Sound Less Like AI in Your Resume (5 Tells): The AI Resume Trap Most Job Seekers Miss

AI-written resumes are everywhere, but instead of empowering candidates to stand out, they’re making applications sound identical and increasingly invisible to recruiters.

AI-written resumes were an exciting development for professionals who aren’t confident writers. However, they are now everywhere and becoming an increasing pain point for recruiters. Instead of landing you your next role, your AI-written resume could be costing you career opportunities. 

Resumes are no longer just competing on experience. They’re competing on tone and personalisation.

AI-assisted resumes can be a helpful tool for those challenged by written communication. The problem, however, is using AI’s first version of your resume and not personalising your resume writing to your unique value. As a result, a growing number of resumes are indistinguishable from each other. 

It’s not that AI is terrible at writing resumes. It’s that it’s too good at patterns and adopting copywriting techniques. Those patterns, when overused, start to reveal themselves. Let’s break down the most common signs your resume has crossed that line.

The AI-Resume Trap 

Your AI-written resume might look impressively polished on the surface. It may feature all the right industry lingo, perfect sentence structure, and impeccable grammar. But outsourcing your resume writing entirely to large language models like ChatGPT is a trap. 

The result will likely be a resume that: 

• Sounds exactly like everyone else’s

• Reads robotically

• Says everything, yet nothing at the same time

As someone who reads a handful of resumes daily, AI-written resumes immediately stand out to me. Consider the impact of an AI-written resume on a recruiter who might skim hundreds of resumes a day. 

If a recruiter feels like they could swap your name with someone else’s, you’ve already lost the opportunity for your next ideal role. Plus, it signals: 

• You didn’t care enough about the application to write it yourself

• A lazier approach to your application compared to those who personalised theirs

• A lack of clarity around what you actually did versus what ChatGPT thinks the recruiters want to hear

The last point in particular is important. It means that you can have pages of content that are not an accurate representation of your experience. I’ve consulted with clients who don’t know what I mean when I reference areas of their own resume. These are clearly AI-generated, with some forgetting to remove what they don’t have knowledge, skills or experience in. If your AI-written resume somehow gets you an interview, this becomes a trap when you have to expand on your resume’s discussion points. 

So let’s explore the obvious signs you’ve written your resume with AI.

P.S. For more on resume writing, see my earlier blogs: 

• Why your resume sounds weak & is selling your personal brand short

• How to sell your skills in your resume: Pitching a persuasive personal brand

• 10 Tiny Tips for a High-Calibre Cover Letter that Lands You an Interview

AI-written Resume Sign #1: You Tell Rather Than Prove  

Your AI-resume is likely trying to say a lot without actually grounding your resume in any evidence. 

As I’ve shared in my earlier blog on How to Write Resume Highlights that Actually Resonate with Recruiters: Communicating Confidence & Credibility, your resume should show rather than tell. AI-written resumes are often jam-packed with buzzwords and jargon, instead of proof points. 

To stand out from other candidates, take an achievement-oriented approach to your resume. Otherwise, you sound like anyone could have done your job. Projects, initiatives or other highlights should be unique to your impact in a role. 

Some ways to quantify, for example, might include: 

• Project values

• Budget 

• Cost savings

• Revenue generated

• Growth

• Participation figures

• Team sizes

• Turnaround times

Whether you decide to write your resume with AI or not, be sure to take the time to analyse and quantify your experience with specifics.

This doesn’t just apply to numbers. As long as you’re making specific references, your resume will sound less generic and more human. For example: 

• Project names

• Policy types developed

• Program designed

AI-written Resume Sign #2: 3-beat Writing

The art of copywriting loves rhythms and patterns - especially in threes. This explains why large language models have been trained to produce writing this way. The problem isn’t that AI reflects best practice copywriting; the problem is when it’s overused. It immediately feels suspiciously polished as most people aren’t professional writers. 

Here’s what ChatGPT generated for me explaining this point. It reflects much of what I have seen in resumes. 

“Results-driven leader with extensive experience driving strategic initiatives, leading high-performing teams, and delivering operational excellence. Skilled in stakeholder engagement, business transformation, and continuous improvement, with a proven ability to build relationships, influence outcomes, and achieve organisational objectives.”

See the 3-beat references in bold. What once made writing sing is now everywhere. When sentence after sentence, highlight after highlight, communicate this way, it’s an obvious sign you wrote your resume with AI. So instead, mix up your patterns. Use singular or two-beat references throughout your resume too. 

AI-written Resume Sign #3: The Oxford Comma

The Oxford comma is grammatically correct. Here is the Oxford comma at work: 

With the Oxford comma:

“Led strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and operational improvement.”

Without the Oxford comma:

“Led strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and operational improvement.”

However, it’s also more formal. AI often writes the way a university, government department or corporate communications team would write. Most professionals don't write or speak that way. The problem isn’t the Oxford comma itself, but when it appears perfectly everywhere. And with 3-beat sentences everywhere in your resume, it will. So, remove the Oxford comma from your resume.

AI-written Resume Sign #4: The Contrast Effect

AI models love contrast - another beloved copywriting technique. It makes the most valuable information pop on the page. When AI adopts the contrast effect in its writing, it’s simply putting copywriting best practices in action. The problem is the everyday person doesn’t write like a professional copywriter. 

We have become so accustomed to seeing the technique at play through AI writing. So when contrast copywriting patterns appear excessively in your resume, it’s an obvious sign to recruiters that you have written your resume with AI.

Here is an AI-influenced example: 

“I used to manage fragmented, inefficient processes across multiple business units. Now I streamline operations into clear, scalable systems that improve both speed and accuracy.

Where others saw reporting challenges, I built clarity through structured dashboards and simplified workflows.

What was once reactive and inconsistent is now proactive, data-led and performance-driven.

The result is not just improved efficiency, but a more aligned and accountable organisation.”

Notice the contrast effect? Some contrast is okay. Such as a before-and-after effect in your resume highlights. It shows your impact. The initial situation versus the outcome. But don’t overdo it in every area of your resume. AI doesn’t just use copywriting techniques; it stacks them excessively. So pay attention to these tells. 

AI-written Resume Sign #5: Your Resume Has Lost Its Personality

This is what clients themselves will tell me they notice about their AI-written resume. If you notice this, so will recruiters. 

AI models tend to shy away from first-person references. However, including this in your Value Proposition and role blurbs adds personality to your resume. 

Additionally, AI doesn’t have inside access to your relationships. So most points will be devoid of key stakeholder relationships. 

In the book On Writing Well, William Zinsser describes how writing should allow the reader to visualise. Adding relationships to your resume, from reporting lines to project partnerships, helps a recruiter picture you doing the role. It paints a picture of how you operate. You read less like a robot, and more like a real-life person a recruiter can picture doing the role. 

Inspired, Not Outsourced 

If you genuinely need help writing your resume, the goal isn’t to avoid AI altogether. It’s avoiding sounding like everyone else in your industry using it the same way. Your resume should be human. Shaped by the nuances of your unique experience and your personal value. Recruiters aren’t just reading your resume for your qualifications; they are trying to get a read of you.