In the first blog post about BSRI’s Transition Work Series that I led, I shared more about the “why”. At its core, the series was about creating intentional support during a year of change. Giving our team resources they could use to think through what comes next, prepare their materials, and navigate the job search with more direction and care. One of my goals was to make the job search process feel less scattered and more supported.
The Hiring Process Checklist offered a broader roadmap for navigating each stage of the search. This next resource narrows in on one of the first places people often get stuck once they begin preparing to apply: the resume.
Resumes ask us to take years of work, responsibilities, projects, relationships, decisions, and outcomes and translate them into a few concise bullets. That is not always easy, especially when someone is in the middle of a transition, considering different types of roles, or trying to explain work that may not fit neatly into a job description.
This is where I think AI can be useful — not as a replacement for someone’s voice, judgment, or lived experience, but as a thought partner.
The AI Resume Support Prompt Guide was created to help our team use AI tools in a way that is practical, grounded, and responsible. The goal is not to invent experience, exaggerate outcomes, or make someone sound like a completely different professional. The resource is clear on that point: use AI to clarify, translate, organize, and strengthen what is already true.
That distinction matters to me from a People perspective. A strong resume should not be a performance of who someone thinks they are supposed to be. It should be a clearer version of what they have actually done, how they think, what they have contributed, and where they may be able to add value next.
In my experience, people often underestimate the transferability of their own work. They may list tasks because that feels easier or more concrete, but the real value is often underneath the task: coordination, judgment, communication, problem-solving, leadership, relationship management, analysis, adaptability, or follow-through.
That is especially important during a career pivot. When someone is applying to roles outside of their current title, department, or industry, they may need help translating their experience into language that a new audience can understand. AI can help identify patterns, surface transferable skills, compare a resume to a job description, and suggest ways to better align materials with the role, as long as the person remains the final editor and truth-checker.
The guide includes prompts for several parts of that process, including refining resume bullets, tailoring a resume to a job description, strengthening a professional summary, integrating work plan responsibilities into resume language, identifying transferable skills, reviewing gaps, creating accomplishment statements, positioning for adjacent roles, and checking for ATS readability.
What I like about this approach is that it gives people a starting point. Sometimes the hardest part of updating a resume is not the writing itself; it is knowing what to look for. The right prompt can help someone slow down and ask better questions about their own experience: What should I emphasize? What is missing? How do I talk about this project? What skills am I demonstrating that I may not be naming clearly?
For me, that is the bigger value. During a career move, people are not only preparing documents; they are making sense of what they have done and how they want to position themselves moving forward. A resume becomes more than a list of past roles. It becomes a tool for reflection, translation, and decision-making.
I also think there is an equity piece here. Not everyone has access to a resume writer, career coach, recruiter, or professional network that can help them refine their materials. AI does not replace those supports, and it should be used thoughtfully, but it can make certain kinds of guidance more accessible when people know how to use it well.
My hope is that this guide helps job seekers use AI with intention: to strengthen their materials without losing authenticity, better communicate their value without overstating their experience, and approach the resume process with more structure and care.
Because in a transition, the goal is not to sound impressive for the sake of sounding impressive. The goal is to tell the truth about your work in a way that helps the right people understand what you bring, where you have grown, and what you are ready to do next.
