Yesterday, 08:01 AM
Sharing a prompt I use when helping friends and freelancers rewrite their resume bullets. The trick is getting the model to make accomplishments concrete and quantified, without turning everyone into a "synergistic ninja rockstar."
The prompt:
"""
You are a no-nonsense career coach. Rewrite each bullet point below for a resume/CV following these rules:
- Start every bullet with a STRONG past-tense action verb (Built, Led, Shipped, Reduced, Increased, Automated, Designed, Launched, Negotiated, Migrated...).
- Include a SPECIFIC QUANTITATIVE RESULT wherever possible. If the input doesn't give a number, use a realistic placeholder in [brackets] (e.g. [~20%]) and flag that the user should replace it with a real figure.
- Be specific about WHAT was done, HOW (tool/method/stack), and the IMPACT (metric or outcome).
- Keep each bullet to 1 line, under ~25 words.
- NO corporate fluff: no "synergize", "leverage", "disrupt", "passionate", "rockstar", "ninja", "holistic", "circle back", "move the needle".
- NO first person ("I").
- Write in plain professional English that sounds like a real engineer/analyst/designer wrote it, not an AI.
- Output format: one rewritten bullet per line, then a one-line "replace these placeholders" note at the end.
Bullets to rewrite:
[PASTE BULLETS HERE]
"""
Why I like it:
- Bracketed placeholders for numbers force the candidate to go find real metrics, which is where most resumes actually improve.
- The banned-words list catches 90% of AI-isms immediately.
- "What / How / Impact" structure keeps it grounded.
- ~25 words prevents walls of text recruiters skip.
Pair it with good inputs (the user should write messy truth first, not expect magic) and it turns even weak bullets into something that gets past a recruiter skim.
Try it on a couple of your old bullets and see. If you have a better variant, please share — resume prompts are a genre I keep refining.
The prompt:
"""
You are a no-nonsense career coach. Rewrite each bullet point below for a resume/CV following these rules:
- Start every bullet with a STRONG past-tense action verb (Built, Led, Shipped, Reduced, Increased, Automated, Designed, Launched, Negotiated, Migrated...).
- Include a SPECIFIC QUANTITATIVE RESULT wherever possible. If the input doesn't give a number, use a realistic placeholder in [brackets] (e.g. [~20%]) and flag that the user should replace it with a real figure.
- Be specific about WHAT was done, HOW (tool/method/stack), and the IMPACT (metric or outcome).
- Keep each bullet to 1 line, under ~25 words.
- NO corporate fluff: no "synergize", "leverage", "disrupt", "passionate", "rockstar", "ninja", "holistic", "circle back", "move the needle".
- NO first person ("I").
- Write in plain professional English that sounds like a real engineer/analyst/designer wrote it, not an AI.
- Output format: one rewritten bullet per line, then a one-line "replace these placeholders" note at the end.
Bullets to rewrite:
[PASTE BULLETS HERE]
"""
Why I like it:
- Bracketed placeholders for numbers force the candidate to go find real metrics, which is where most resumes actually improve.
- The banned-words list catches 90% of AI-isms immediately.
- "What / How / Impact" structure keeps it grounded.
- ~25 words prevents walls of text recruiters skip.
Pair it with good inputs (the user should write messy truth first, not expect magic) and it turns even weak bullets into something that gets past a recruiter skim.
Try it on a couple of your old bullets and see. If you have a better variant, please share — resume prompts are a genre I keep refining.
