Do AI-generated resumes/cover letters actually work?

You’ve probably heard about multiple tools that offer to generate a custom CV/cover letter for a specific job you’re interested in. Sometimes, they will also offer to send CVs for you. You don’t have to be in the loop at all.

And I get why people are doing that. With some companies starting to use things like "asynchronous video interviews” (where candidates answer questions on a video without a recruiter), it is almost impossible to pass without ChatGPT prep.

However, does it help in getting noticed by the recruiter?

Recruiters seem to be pretty frustrated by AI resumes. When I asked my friend, who is doing tech recruitment for the fintech start-up, if she can notice it, she said: “Of course. It’s very obvious. Even by the choice of words like ‘spearheaded’ lol”. I also saw employers mention that the AI-generated applications will be ignored.

We get an interesting conundrum: employers are using ATS systems to pre-scan their candidates because of the number of applications (even though I believe it happens less often that people think), while candidates are using AI to pass those screening algorithms to get noticed at least somewhere. And everyone ends up being frustrated in the end.

It’s a big problem. What’s the solution to this? My personal opinion is that:

• There should be a shift from quantity to quality. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Ideally, as a candidate, instead of just scrolling through vacancies with the selected title, you should see perfect matches based on your experience, skills, and detailed preferences. Actually good matches. Not the ones that you usually see in Glassdoor or LinkedIn.

• Candidates should be able to write about what they want, not just use location filters. Do you want to have a job that pays > 80,000€? You can just write it in your search prompt like “I want to have a job with the salary more than 80,000€ in Berlin, remote or hybrid”, and don’t waste your time scrolling through 40,000$ positions. Then, you have some time to do some company research, understand their product. Write a personalised letter yourself that will stand out from AI-generated ones.

But that doesn’t mean though that you can’t use AI tools altogether because:

• AI might still help you to understand why the job is or isn’t a good match. For example, the job requires you to be familiar with A/B testing, and you actually did A/B testing before, but you just haven’t listed it in your resume. So you add it there.

All of these things I am trying to do in my recent product, job search agent @Ten Jobs , that we've been building in the past few months, and will be launching very soon.

And even though I’ve considered adding a CV generation feature previously (from the technical side, it’s really simple), I’ve decided to go against it.

Of course, there’s still a lot to be done about the way our job market currently works. But I hope that I can make some steps towards the job market where the job seekers actually have some power.

I am curious what you think about this. Have you used AI-generated CV tools before, and do you believe they helped you land the interview? Maybe you even launched these products before — feel free to share your opinion!