Synthetic intelligence (AI) is all over the place, together with the hiring course of. From candidates utilizing instruments like ChatGPT to observe interviews to recruiters utilizing applicant monitoring methods (ATS), AI has turn into a element that requires deft navigation expertise inside these realms. Optimizing your resume is a technique to ensure your utility has the most effective probability of being thought of, however how are you aware if it’s actually at its finest?
Nicely, who higher to examine than AI itself?
I dug into the world of AI optimization instruments geared toward job seekers to find how they can assist candidates, the most effective choices obtainable and the issues to be careful for whereas utilizing them.
What AI job utility checkers can do
Like most know-how, not all AI optimization instruments are created equal. Contemplate normal phrase processors like Microsoft Phrase, Pages and Google Docs. Each does the identical primary factor, but they range in how they’re used, what their capabilities are and the way correct sure options like grammar help may be. That is simply as true of AI-powered optimization instruments.
There are tons of choices for utilizing AI to examine the optimization of your job utility supplies, however the ones we examined for this text have been: Weekday, NodeFlair, ResumeGo, MyPerfectResume, SkillSyncer, Enhancv, ResyMatch and Jobscan.
Whereas not common, the commonest primary capabilities that AI-optimization instruments provide job seekers embody:
- Resume and canopy letter scoring and optimization suggestions: Helps to establish formatting, key phrases, phrasing and extra to make sure your supplies are as skilled wanting and sounding as they are often. When scoring, many present a quantity out of 100 to indicate how optimized your supplies are at a look.
- Resume match ranking: Compares your resume to others of the same job title (for example, an “editor”) or compares it on to the job description of the job you’re making use of for. They will additionally provide recommendations for translating your expertise to be extra relevant to the job posting.
- Resume constructing: Supplies format templates, transfers information from current resumes and affords different simple methods to change your resume over to an ATS-friendly structure.
Does rating on an AI checker actually make or break your utility?
Let’s be clear right here: No AI-powered device can assure that you just’ll get employed someplace. They will’t even assure a human will see your utility. Whereas it’s true that seven in 10 firms plan to make use of some type of AI inside the hiring course of by the top of 2025, that doesn’t imply {that a} machine is making the ultimate name.
Profession coach Rebecca Henninger notes that “ATS, or applicant monitoring methods, are actually not more than digital submitting cupboards. They’re the methods HR and recruiting professionals use to handle the hiring course of, from preliminary consumption by means of interview levels and even for extending affords.”
Russell Ayles, founding father of Etisk, performed some analysis of his personal into the subject and located that the big majority of recruiters didn’t have their applicant pile scored or pre-selected by an ATS. When resumes did not make it to a human recruiter, it was extra usually to do with sure or no questions (that are a kind of “killer query” or “knockout query”) than something associated to an optimized resume. As an illustration, knockout questions resembling whether or not you’re licensed to work in a selected location or whether or not you meet a primary job qualification had way more influence on an utility’s success than key phrase alternative.
How a lot do AI checkers value?
The price of utilizing these AI-optimization instruments varies drastically. Some, resembling NodeFlair, promote being completely free. Others, resembling Jobscan, provide a couple of free scans per thirty days, however then add a paywall for extra.
Under is an instance of how a lot a few of these AI-powered utility optimization instruments value per thirty days on the time of this writing. Although some provide free or discounted charges at first or for a couple of scans every month, these charges are what you’ll be able to count on to pay should you plan to make use of the instruments usually.
Weekday: Free
NodeFlair: Free
ResumeGo: Free to one-time $10 cost
MyPerfectResume: $8 to $24 per thirty days
SkillSyncer: Free or $12 to $15 per thirty days
Enhancv: $13 to $25 per thirty days
ResyMatch (Cultivated Tradition): $14 to $28 per thirty days
Jobscan: Free to $50 per thirty days
The key behind the scoring
Whereas the scoring and ranking methods could be a fascinating technique to see the place your resume at present stands, you shouldn’t depend on them to inform the entire story. If an organization is making its cash primarily by serving to candidates optimize, reformat or in any other case revise their resume, it’s within the firm’s finest curiosity to say {that a} resume wants a variety of assist.
To check out these websites, I used my very own resume and in contrast it throughout among the hottest AI checkers. First, I examined an outdated resume that I knew wasn’t optimized nicely for AI, and my optimization scores ranged extensively from 39% to 75%.
Subsequent, I used NodeFlair’s free resume builder to revise my resume to be totally up to date and optimized in response to the ideas every web site had offered.
Picture: Earlier than and after picture of my resume pre-optimization and post-optimization utilizing NodeFlair’s resume builder. (Contact data has been eliminated at high.)
From there, I did a ultimate scan with every web site utilizing the newly optimized resume. With some websites, resembling NodeFlair, these modifications made a giant distinction in my rating. I used to be in a position to go from 45 to 87 out of 100. Nevertheless, this didn’t essentially translate to a greater job match or a stronger resume optimization rating for the entire websites. Among the scores remained the identical regardless of my modifications, whereas others rose however nonetheless had hassle studying key components of my resume (resembling my contact data).
That stated, on the websites with paywalls, there was a moderately suspicious pattern. Even with the modifications, I couldn’t get my resume into the “good” space for any of them. For instance, MyPerfectResume initially scored me at 52 and gave the brand new resume a 79, nevertheless it categorised my optimized resume as merely “common resume energy,” since their “good” rating is something above 80.
Picture: Rating on MyPerfectResume earlier than and after making AI-optimization modifications.
Whereas it’s completely potential that it was person error that stored my resume out of the “good” sections, it was nonetheless reminder to not depend on the optimization checkers completely.
In accordance with Henninger, “Instruments like Jobscan can be utilized, identical to ChatGPT, to assist candidates perceive what the required and desired {qualifications} for a task are, however the scoring function and all the opposite ‘hacks’ do extra hurt than good for jobseekers.”
After testing out the entire instruments talked about above, listed here are a couple of suggestions that I like to recommend when utilizing any of them:
- In the event you’re utilizing the scores or ranking methods, examine your resume throughout two completely different websites to match.
- The customized recommendations for enchancment are considerably extra helpful than the ranking itself. As an illustration, on my resume, each web site agreed I ought to have a abstract, so I knew that was a change that I wanted to make.
- Resume builders are advantageous to make use of, however be cautious of paywalls should you don’t plan to subscribe. Many gained’t allow you to obtain or edit your new resume with out paying, which can imply a complete lot of wasted work.
- Simply because a web site claims one thing is an ATS-friendly format doesn’t imply it’s true. A number of instances websites created columns, added footage, used uncommon fonts and created different parts that may be onerous for an ATS to course of.
- Keep in mind that on the finish of the day, an AI-optimized resume is sweet, however a resume that’s ugly, boring or onerous to learn for human eyes will trigger issues of its personal. AI isn’t hiring you—recruiters are. Guarantee that your utility works for each.
Picture courtesy of Excellent Wave/Shutterstock
