Prompts to Stand Out From Other Candidates

Find What Is Actually Unusual About You

When your resume reads like everyone else's and you cannot tell what actually makes you different

You are helping me find the parts of my background that most other applicants for [TARGET ROLE] would not have.

Below is my full history — resume, side projects, unusual assignments, volunteer work, anything I have actually done:
[PASTE EVERYTHING]

Do this:
1. List every detail here that you would not expect to find on most other resumes for this role. Include combinations — two ordinary things that are unusual together.
2. For each one, say in a sentence why a hiring manager for this role would care.
3. Rank them by relevance to [TARGET ROLE], not by how impressive they sound.
4. Name anything I listed that is common for this role, so I stop treating it as a differentiator.
5. Work only from what is in the paste. Where something looks promising but is too thin for you to judge, ask me about it instead of assuming — up to 5 questions.

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].

The 100 Applicants Test

Before you send a resume you suspect is full of lines anyone could have written

Act as a hiring manager who has just read 100 resumes for [JOB TITLE].

Here are my bullets:
[PASTE YOUR BULLETS]

For each bullet, give me a table with 4 columns:
- The bullet
- Would 100 other applicants for this role write something close to this? Yes or no.
- If yes, which exact words are the generic part
- What kind of specific detail from me would make the line unrepeatable

Then list every phrase across my bullets that carries no information — the "team player", "results-driven", "responsible for", "excellent communication skills" family — and quote each one where it appears.

Finish by naming the 3 bullets that are already specific enough to keep exactly as they are. For the rest, ask me for the missing detail rather than filling it in yourself.

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].

Interview Me Until the Bullets Are Specific

When your job title is a common one and every version of your resume sounds interchangeable

I have a common job title — [JOB TITLE] at [TYPE OF COMPANY] — and my resume reads like every other one.

Here is what I currently have for that job:
[PASTE BULLETS AND ANY ROUGH NOTES]

Interview me before you write anything. Ask 8 questions, one at a time, waiting for my answer each time. Aim them at the things that differ between two people with the same title: what I owned versus what I was handed, the size and shape of what I worked on, who I worked with and who I convinced, what was broken when I arrived, what I decided rather than executed, and what was different after me.

When we are done, rewrite the job as 4 to 5 bullets in Markdown built only from my answers. Where a number would carry a line and I have not given one, write [X] and list the numbers you need from me.

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 often sends all 8 questions in one message instead of one at a time — either answer them in a single block or reply "one at a time, please" and it will restart.

Put Your Strongest Evidence First

When your best work is buried on page 2 or hidden at the end of a long bullet

You are a recruiter who will spend 20 seconds on the top third of my resume before deciding whether to keep reading.

My resume:
[PASTE RESUME]

The posting:
[PASTE JOB POSTING]

Do this:
1. Tell me what you actually took away from the top third, in your own words. Be blunt if the answer is nothing.
2. Rank everything in my resume by how much evidence it gives that I can do this specific job. Show me the top 8.
3. Say which of those sit below the fold or are buried at the end of a bullet.
4. Propose a new order for my sections, and a new order for the bullets inside each job.
5. Return the reordered resume in Markdown with my wording intact, except where a strong point is trapped inside a weak sentence — flag those and rewrite them using only what is already there.

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].

Turn Your Links Into Evidence

When you have work worth showing but your resume lists the links as bare URLs

Help me write a links section for my resume that a hiring manager for [TARGET ROLE] would actually click.

Here are my links, with what each one is and what I did on it:
[PASTE LINK + ONE OR TWO LINES EACH]

Rules:
- Keep 4 links at most. Tell me which to cut and why.
- Each line is a readable label, the URL, then 6 to 12 words on what it shows about my work, drawn only from what I told you about it.
- Order them by relevance to [TARGET ROLE], not by how proud I sound.
- Flag any link that needs work before it is worth showing — an empty repository, a dead page, a project with no explanation on the page itself.
- Where I have not said what a visitor sees in the first 10 seconds, ask me.

Output the finished section in Markdown.

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].

One Line That Says Who You Are

When you need a single line at the top of your resume that is not a generic summary

Write me 8 candidate versions of a one-line positioning statement for the top of my resume, aimed at [TARGET ROLE].

What you have to work with:
Roles: [PASTE YOUR LAST 2-3 ROLES AND WHAT YOU DID]
What people come to me for: [PASTE]

Constraints:
- 12 to 20 words. One sentence, no second sentence.
- Every version must name something concrete from what I gave you — a domain, a kind of problem, a type of system, a stage of company.
- Ban adjectives anyone could claim: passionate, driven, motivated, detail-oriented, seasoned, dynamic.
- Vary the angle across the 8: what I build, who I build it for, the problem I am usually handed, the combination that is rare.

Then tell me which 2 are strongest for this role, and which ones would be true of half the applicants. If a version needs a fact I have not given you, ask me for it rather than filling it in.

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].

Find What Your Resume Leaves Out

After a draft is finished and you want to know what you left out rather than what to polish

Here is my finished resume and the role I am aiming at.

Resume:
[PASTE RESUME]

Role:
[PASTE POSTING OR DESCRIBE THE ROLE]

Do not edit anything yet. Tell me what you still do not know about me after reading it.

1. List 10 questions a hiring manager would have that this resume leaves unanswered, ordered by how much the answer would change their decision.
2. For each, say what my silence currently implies — the assumption a reader fills in when the resume says nothing.
3. Name the 3 gaps most likely to be why I am not getting called, and say where in the resume the answer would belong.
4. Then ask me the 5 questions you would most want answered before writing a single new line.

Wait for my answers before suggesting any wording.

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].