Prompts to Improve Your Resume Bullet Points

Turn Duties Into Results

Your bullets read like the job description you were handed rather than what changed because you were there

You are helping me rewrite resume bullets for one role.

MY CURRENT BULLETS:
[PASTE YOUR BULLETS]

MY NOTES ON WHAT CHANGED:
[PASTE ROUGH NOTES — who used it, what got faster or cheaper, what stopped breaking, who noticed]

Rewrite each bullet so it names the result rather than the responsibility. Requirements:
1. Work only from the two blocks above. If a bullet has no outcome anywhere in my notes, leave it as a duty and mark it FLAGGED.
2. Open every line with a specific past-tense verb. No "responsible for", no "helped with", no "assisted in".
3. Where a number would make a line land and I have not given you one, write [X] in its place and collect those at the end as questions for me.
4. Return Markdown bullets, one line each, in my original order.
5. Under the list, name the 2 bullets that still carry the least evidence and say what is missing from each.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

Verb and Specificity Pass

Your bullets are accurate but vague — the verbs are generic and a stranger cannot picture the work

Act as a line editor for my resume. Here are my bullets:

[PASTE 6-10 BULLETS]

Do a diagnostic pass first. For each bullet, output 4 labeled lines:
- ORIGINAL: the line exactly as I wrote it
- VERB: my opening verb, plus a sharper verb for the same action only when mine is generic (managed, worked on, helped, handled, supported, involved in) — a sharper word, never a bigger claim
- VAGUE: every phrase a stranger could not picture — various, multiple, several, improvements, processes, stakeholders, cross-functional
- ASK: the single question you need answered to make that line concrete

Do not rewrite anything yet, and do not fill a vague phrase with a detail I have not given you. Stop after the diagnostic and wait for my answers.

When I reply, rewrite all of the bullets in Markdown, one line each, using my answers and nothing else.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

Gemini: Gemini often returns this as a table. Add "plain Markdown bullets, no table" if you plan to paste the result straight into an editor.

Find the Weakest Bullet

You have one line too many and need to know which bullet is carrying the least weight

You are reviewing my resume bullets before I cut one. Here is everything under [ROLE / COMPANY]:

[PASTE ALL BULLETS FOR THAT ROLE]

I am aiming at this role:

[PASTE THE JOB POSTING OR DESCRIBE THE TARGET ROLE]

Rank all of the bullets from strongest to weakest against that target. Give each one a single-line reason for its position, and name its weakness as one of: no result, no scale, duplicate of another bullet, irrelevant to the target, unclear to an outside reader, or none.

Then answer 3 questions directly:
1. Which bullet should I delete first, and what is lost when I do
2. Which 2 bullets are making the same point and could merge into one
3. Which bullet is strongest, and whether it should move to the top

Judge only the lines I pasted. Do not propose bullets I could add.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

Compress a 4-Line Bullet

One bullet has grown into a paragraph and is eating the space 3 other lines need

I have a resume bullet that runs far too long. Here it is:

[PASTE THE FULL BULLET]

The single point I want a reader to take from it: [WHAT MATTERS MOST]

Give me 3 compressed versions:
- A: one line, under 25 words, keeping the point above
- B: one line that leads with the outcome instead of the method
- C: 2 shorter bullets, but only if this is genuinely 2 accomplishments wearing one hat — if it is not, say so and skip C

Beneath each version, list the details you dropped so I can decide whether the cut is acceptable. Carry over nothing that is not in my original text, and keep every proper noun spelled exactly as I wrote it.

Return the versions as Markdown bullets and the dropped-detail notes as plain lines underneath.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

Strip the Cliches

Your resume sounds like every other resume — results-driven, team player, passionate about

You are an editor with no tolerance for filler. Here is my resume text:

[PASTE YOUR BULLETS AND SUMMARY LINE]

Build me a two-column ledger. On the left, quote every cliche, buzzword, and empty intensifier exactly as it appears — results-driven, team player, passionate, dynamic, self-starter, go-getter, thought leader, wearing many hats, detail-oriented, and anything else that could be deleted with no loss of meaning. On the right, mark each one:
- CUT — the line reads the same without it, so delete it
- SWAP — it is standing in for something real that only I know

Then return my full text again in Markdown, with every CUT phrase already removed and every SWAP phrase replaced inline by a bracketed question to me, like [what did you actually fix here?]. Leave every other word of mine untouched. If a phrase is a term of art in my field rather than filler, say so and keep it.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

ChatGPT: ChatGPT tends to soften criticism. If it flags 2 phrases and calls the rest fine, reply with "be blunt, flag everything a tired recruiter would skim past" and it will commit.

Fix Tense and Parallel Structure

You have edited the same resume for years and the lines no longer match each other in tense, shape, or punctuation

Proofread my resume bullets for internal consistency. Here they are, grouped by role:

[PASTE EACH ROLE, ITS DATES, AND ITS BULLETS]

My current role is [ROLE NAME] and I still hold it. Every other role has ended.

Correct only these 5 things:
1. Tense — present tense throughout my current role, past tense everywhere else, never mixed inside one role
2. Opening word — every bullet begins with a verb, never with I, never with a noun phrase, never with Responsible for
3. Shape — bullets under the same role follow a comparable length and structure
4. Punctuation — either every bullet ends with a period or none do; pick one and apply it everywhere
5. Voice — no first-person pronouns, active rather than passive

Return the corrected bullets in Markdown, grouped exactly as I sent them, followed by a short list of what you changed and why. Change nothing about the substance of any line.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].

Rewrite for a Non-Specialist Reader

The first person to read your resume works outside your discipline and your bullets are full of internal names and acronyms

Read the following bullets as someone who does not work in my field.

[PASTE YOUR BULLETS]

Context for the terms in them: [EXPLAIN YOUR INTERNAL PROJECT NAMES, TOOLS, AND ACRONYMS]

First reader: [RECRUITER / HIRING MANAGER IN ANOTHER FUNCTION / PANEL]

Work through this in order:
1. Quote every term you had to guess at, and state the meaning you assumed.
2. Name the bullets that reader would skim past, and say what loses them.
3. Rewrite each bullet so the value is clear to that first reader while the substance stays exactly as I described it — keep the tool and skill names a specialist would look for, drop the internal codenames that mean nothing outside my company.
4. Return the rewrites as Markdown bullets, with a one-line note under any bullet where you were unsure whether a term is standard in my field or internal to us.

Rules — these override everything above:
- Use only the experience I give you. Do not invent employers, job titles, dates, degrees, certifications, skills, or metrics.
- If a number would strengthen a line and I have not given you one, write a placeholder like [X%] or [$X] for me to fill in. Do not estimate it.
- Do not add a tool, skill, or credential I did not list, however standard it is in my field.
- Rewrite, reorder, tighten and re-emphasize what is already there. Where I have given you too little to work with, ask me for it or leave [add detail].