🥷 Beat the ATS and Land The Interview (My 5 Steps)

Hello there 😎 

“The best resume to land a job…” my friend Buford always said…

He’s right.

But he’s also wrong.

Not having a good resume—and more importantly, a reliable process to create one—is like an exposed nerve when the job market gets tough.

It becomes your Kryptonite, your Achilles' heel, or your Death Star exhaust port.

Here's what you'll learn today:

• How to transform your resume using AI tools to improve ATS match scores by up to 180%

• How to customize your resume for specific roles while maintaining authenticity

• A step-by-step process to optimize your resume in just 30 minutes

…and more!

But first, let’s look at some open roles I’m excited about.

“I haven’t written a resume in YEARS.”

I hear this a lot. The reasons vary:

• “Because I’ve always been recruited.”

• “I’ve never needed to job search.”

• “Every time I got hired, the job came from my network.”

But when layoffs hit or networks go quiet, they quickly discover how painful it is to start from zero. They're stuck scrambling to piece together their work history and achievements while competing against hundreds of other candidates who are better prepared.

It’s not their fault.

Here's the truth—I was in the same boat 🙈

I hadn't touched my resume in years. I used other strategies (like this one and this one) to land interviews.

Frankly, I had no idea if it was any good.

So I ran an experiment. I tested how well my resume matched against typical roles I’d apply to. The results?

Humbling.

My resume wasn't just underperforming. “Under the radar” would be… generous. I was basically invisible.

But here's the good news: fixing it was surprisingly straightforward. Using a combination of AI tools and a systematic approach, I transformed my resume in about 30 minutes.

Let me show you the exact 5 steps I used to rebuild my resume and perform better in an ATS.

📝 The Baseline: A Resume Reality Check

I tested my resume against the types of roles someone with my background would typically look for:

• Product Manager

• Growth Product Manager

• Senior Growth Product Manager

The results weren't great. My resume only scored a 24% match using Teal's ATS analysis tool. In other words, most automated hiring systems would likely filter me out before a human ever saw my application.

To fix this, I focused on two main tools:

1. Teal - A platform that analyzes and optimizes resumes for ATS systems (you can test 80% of the below with the free version).

2. Claude - Anthropic’s LLM. In general, I’ve found Claude to understand nuance better and produce better results in longer-form content

🗺️ Step 1: Map Your Professional Narrative

Before diving into AI tools, you need a solid baseline resume to work from. Remember: You can't optimize what you haven't documented.

For my baseline resume, I got specific about three key areas:

• The roles I've held and what I actually did in each one - including my core responsibilities and day-to-day work

• Real wins and achievements with hard numbers - like "increased conversion by 25%" or "led a pod of 2 developers and 1 designer”

• The concrete impact I had on products, teams, and business metrics - focusing on results, not just activities

You're not just making a list of job history. You're documenting the problems you've solved and the value you've delivered. This becomes your raw material for optimization.

I call this "Demonstrating Your Impact."

Remember: AI tools can enhance your story, but they can't create it from scratch. You still need to do this groundwork yourself. Start with a strong baseline resume that captures your real experience and achievements.

📠 Step 2: Uploading to Teal for Initial Diagnosis

I uploaded my resume to Teal and ran it through their analysis tool. I wanted to see how well it matched against three typical job descriptions I'd apply for.

The tool analyzes your resume similar to how an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) would scan it. While not perfect, it gives you a good baseline for how well your resume might perform in automated screening.

Teal then automatically optimizes your resume. Here's what surprised me:

• It completely reorganized my experience to emphasize achievements that matched the job requirements

• It suggested improvements to how information was structured (not just rearranging copy)

• It showed me what an ATS "sees" when it scans my resume

Reading through the Teal-optimized version, I had to admit: it was better than what I started with.

It also got a 36% Match Score—a 50% improvement.

✍️ Step 3: Fine-Tuning Your Resume with Claude AI

The resume Teal generated was solid, but I knew we could improve it further with some targeted refinements.

I found open job roles I’d want and started with this prompt in Claude:

Claude's first version was promising but needed some tweaks. The language was sanitized and corporate.

Here's how I refined it:

Next, I went through it “by hand” and made every sentence count by cutting unnecessary words. I also rewrote to keep my own personal style whenever appropriate.

(The best way to do this? Read your resume aloud.)

After running this improved version through Teal, my match score jumped to 36% - a 50% increase from where I started.

Not bad for about 5 minutes of work.

🔍 Step 4: Create Role-Specific Resume Versions

Next, I created custom versions of my resume targeting exact roles.

What most people miss: within the same job title, companies often have different priorities and challenges. One Growth PM role might focus heavily on user acquisition, while another emphasizes retention.

This could be a single line in the JD. The detail matters.

For example, in one client’s recent application, the difference maker was whether or not a candidate has experience with Contentful (a CMS).

This attention to detail takes an extra 5-10 minutes but makes your application more relevant.

For this role, I bumped up my score by another 11%.

Here's the prompt I used:

📊 Step 5: Optimizing Keywords for Both ATS and Humans

I used to avoid adding skills sections to my resume - it felt like obvious keyword stuffing. But I wondered: could I add relevant skills in a way that both helped with ATS systems and still read naturally to humans?

Using Teal's platform, I found a balanced approach:

• I identified which important keywords were missing from my resume

• Added relevant terms thoughtfully throughout the content, not just in the skills section

• Made sure everything still flowed naturally and made sense to human readers

The key was being selective. I only included skills that genuinely matched my experience and were relevant to the roles I wanted. I organized them naturally within my work experience rather than just listing them.

(Note: You may need to upgrade to the pro version for this feature.)

Then I re-read my resume and made sure it felt tight.

The results exceeded my expectations:

• Initial Teal score: 24%

• After optimization: 67%

• Improvement: 180%

🤔 Beyond The Hype of AI For Your Resume

Will this optimized resume perform better? The early signs are promising, but I want to be transparent—I need more data. I'm actively testing it now and will report back with the results.

So far, the improvements are clear:

• Higher match scores against target roles (though remember, this is just one metric, and it’s only a proxy for how resumes score in an ATS)

• Clearer, more compelling writing that resonates with human readers

• Better highlighting of relevant skills and experience

What's really cool? You can make these improvements fast. With the right tools, you can significantly upgrade your resume in about 30 minutes.

But let's be realistic about what AI can and can't do:

• It can help present your experience more effectively

• It can't create experience you don't have

• It can't make up achievements or metrics

• The foundation must still be YOUR real work and accomplishments

💫 The Bottom Line

My resume went from being a black hole of job applications to a targeted, powerful tool that actually gets interviews.

Here's exactly what I did to improve my resume:

1. Start with a strong foundation - document your real experience and achievements

2. Get a baseline score using Teal's ATS analysis

3. Use Claude to help improve the writing and structure

4. Create custom versions that match specific job descriptions

5. Add relevant keywords thoughtfully throughout (not just in a skills section)

Now it's your turn. Use these tools strategically, but remember: AI enhances your story - it doesn't create it.

I love meeting new people. Say hi on LinkedIn 👋

That’s a wrap. See you next week 👋