There are thousands of web pages out there dedicated to giving you tips on how to improve your resume. This is not one of those pages. Instead, I thought it might be useful to see a real-time example of how three of the top resume optimization tools actually work. Using my own resume, I will take you on a resume improvement journey. Let’s get started.

Improving your resume

Before we get to the resume optimization tools, I’m assuming you have a resume already. Any job hunter has a resume ready to be handed out on a moment’s notice. I like how my resume looks, but every time I go over it while customizing it for a new job opening I see something that I want to change. This is natural. A resume is a working document. It should be tailored to every job application and should be tinkered with when needed.

Hire a professional resume writer

If your resume is pretty basic and you think it needs some work, I highly recommend hiring a professional resume writer. There are online tools out there that claim to instantly improve your resume, and we will test out a few of them below, but there is still no substitution for a human talking to you about your work experience and crafting a personalized resume based on your specific career journey. Yes, it can be expensive. Expect to pay at least $300. But it’s an investment in yourself, and in my opinion it is money well spent.

How do you find a professional resume writer? Usually word of mouth is the best option. Ask your friends or even you LinkedIn connections for a reference. There are lots of resume writers out there, but you should go with one who has certifications and/or membership in professional associations, including the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARWCC) and the National Resume Writers’ Association (NRWA).

I chose Scott Singer as a resume writer because he was referred to me, and it worked out great. He is a total pro and was able to tell my own professional story better than I could tell it myself. Plus my resume looks great and is properly formatted for all the tracking systems companies now use. Whether you choose Scott or someone else, be sure to go with a professional resume writer who does this for a living. It will be well worth your time and money.

Resume optimization tools

Here is my resume, for reference (screenshot below). It is two pages and is laid out in the way suggested by my resume writer.

My resume is in good shape and I like how it looks, but I am always tinkering and thinking about ways to improve it. Let’s see what changes three of the AI-driven resume optimizers suggest for me. Note: I’m using the free option for all these tools, but they do require you to create an account to access the services.

Rezi AI

After signing up for a free account, I ran my resume through the Rezi AI resume builder. I did not target it for a job opening, but that is a worthwhile option if you are editing your resume for a specific a job.

Rezi takes your existing resume, analyzes it using proprietary AI technology, and assigns you a resume score. It helpfully tells you what parts of your resume are good and what needs improvement. Unfortunately for me, Rezi said my resume scored 72/100 and needs a lot of improvements. Here is what I need to do, along with Rezi’s advice:

• Add measured responsibilities and achievements to my experiences (it is critical to give context to the size and scope of the work that you did)
• Add one additional bullet point to one of my experiences (it is critical to include between 3-10 bullet points)
• Two of my experiences have weak bullet points (“weak verbs” fail to explain your experience with meaningful language)
• Format my skills into categories such as hard skills, soft skills, etc.
• Correct the date formatting (months should be fully spelled rather than abbreviated)
• The summary should be four full lines, or approximately 60 words

Rezi AI analysis

Overall, the advice that Rezi offers is useful, if general. It is true that all experiences should include numbers if possible. Percentage increase in clicks, new revenue generated, and so on are great to add. And bullet points are the best way to present information on a resume, though 10 seems excessive.

Strong verbs are important, but that is subjective. I use “manage,” “direct,” and “supervise,” among other verbs. Those seem strong enough to me. And I disagree that the skills section needs to be categorized, but that is a personal choice. I agree with most of Rezi’s advice, but it didn’t give me anything new. I guess they save the insightful advice for those who pay for a subscription.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT can be used for pretty much anything, including help with resume writing. It can’t do the design and formatting for you, but it can certainly take any content you provide and spin it into usable material. It might suggest some of those “strong verbs” that are so important. Let’s see what it can do with my resume.

After logging into ChatGPT I had to figure out the right query for what I need. I settled on “optimize my resume” and fed it my entire resume minus the contact information. The results were eye-opening to say the least.

ChatGPT is a night and day difference from Rezi, and not just because it said my resume is “well-detailed and demonstrates significant achievements.” The way it distilled my existing content down into specific talking points is remarkable.

ChatGPT results analysis

Here are the four general recommendations it gave me:

1. Headline & Summary Section:
   Your opening is strong, but consider tightening it to focus more on measurable achievements or industry-specific keywords for the target role. For example:
   “Dynamic Copywriter and Communications Leader with proven expertise in SEO optimization, brand storytelling, and high-impact content strategies that drive measurable results.”
2. Skills Section:
   • Split the “Skills & Competencies” into categories for readability (e.g., “Technical Tools,” “Core Competencies,” “SEO & Analytics Tools”).
   • Highlight technical proficiencies like WordPress, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs separately as these are high-priority keywords for ATS scanning.
3. Consistency:
   • Ensure uniform formatting for all dates, e.g., “Jan 2021–Dec 2024” or “2021–2024.”
   • Use consistent bullet punctuation (all with or without periods).
4. Action Verbs:
   • Use more varied, dynamic action verbs to start each bullet, such as “Engineered,” “Spearheaded,” “Boosted,” or “Enhanced,” to emphasize leadership and innovation.

I really don’t have much more to add here. This is excellent advice! ChatGPT gave me specific examples of ways to improve my resume rather than general suggestions like Rezi. I will say, however, that my dates are formatted consistently, so it’s not perfect. And it made a few mistakes, which is why editing is so important. But I could throw what it gave me into a Word doc and have a great resume after 10 minutes of editing.

Keep in mind that this is after a professional resume writer already crafted my resume, so ChatGPT was starting with some pretty solid content. I still recommend going that route if you have the budget just to give you a personalized resume, but ChatGPT should be your first stop for advice on ways to improve the content you have already. I’m definitely going to incorporate some of these changes into my resume going forward.

Indeed.com Instant Resume Report

The final stop on our resume improvement adventure takes us to Indeed.com, one of the most popular job search sites on the internet. Anyone who creates an account can access the site’s free instant resume report, which is different than the paid resume review services that are also available. After uploading my resume, Indeed offered me seven suggestions to improve it, most of which were pretty minor.

• Change “modernizations” to “modernization”
• Change “storyboarding” to “story boarding”
• Add the end date to my graduate school (even though none of my educational listings have dates on them)
• Remove GPA from graduate school listing (No way man! I’m proud of my 4.0 GPA)
• Remove early education details (it says there is no need to include high school details, which is true but my resume doesn’t list anything related to high school)
• Remove a few words to get the word count down to 600 words max and only include the most recent 10 years of work experience
• Use a wider variety of action verbs

Indeed.com Instant Resume Report analysis

These suggestions range from inaccurate to incomplete to actually helpful. The most helpful tip was that I use the action verbs “managed, built” 10 times in my resume, which I didn’t know and is something I will change. Other than that the review didn’t yield any new information. Overall this tool didn’t help me improve my resume, but it also only took about 1 minute to do so the time and effort required is about equal to the information gained.

Conclusion

In conclusion, optimizing your resume requires two steps:

1. Hire a professional resume writer to help tell the story of your career journey
2. Take the finished resume and run it through ChatGPT

That’s it! Once you have a resume you like and have it analyzed by ChatGPT, you can incorporate the suggested changes into your new resume and you’ll be off and running, ready to tackle the job market. You don’t need to use Rezi or Indeed or any other free resume optimization tool, but of course it doesn’t hurt to do so. ChatGPT is a game-changer in the resume world and I am going to use its suggestions in my own resume.