Writing a resume used to be a time-consuming task, but thanks to AI, it's now faster and easier than ever. These tools can whip up a first resume draft in seconds, organizing your details, using strong language, and ensuring it gets past those pesky applicant tracking systems (ATS). 

But here's the thing: AI can’t capture what makes you, well, you.

As a Certified Resume Expert at Kickresume who reviewed over 400 resumes, I’ll walk you through the process of turning a good AI-generated resume into a great one — from enhancing the professional summary and adding specific achievements, to adjusting the skills section and including custom details like industry-relevant sections.

These tips will help you easily craft a resume that really highlights your unique career story.

Visual guide: AI-generated resume edited by a resume expert

To kick things off, let’s take a look at the transformation. Below you'll see the edited AI-generated resume with highlighted changes and notes explaining each improvement.

While the AI-generated resume served as a great starting point, this version illustrates the key areas that were improved, offering a clear visual guide to the tips I’ll discuss in detail throughout this article:

Here’s a quick overview of what was edited in the AI-generated resume:

  • Added additional contact details
  • Personalized resume summary with quantifiable achievements
  • Expanded basic job duties with quantifiable achievements
  • Added previous roles, company names, date ranges, and descriptions
  • Added Education section
  • Expanded core industry skills with specific hard skills
  • Replaced the Strengths section with a custom industry-relevant section Successful Marketing Campaigns
  • Personalized the original hobbies 
  • Adjusted font size and line spacing to fit everything on one page 

Now, let's have a look at how you can generate your own AI resume and edit it step-by-step.

1. Generate your resume

Generating a resume using AI tools is quite straightforward. The process typically involves inputting key pieces of information about your career like your job title, or sometimes even a description of the job that you're targeting. 

Various platforms offer AI-powered resume builders, and for this article, I’ve used Kickresume’s AI writer, which requires your name and most recent job title to create an AI resume.

Here's the fictive information I provided to the AI:

  • Name: Jane Doe
  • Most Recent Job Title: Marketing Manager

After entering these details, I chose a preferred resume template and the AI quickly generated a comprehensive resume. 

The generated version included a professional summary, job description, skills, strengths, and hobbies:

While this is a fantastic starting point with a pre-formatted resume, it's crucial to refine and customize it to truly make it your own by:

  • Entering contact details
  • Tailoring professional summary
  • Adding other work experiences, duties, and achievements
  • Adding education
  • Adding other skills and highlighting those relevant to the job
  • Adding a personal touch by including custom sections, hobbies, or volunteer experience
  • Proofreading and checking the formatting

And, of course, you should also remove any information that AI puts in but which isn't true for your career journey.

2. Enter contact details

Naturally, AI won't have your personal contact information (unless you’ve already registered on the chosen website and entered it), and including this information is crucial for recruiters who want to reach out. 

According to our Ideal Resume Analysis, successful resumes include essential contact details such as an email address and a phone number, and sometimes a professional website link, like a LinkedIn profile or portfolio. You can also include your title and address.

Let's enhance Jane Doe's resume by including the (fictive) contact information:

  • Phone: (123) 456-7890
  • Email: janedoe@kickresume.com
  • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janedoe
  • Address: New York, NY

3. Tailor the professional summary

The professional summary is an essential part of your resume. It’s often the first section recruiters look at, so it’s crucial to make it engaging and reflective of your unique qualifications. 

According to our data, 70% of successful resumes included a resume summary, with an average length of 57 words. 

Here’s the original AI-generated summary for Jane Doe:

This generated summary is concise and clear, presenting Jane's job title and years of experience effectively. It highlights core skills, all of which are relevant and crucial for a marketing role. Additionally, the summary includes a unique value proposition, indicating Jane's intention to leverage her expertise to drive business growth and exceed targets in her new job.

While this is a very solid base, there are areas we can improve:

  • Adjust years in the field: Ensure the number of years in the field accurately reflects your experience (in Jane's case it's 10 years, not 5).
  • Specify achievements: Include specific accomplishments and metrics to make your summary stand out.
  • Remove personal pronouns: Eliminating words like "I" and "my" can create a more professional tone and help the reader focus on your skills and achievements rather than the narration.

It could be updated like this:

This revised summary is more impactful, fitting within the 50-70 word range and highlighting specific achievements and capabilities of Jane Doe.

4. Add other work experiences, duties, and achievements

The AI-generated resume typically includes some common duties for your most recent role. 

The generated duties are spot-on for a Marketing Manager position, so we'll retain them in the job description:

However, it’s essential to edit or expand it by adding other details, such as:

  • Key achievements: Quantifiable accomplishments demonstrate your tangible impact and drive.
  • Previous roles: Hiring managers want to have a whole career overview.
  • Company names: Including the organization you worked for adds credibility.
  • Date ranges: Specifying the time you spent in each role shows your career progression in time.

When detailing job descriptions, aim for a mix of key duties and measurable achievements to provide context and show impact. This balance ensures that your resume is not only informative but also demonstrates your value.

Pro tip: If AI provides you with repetitive action words, adjust them to add variety and keep your resume engaging.

Here's an enhanced version of Jane’s work experience section, building upon the AI-generated foundational duties and adding more detailed information:

5. Add education

The Education section is a key part of any resume, often scrutinized by recruiters to ensure candidates meet the educational requirements for the role. 

Naturally, in Jane Doe’s AI-generated resume, the Education section was missing since AI doesn't have this information. So, let’s create it.

If you hold a higher-level position like Jane Doe, a Marketing Manager, and your education is in a related field, you can keep your education section concise:

However, if you're early in your career, you can also include more details such as GPA, courses, honors, and relevant projects. If your education is in an unrelated field, you might want to emphasize transferable skills and relevant coursework.

6. Add other skills and highlight those relevant to the job

The AI-generated resume will often include a mix of general and industry-specific skills. 

In this case, it provided both a Skills and a Strengths section. The Skills section listed relevant core skills, while the Strengths section included other soft skills:

These sections are highly relevant and form a strong foundation. However, to avoid redundancy and save space for more essential info, I only kept the Skills section and incorporated the relevant soft skills within it.

Moreover, to create a truly comprehensive resume, you should expand it with other technical skills and make sure they closely align with the job you're applying for. Here's how:

  • Make a list of your skills: Write down the key skills that are relevant for your position — these can include general skills in your field, tech skills, or even soft skills.
  • Align with job description: Review the job description of the position you’re applying for and highlight the most relevant skills that match the job requirements.
  • Be specific: Include specific programs, tools, and methodologies you’re proficient in.
  • Balance hard and soft skills: Showcase both technical (hard) skills and interpersonal (soft) skills for a well-rounded profile.

Here’s an enhanced version for the Marketing Manager role:

As you can see, I also enhanced the graphic representation of skills by adding skill bars to indicate proficiency levels.

Now, the removed Strength section could be replaced with something more relevant.

7. Add a (final) personal touch

Adding a personal touch to your resume can make a significant difference, especially in fields where creativity and individuality are valued. You could achieve this by adding additional sections like:

  • Industry-relevant sections (e.g. Successful Marketing Campaigns, Projects, etc.)
  • Hobbies
  • Volunteer work
  • Certificates
  • Awards

They can help paint a fuller picture of who you are and what you bring to the table. However, these should be prioritized based on the space available on your resume and the potential impact on your candidacy.

Here are additional sections I chose for Jane's resume:

Industry-relevant section

If you're in a field such as marketing like Jane, adding a detailed section about your campaigns can demonstrate your expertise and creativity. 

Of course, this works also for other fields, for example, you could create a section “Key Projects” as a software developer, or “Publications” as a teacher.

Including links to your portfolio, case studies, or campaign results can provide tangible evidence of your accomplishments and engage recruiters further. So, try to figure out what kind of custom section could be relevant to your position.

For Jane, I've added a “Successful Marketing Campaigns” section:

Hobbies 

The Hobbies section is another opportunity to add personality to your resume. It can be a plus because it shows that you have interests outside work and hiring managers often relate to them during job interviews.

AI-generated resumes, such as those from Kickresume, often include general hobbies with icons, making the resume visually appealing. 

For example, Jane's resume included general hobbies showing that she enjoys broad, engaging activities, which can be relatable to many:

While it’s acceptable to keep these general AI-generated hobbies if they reflect a balanced personality, tailoring them to be more specific can make this section stand out and become more relevant to the job. Here’s how these general hobbies can be personalized for Jane’s role:

8. Proofread and check the formatting

Your resume's design and readability are crucial for making a strong impression. Even the best content can be overlooked if the resume is poorly formatted or filled with errors. 

Here’s how to ensure your edited AI resume is polished and professional:

  • Adjust font size and line spacing: When formatting the final version of Jane's resume, the text exceeded one page. By changing the font size slightly smaller and adjusting the line spacing, I ensured everything fit onto one page without compromising readability. But don't fret if you have a wealth of relevant experience — especially in the last 10-15 years. It's perfectly acceptable for a high-level professional's resume to span two pages.
  • Reorganize sections by importance: For Jane Doe, a Marketing Manager, showcasing specific marketing campaigns is more crucial than listing educational details or hobbies.
  • Trim down lengthy entries: If certain sections or sentences ran slightly over one line, I removed a few unnecessary words for a cleaner look.
  • Make sure all the links work: Ensure all hyperlinks included in your resume (such as links to campaign overviews and case studies) are working correctly.
  • Proofread: Double-check for any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.

Now, here's a final version of the edited AI-generated resume:

Key takeaways

Creating an effective resume using AI tools offers a strong foundation, but personalization is key to ensuring your resume reflects the unique aspects of your career journey. 

By generating a resume with AI, you can quickly format your information, incorporate impactful language, and ensure optimization for applicant tracking systems (ATS). However, AI alone cannot capture the individuality that sets you apart.

To make your AI-generated resume truly yours, follow these steps:

  1. Enter your contact details: Ensure all personal contact information is up-to-date and accurate.
  2. Tailor the professional summary: Personalize this section to reflect your specific achievements.
  3. Add other work experiences, duties, and achievements: Expand on AI-generated content with previous roles, company names, date ranges, and quantifiable achievements.
  4. Add education: Include your educational background, adjusting the level of detail based on your career stage.
  5. Add other skills and highlight those relevant to the job: Expand on AI-generated core skills for your role and customize this section to include both hard and soft skills relevant to your targeted job.
  6. Add a personal touch: Incorporate additional sections like industry-relevant projects, hobbies, volunteer work, certificates, and awards to provide a fuller picture of who you are.
  7. Proofread and check the formatting: Ensure your resume is error-free, well-organized, and visually appealing. Make sure all links are working correctly.

By following these steps, you can transform an AI-generated resume into a polished, personalized document that effectively shows your qualifications, experience and personality. 

Just always remember to balance the efficient capabilities of AI with your personal insights and professional touch.