Expert Tips to Tailor a CV to a Job Description With AI

Targeting your CV at each job opportunity is key, and AI can make it easier than ever. Using AI chatbots, you can quickly adjust your CV to a specific job description, highlight the most relevant strengths, and pass applicant tracking systems with ease.

Whether you're a student, career changer, or a seasoned pro, CV tailoring AI tools like ChatGPT can help show employers exactly why you're the perfect fit. I’ll show you how to tailor a CV to a job description using AI while letting your personality shine through.

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Why should you tailor each CV?

Sending the same generic CV to every job rarely gets results. Recruiters and ATS systems prioritise applications that closely match the job description.

In fact, 83% of recruiters admit that they prefer hiring someone who has tailored their CV. Not to mention that hiring managers take just 7.4 seconds initially scanning a CV, so you don’t have a lot of time to attract their attention for a lot longer.

In contrast, a one-size-fits-all CV often obscures the most relevant achievements under unrelated details, making it easy for hiring managers to overlook them. By customising a CV, you make it easy for recruiters to see exactly why you’re the right person for the job.

Here are the main benefits of CV tailoring:

• Alignment with the role: Your skills and experiences are presented in a way that aligns with the employer's expectations. This makes it obvious how you fit the job.
• Better ATS performance: Including the right keywords from the job advert increases the chance your CV reaches a human reviewer.
• Demonstrated interest: A customised CV signals genuine enthusiasm and attention to detail. It shows hiring managers you care enough to adapt your application.

Tailoring each application is not just recycling a document – it’s making a clear case that you’re the perfect match for that specific role.

How can AI help with CV tailoring?

Tailoring your CV for each job can be tedious, but AI tools like ChatGPT make the process faster. Instead of manually picking out keywords and rewriting CV sections, AI can analyse job descriptions, highlight essential skills, and even suggest new phrasing for your experience.

Here’s how AI can help with CV tailoring:

• Extract key skills and keywords: AI scans job adverts and identifies the most important hard and soft skills to include.
• Rewrite CV sections: ChatGPT can suggest new wording for your personal statement, work experience, and other sections to match the job description.
• Summarise job requirements: AI can generate a clear list of qualifications and terms that appear most often in the posting.
• Generate tailored bullet points: Ask ChatGPT to create bullet points that emphasise your relevant achievements in the language the employer uses.

Here’s the bottom line: using AI for CV tailoring removes much of the manual work, producing a stronger CV draft in minutes. Once generated, the output can be refined to ensure it reflects your actual experience and personal voice.

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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How to tailor your CV to the job description with AI

Here is a practical workflow for using AI, such as ChatGPT, to match your CV with a job description:

1. Extract key requirements

Start by feeding the job description to an AI tool. To do that, you can paste the advert text into ChatGPT and ask it to list the most critical skills or keywords. You might say:

“Here’s a job description. Please analyse it and tell me the top required hard skills, soft skills, and keywords for my CV.”

AI will quickly break down the listing to identify what the employer needs.

2. Rewrite your CV personal statement

Having that information, you can begin tailoring your CV personal profile. Ask the AI to emphasise those top skills in a concise statement. For instance:

“Here is my CV summary and the job description. Can you rewrite my summary to highlight my most relevant skills and experience for this job?”

AI will produce a targeted paragraph. This will help align your CV introduction with the role. Keep in mind that an AI-generated CV summary should be brief (3–5 sentences) and impactful, focusing on the job’s priorities.

3. Tailor the work experience section

Next, adjust the bullet points in your work experience section. Use AI to rephrase or expand your existing bullets to ensure they align with the job requirements. You might prompt:

“Here’s a section of my work experience and the job description. Suggest improvements that incorporate the keywords relevant to this role.”

ChatGPT can then propose new wording or additional bullet points. For example, it can suggest linking past tasks to the job’s focus. The goal is to show direct relevance: if the job wants leadership skills, phrase your past duties to highlight any management or team-leading aspects.

4. Optimise for ATS and readability

Finally, ensure your CV is well-formatted and keyword-optimised. AI can also help check this. You could ask ChatGPT:

“Check my CV for ATS optimisation. Suggest improvements to formatting, keyword usage, and structure.”

The AI can suggest tweaks, such as adding missing keywords or reordering sections.

Remember to keep the CV format simple: as recruiters note, using a clean CV layout without fancy graphics helps ATS parse your job application correctly.

Tailoring a CV with AI: bonus tips from a career expert

AI is a powerful assistant, but it’s not infallible. Keep these best practices in mind when tailoring your CV using AI:

Keep a master CV

Always maintain a complete and accurate “base” CV that lists all your work history, skills, and achievements. Don’t worry about CV length, as this document is there to serve as your database of all of your professional accomplishments and skills, not as an actual job application.

Use this master CV as the source material for AI. That way, you can compare any AI suggestions against your actual experience, as AI tools cannot generate facts you haven’t provided.

Remain in the driver’s seat

Don’t let AI rewrite your CV blindly. Review every change it suggests. Drive the process by asking for tips, not simply handing over a CV for a complete rewrite. For example, avoid simply pasting a CV into ChatGPT and saying, “Make it better.” Instead, ask specific questions (such as focusing on particular skills or sections) to get helpful guidance.

Double-check all facts

AI can occasionally hallucinate or overstate. For instance, it might suggest a skill you only briefly encountered. Always ensure that each bullet point and claim is something you truly did.

If a suggested achievement doesn’t reflect your real work, rewrite or remove it. Better to be honest and remove a flashy but false claim than to have to explain yourself during a job interview.

Use keywords naturally

It’s tempting to cram every keyword into a CV, but it must still read naturally. AI helps here, too. For example, instead of simply labelling yourself a “team player” (a buzzword), you can ask the AI to demonstrate it in practice: Collaborated with cross-functional teams to improve efficiency by 20% sounds better than just saying “team player”.

Balance ATS and human readers

While keywords and a clean format are important, remember that a human will ultimately read your CV. Follow ATS guidelines – use simple headings, a clear font, and a logical structure – but ensure the CV is still engaging. Don’t let AI turn your CV into an unreadable list of jargon. Use the AI suggestions as a base, then read the CV aloud to make sure it sounds like you.

Personalise the final draft

After the AI work is done, add any personal touches. The CV should still reflect your voice. Modify the phrasing to suit your style and remove any awkward AI-generated language. Even powerful tools like ChatGPT are best used to generate ideas and drafts; the final edits must come from you.

By combining these practices with AI assistance, you can tailor a CV much faster than before. AI tools provide a first draft that incorporates all the right keywords and focus, but your review ensures it’s accurate and authentic.

ChatGPT vs a professional CV builder: which is better for CV tailoring?

Tailoring a CV with AI is effective, but not all tools work in the same way. ChatGPT is flexible and powerful, giving you the freedom to rewrite any part of a CV using custom prompts. However, it also requires more time and effort on your part, from checking accuracy to polishing the tone.

A professional CV builder, on the other hand, offers a simpler route. With pre-written, expert-approved phrases and recruiter-tested templates, you can create a polished CV quickly and with less room for error.

Both approaches have their advantages, and the right choice depends on how much control you want over the process versus how much convenience you value. Here’s a clear comparison to help you decide:

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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Tailoring a CV no longer has to feel like a never-ending task. With today’s AI tools and professional CV builders, you can adapt each job application quickly, confidently, and with far less effort. The trick is choosing the approach that suits your working style, whether that’s the flexibility of ChatGPT or the straightforward reliability of a builder. Whatever you decide, the goal is the same: a CV that gets noticed by both applicant tracking systems and recruiters.

Thanks for reading my article on how AI can help you with CV tailoring. If you’re interested in other expert CV-writing tips, head over to our blog for more helpful articles:

• How to Access the Hidden Job Market: A Practical Guide
• Strategies to Secure Employment in a Cooling Job Market
• How to Send Your CV via Email: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Insights into the Typical UK Job Hunter's Profile
• Professional CV Examples to Inspire Your Job Application

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with LiveCareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.

Sources

• Jobvite (2022), Job Seeker Nation Report
• The Ladders (2018), Eye-Tracking Study