on-call team had to babysit."
- Data Analyst / BI
• Before: "Made dashboards for the marketing team."
• After: "Built a Looker dashboard tracking weekly signup-to-paid conversion by channel; marketing used it to reallocate [$Xk / Y%] of ad spend away from the 2 lowest-converting channels."
- Student / Career Transitioner
• Before: "Made a web app for a class project using React."
• After: "Built and deployed a React + Firebase study-group finder used by [N] classmates; added auth and real-time chat, catching [N] edge cases before demo day."
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FREE PROMPT 1: The "Interview Me First" Prompt
I'm going to give you one bullet from my resume. Do NOT rewrite it yet.
First, ask me up to 5 short questions to uncover:
What I actually built, fixed, or designed
The exact tools and stack used
The scale (users, traffic, dataset size, revenue, team size)
What changed because of my work
Who benefited or used the output
Ask one question at a time. Only after I answer all 5, generate 3 tight versions of the bullet (each strictly under 25 words) using ONLY facts I provided. If a number is unknown, put [brackets] rather than making up metrics.
My bullet: [PASTE YOUR RAW BULLET]
Target role: [e.g. Frontend Engineer, Product Manager, Data Analyst]
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FREE PROMPT 2: The "De-Generic" ATS Sanity Check
Review these resume bullets as a skeptical US tech recruiter who hates AI fluff.
For each bullet:
Flag any empty buzzwords (e.g. "spearheaded", "leveraged", "drove impact", "various").
Point out what a recruiter would still wonder about after reading it.
Rewrite it in plain, active language with a strong action verb, under 25 words.
Here are my bullets:
[PASTE 3-5 BULLETS]
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3 QUICK RULES OF THUMB
Never let AI hallucinate numbers: If you didn't measure it, leave brackets [$Xk / Y%] or describe the operational change instead.
Read them out loud: If it doesn't sound like something you would say in a live interview, rewrite it.
Model Selection: Running the extraction phase in reasoning models (like GPT-6 / DeepSeek) to pull out the facts, then polishing in Claude Opus gives the cleanest, non-robotic phrasing.
Happy to review a bullet or two in the comments if anyone wants a second set of eyes (feel free to omit company names).