Unemployment Update no. 5
I tested the resume scoring websites so you don't have to.
For this edition of Unemployment Update we have a little experiment I conducted last month and some updated job application stats - with a new graph!
If you’re looking for a job right now, you’ve probably come across AI platforms that promise to grade your resume against ATS (applicant tracking system) scanners and optimize it for specific roles. Because I am highly susceptible to these kinds of gimmicks, I decided to take a look at some of the more popular ones and test them out.
Something to note is most of these are not cheap. It’s kind of gross how they’re essentially preying on people who are likely unemployed.
Read on for my review of 3 of these platforms and my overall thoughts:
Teal
Price: $9/week, no contract.
Initial Thoughts: I liked this one because it scores your resume against a specific job. In theory, this sounds perfect. In practice, however, it meant I had to keyword-stuff my resume to make it score high enough that the platform would deem it a good enough match to apply.
The keyword stuffing also meant I kept going over the recommended character and word counts for specific sections, so then I edited bullet points to the point of near unreadability for the sake of the scoring metrics.
They also offer an AI cover letter creator, which was pretty good. It did a better job writing a tailored cover letter than ChatGPT. It still definitely sounds like AI, so I did use it mostly as a jumping off point and added some personal touches here and there.
Teal also only allows export of PDFs, so if you want to export your resume or cover letter and then make edits to it, you either have to do it within Teal and export it again or you’ll need PDF editing software.
JobScan
Price: There’s a decent free version, otherwise $49/month or $89/quarter
Overall Thoughts: I signed up for a two-week free trial and promptly canceled it. It works essentially the same as Teal but with a less user-friendly interface. It’s also more difficult to edit your resume to match their suggestions.
Resume Worded
Price: Free will get you an initial score and two AI re-writes, otherwise $49/mo
Overall Thoughts: Upload your resume and it spits out a score. I uploaded one of my “optimized” resumes I made with Teal, and it gave me a score of 67 (Teal scored it at 72). One of its issues was the overuse of “buzzwords,” aka, the keywords Teal and JobScan suggested I stuff my resume with.
This one, in particular, was obsessed with every bullet point having a quantifiable metric. I understand this in theory, but if you asked it to re-generate the bullet point for you, it would just make up a metric. I personally wouldn’t leave these fake metrics in there, but who knows how many people are?
When it came to tailoring resumes to job descriptions, Resume Worded may have the best features. It not only identifies keywords from the job description, but also suggests where in your existing resume you could fit them in. It doesn’t fit them in particularly well, but this was at least helpful for inspiration.
Final Results
Using these services didn’t get me any interviews. Two of the jobs I applied to using these services I received form rejections, and the others I haven’t heard anything yet and it’s been at least two weeks.
I liked Teal the best, mostly because it was the least expensive to play with.
63% match with Teal was the highest match rate I could get for any job without making my resume sound unhinged. I can’t even fathom how to get a 90% or higher match rate. I might keep playing with it just to see if I can.
My personal opinion? I wouldn’t bother with these. I’m not sure they’re really doing anything you couldn’t train ChatGPT to do, or better yet, do yourself. Resumes and cover letters are already stuffed with enough meaningless business jargon, no need to make them any worse. In this job market, personality may be the only thing helping you stick out from the crowd.
And Now, Some Stats
My interest in applying for jobs is starting to wane. It seems as though there’s fewer jobs I want to apply for, plus the process is so exhausting. Right now I’m aiming to apply for at least 3 jobs a week. I do worry that I’m getting a little bit too complacent, but things also aren’t dire here (yet) so I’m allowing myself the down time. I’m still brainstorming ways to make some extra money on the side, but nothing has quite stuck.
Replies also seem to be slowing down. At the beginning it felt like the rejection emails were flowing in pretty regularly, and while they’re not what I want to hear, at least it’s something. The radio silence is so much worse.
If you’ve tried any of these AI resume platforms or have any hot tips for email marketing jobs, let me know in the comments!