Most resumes don't get rejected by a person. They get filtered out by software first, then skimmed for about eight seconds by a hiring manager who's already seen 200 of them today. So writing a "good" resume isn't the goal. The goal is one that survives both of those judges.

The trick I used: stop asking Claude to make my resume nicer, and start making it judge my resume like the exact people who reject it. Here are the prompts, in order. Run them in one chat with your resume and the real job description pasted in, and do it fresh for every job you actually care about. The tailoring is the whole point.

What you need first

Two things in front of you: your current resume (paste the text or upload the file) and the full job description for the specific role you want. Not a generic one. The exact posting. Every prompt below leans on that job description, so a vague one gives you vague results.

Prompt 1: Make Claude the recruiter who'd reject you

Don't ask "is my resume good." Ask the person whose literal job is to filter you out. Upload your resume and the job description, then run this:

Act as a senior recruiter hiring for this exact role at this exact company. Compare my resume to this job description and give me three things: a fit score out of 100, the 5 most important keywords or skills I'm missing, and the 3 red flags a hiring manager would catch in the first 10 seconds. Be blunt. I want the truth, not encouragement.

The fit score gives you a number to beat. The missing keywords are usually the exact terms the screening software is scanning for. And the red flags are the stuff you stopped noticing because you've read your own resume a hundred times.

Prompt 2: Rewrite it with the formula Google actually uses

Stay in the same chat so Claude still has the audit in context. Now make it fix what it just found:

Now rewrite my experience section so it works in those missing keywords naturally, with no keyword stuffing, and clears the three red flags. Re-bullet everything using the Google XYZ formula: accomplished [X], as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]. Keep it honest to what I actually did. Don't invent numbers, but show me where a metric would make a bullet stronger so I can fill it in.

The XYZ formula comes straight from Google's own hiring advice. Instead of "responsible for managing the email program," you get "grew email revenue 22% by rebuilding the welcome and win-back flows." It forces a result, a number, and the actual work into every line. That's what makes a bullet land instead of blur.

Prompt 3: Read it the two ways it'll actually get read

Your resume meets two judges: a piece of software, then a human in a hurry. Make Claude be both.

Now read my resume twice. First as an ATS filter scanning for this job's keywords and any formatting that breaks parsing, then as a hiring manager burning through 200 resumes in one sitting. For each pass, tell me exactly which parts get skipped, skimmed, or thrown out. Then rewrite those weak parts so they actually stop the scroll.

The ATS pass catches the boring killers: a skill buried in the wrong section, a date format the parser chokes on, a keyword you phrased differently than the posting did. The hiring-manager pass catches the human stuff: a flat opening line, a top third that doesn't earn the next eight seconds. Clear both and you've cleared both gates.

Bonus: let Claude apply to the jobs for you

This is the part that sounds fake until you watch it happen. Claude Cowork is Anthropic's desktop agent. Instead of just chatting, it can open your browser, read pages, and fill things in for you. So once your resume is dialed in, you hand off the applying.

In Cowork, run this:

My resume is optimized and attached. Go to my LinkedIn, find the 10 jobs I have the best realistic shot at landing an interview for, and apply to each one. Tailor every application and any cover note to that specific job description. Before you submit each one, show me the tailored version so I can approve it.

I added that last line on purpose. Yes, it can run on autopilot, but you want eyes on each application before it goes out, both so nothing strange gets submitted under your name and so you can catch anything it tailored a little too hard. Let it do the grind. You keep the final yes.

A resume isn't a list of what you did. It's an argument that you can do the next job, written for a reader who's bored, rushed, and half a machine. Stop editing it for yourself and start editing it for them.

Run these on the next role you actually want, not a throwaway. The first time you watch your fit score jump from a 60 to a 90 in a single chat, you'll never send a raw resume again.
Anir