Writing Resumes for Robots

An AI robot will accept, parse, and pass judgment on your resume.

If you're trying to beat the odds by using lots of keywords to get past the robot, you might as well go to the race track and bet on yesterday's races.

Don't try to trick the robot. Instead, shake hands with it. Help it become proud for having found someone so suitable for the job at hand.

10-Point Checklist

Get the job description. Use the unique terms it uses for that job and that industry.

Use the most relevant of these terms in the descriptions of your most recent jobs.

Help the robot estimate your years of experience with a specific skill by listing that skill in the job descriptions, which have start dates and end dates.

Use an easy-to-parse format, such as: Summary or Objective followed by Experience and Education in reverse chronological order.

If you include an Objective, include the name of the company you are applying to.

Play it safe: spell out acronyms before you use them. Brevity can leave the robot guessing.

If you are given the option, submit a Word document, with no headers, footers, tables, text boxes, or images.

Quantify accomplishments with actual numbers for time, people, money, and percent change.

Itemize skills by name; do not summarize by category. ("R, Python, Tableau" not "analytics programming")

Carefully review the things you have said or shown on social media accounts. Assume robots will find all of it.