Resume writing
Using ChatGPT to write your resume: what Australian employers accept and what to check
What Australian employers say about AI in applications, which personal details to remove first, and a review routine that catches invented claims.
Pasting your resume into ChatGPT and asking it to "make this better" takes ten seconds. Checking what came back takes longer, and that check decides whether the result helps or hurts your application.
This guide covers how Australian employers describe acceptable AI use, what to remove before you paste anything, and a review routine that catches the common problems.
What Australian employers say about AI in applications
Few private employers publish a policy, but Australian Government agencies have started to. The Department of Home Affairs guidelines for graduate applicants are a clear example. They say AI "can support your preparation" but "must not replace your thinking or complete tasks that assess your suitability".
| Use | Home Affairs position | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Researching the organisation and the role | Acceptable | You still choose what matters |
| Brainstorming before you write | Acceptable | The ideas you keep remain yours |
| Checking spelling, grammar, phrasing or readability | Acceptable | You remain the author |
| Reformatting or shortening content you wrote | Acceptable | The underlying claims stay yours |
| Rehearsing interview questions | Acceptable | Practice, not a submitted answer |
| Having AI produce the examples and claims that are assessed | Not acceptable | It must not replace your thinking |
The same page lists how the department may verify applications. It may compare written responses with interview performance, ask for more detail about your examples, confirm employment history or qualifications, check consistency across stages and contact referees.
Those checks are why it matters. Anything in your resume can become an interview question, so every line needs to be something you can explain in your own words.
Remove personal details before you paste
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's guidance on commercially available AI products is written for organisations. Its reasoning still applies to individuals. It recommends not entering personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools. It notes that once information is entered it can be very hard to track how it is used, and potentially impossible to remove.
Before pasting a resume into a general chatbot, take out:
- your phone number, email address and street address
- referees' names and contact details, which are other people's information
- visa grant numbers, licence numbers and student numbers
- anything about health, background checks or family circumstances
The tool only needs the work: your responsibilities, the context and what changed. Put the contact block back in your own copy afterwards.
The review routine
The OAIC guidance also notes that AI systems "are known to produce inaccurate or false results". For a resume, the risk is a confident, specific claim you never made.
| Check | What to look for | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers | Percentages, dollar amounts or team sizes you did not provide | Delete them or replace them with a figure you can verify |
| Scope | "Led", "owned" or "managed" where you contributed or supported | Use the verb that matches your actual role |
| Tools and skills | Software, certifications or methods you have not used | Remove them; an interviewer may ask about them |
| Spelling | US spellings such as "organized" or "optimize" | Use Australian spelling, as in our Australian vs US resume guide |
| Personal details | Photo prompts, date of birth, marital status | Remove them; see how to write a resume in Australia |
| Voice | Phrases you would not say aloud | Rewrite in plain words you would use in an interview |
Read the result aloud. If a sentence makes you hesitate, that is the line an interviewer is likely to ask about.
A worked example
This is a fictional example. Daniel is applying for a customer service team leader role. He gives a chatbot this bullet:
Helped the store manager with rosters and covered the front counter on busy days.
He asks it to make the bullet stronger for the job ad. It returns:
Spearheaded workforce scheduling for a 25-person team, optimizing coverage and boosting customer satisfaction scores by 30%.
Running the review routine on that output:
- Numbers: the team had 12 staff, and the store never measured customer satisfaction. Both figures go.
- Scope: Daniel helped with rosters; he did not lead them. "Spearheaded" goes.
- Spelling: "optimizing" is US spelling.
After the review, Daniel writes:
Prepared draft weekly rosters for a 12-person team for the store manager's approval, and covered the front counter during peak trading.
It is less flashy, but it is accurate, specific and easy to discuss. If the job ad mentions rostering, it now sits where a recruiter will see it. Our resume tailoring guide shows how to choose which experience to bring forward for a particular ad.
A better way to prompt
Give the tool facts and a narrow task, rather than asking it to "improve" the whole document.
- Paste one section at a time, with personal details removed.
- Paste the relevant part of the job ad, so it knows what to emphasise.
- Tell it the constraints: "Do not add numbers, tools or responsibilities I have not listed. Use Australian spelling."
- Ask for two options, then choose and edit one yourself.
For government roles, the same approach applies to selection criteria and pitches. Follow any AI guidance in the job pack, and see our selection criteria guide for the structure.
Questions about using ChatGPT for your resume
Can employers tell if I used AI on my resume
Do not plan around whether a reader can spot it. What employers can do, as the Home Affairs guidelines describe, is compare your written application with your interview, ask for detail and check with referees. An inaccurate claim is far more likely to cause a problem than the use of a tool.
Is it acceptable to use AI to write a cover letter
Check the employer's instructions first. Where none are given, a reasonable standard is the one Home Affairs uses: AI can help with structure, wording and checking, but the examples and claims should be yours.
What should I never paste into a public chatbot
Contact details, referees' details, identity or visa numbers, and health or background-check information. The OAIC recommends against entering personal information, especially sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools.