Before you hit send
Using AI honestly on your resume
AI is a good editor and a bad witness. It is great at tightening your wording and terrible at knowing what you actually did. Overstated claims tend to surface in interviews, reference checks, or the first month on the job — and that costs far more than a slightly plainer resume.
Read every word before you send it
AI writes confidently, not accurately. It can invent job titles, dates, tools, and numbers that were never in what you typed. Read the finished resume line by line and delete anything you can't personally vouch for.
Only claim what you have actually done
If a suggestion says you 'led a team of 12' or 'raised $500K' and you didn't, change it. Hiring managers in the nonprofit world are a small, connected community and references get called.
Keep your numbers real
Metrics are powerful, but only real ones. If you don't know the exact figure, use an honest range or describe the outcome without a number rather than letting AI guess one for you.
Be ready to talk about every line
A good test: for each bullet point, could you tell a two-minute story about it in an interview? If not, it doesn't belong on the page. Polished wording you can't explain is worse than plain wording you can.
Keep your own voice
Reviewers read hundreds of resumes and can spot generic AI phrasing. Use AI to clean up and structure your wording, then edit it so it sounds like you and reflects why this mission matters to you.
Watch what you share
Anything you type goes to an AI service to generate wording. Your name and email are fine. Leave out your home address, phone number, birth date, ID numbers and health details — share those directly with an employer later.
A quick final check
- Every role, date and employer is correct.
- Every skill listed is one you could be tested on tomorrow.
- Every number is one you can source.
- No personal details beyond your name and email.
- It sounds like you, not like a template.