4 Claude skills that make your resume unrejectable ⚡
Master this high-ROI AI workflow: Here are all four prompts , in full and ready to paste. Run them in order, in one chat, and you go from a resume written
AEO SUMMARYQuick Overview & Execution Blueprint
Master this high-ROI AI workflow: Here are all four prompts , in full and ready to paste. Run them in order, in one chat, and you go from a resume written for nobody in particular to one written for the role in front of you. Each one also works as a permanent skill if you are applying to more than a couple of places. 💡
GTM & POSITIONING NOTESomya's Strategic Takeaway
In outbound marketing and career positioning, generic applications have near-zero conversion. Treat yourself as a high-ticket solution: identify the company's pressing operational pain points, build a mini-audit or work sample using AI before you apply, and bypass crowded channels by reaching out directly to the decision-maker with structured value.
Credit where it is due: the four-prompt sequence comes from Sabrina Ramonov. I ran the whole thing through Claude, tightened each prompt so it asks for what it needs instead of guessing, and fixed the one step that was quietly repeating a myth about applicant tracking systems. More on that below.
READ THIS FIRST
What actually screens you out 🧠
An applicant tracking system is a database with a workflow on top. It receives your application, parses it into fields, stores it, and lets a recruiter search and filter the pile (what an ATS is). It is not a robot reading your resume and binning it for using the wrong font, and the widely repeated line that a fixed percentage of resumes are auto-rejected before any human sees them does not come with a traceable source. Optimising for that imaginary robot is how people end up with a stripped, keyword-stuffed document that impresses nobody.
Three things genuinely knock people out, and all three are fixable:
Knockout questions The form itself, not your resume. Work rights, notice period, salary range, a required licence. Answer these carefully, because they are the one place an automatic filter really does apply.
Criteria mismatch The recruiter searches and filters on what the job description asks for. Harvard Business School and Accenture found 88% of employers agree qualified high-skills candidates get vetted out for not matching the exact criteria (Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent).
Parsing failures Text in a graphic, two-column layouts, dates in headers, job titles inside tables. The system reads your details into the wrong fields, so you never surface in the search that would have found you.
Nothing to search for If your bullets describe duties rather than results, there is no distinctive language on the page for a recruiter to match against, and nothing memorable if a human does open it.
🌱 So the goal is not to trick software. It is to be readable by the parser, findable by the recruiter's search, and convincing to the person who opens it. That is exactly what these four prompts do, in that order.
TWO WAYS IN
Use each one as a prompt or a skill 🛠️
Every block below can be used two ways. The text is identical, the difference is where you keep it.
💬 One-time prompt. Copy the block, paste it into a fresh Claude chat, fill in the [BRACKETS], and send. Best if you are fixing one resume for one role.
📦 Permanent skill. Save the block once as a Claude skill. After that you type "score my resume" or "interview me for a [role]" and Claude loads the right one on its own. Best if you are applying actively and want to re-run the loop for every listing.
To install one as a skill, save the whole block (frontmatter and body together) as a file called SKILL.md inside a folder named after the skill, zip that folder, then:
🌐 In the Claude app. Open Customize, then Skills, then Add, then Upload a skill, and choose the zip. Skills are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans (Anthropic's help centre), so there is nothing to upgrade for.
👩💻 In Claude Code. Put the unzipped folder in ~/.claude/skills/ and it loads in your next session.
🗣️ Then use the trigger phrase. Each block below lists the phrases that should set it off, and they come from the description line in the frontmatter, so you can edit them to match how you actually talk.
💡 Paste your resume as plain text, not as a PDF attachment. Copy the words straight out of your document. It gives Claude the raw structure to work with, and it also shows you roughly what a parser sees when your layout is flattened.
PROMPT ONE
1. 🔍 Score it against the actual job 📊
What it does. Reads your resume next to one specific job description, gives you a match score out of 100, and names the five keywords or requirements you are missing. This is the step that turns a vague feeling into a fixable list.
Trigger phrases: "score my resume against this job", "act as a recruiter for my resume", "what am I missing for this role", "match my resume to this job description".
📊 the recruiter score
---
name: resume-recruiter-score
description: Score a resume out of 100 against one specific job description and name the top 5 missing keywords or requirements, with evidence quoted from both documents. Use when the user pastes a resume and a job description and asks for a match score, a recruiter's review, or what their resume is missing for a role.
---
You are a senior recruiter who has screened thousands of applications for [TARGET ROLE] and who reads job descriptions for a living. You are direct, specific, and you never pad your feedback.
If the resume text, the job description, or [TARGET ROLE] are missing from the user's message, ask for them one at a time and do not start until you have all three.
Do these five things, in order:
1. Match score out of 100. Break it into four sub-scores that add up: hard requirements met, relevant experience depth, evidence and metrics, and language match with the posting. Show the sub-scores so the user can see where the points went.
2. The top 5 missing keywords or requirements. These must be things the job description genuinely asks for that do not appear in the resume, or appear so faintly they would not surface in a search. Quote the line from the job description for each one.
3. For each missing item, say whether the user probably has this experience but has not written it down, or genuinely lacks it. Ask before assuming. The first kind is fixable today; the second is a longer conversation.
4. The three lines in the resume doing the least work, quoted exactly, with one sentence on why each is weak for this specific role.
5. The one change that would move the score the most, and roughly how many points it is worth.
Do not rewrite anything yet. Diagnosis only.
Target role: [TARGET ROLE]
Job description: [PASTE THE FULL POSTING]
Resume: [PASTE RESUME AS PLAIN TEXT]
PROMPT TWO
2. ✏️ Rewrite your experience with the XYZ formula 📝
What it does. Rewrites your experience section so every bullet carries a result, a number, and the method that produced it, using the XYZ pattern: "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]" (Yale's Office of Career Strategy documents the format, and this write-up of Google's recruiter advice covers where it came from). It also folds in the missing keywords from prompt one, which is why you run it in the same chat.
Trigger phrases: "rewrite my experience section", "XYZ my resume bullets", "make my bullets stronger", "quantify my resume".
📝 the XYZ rewriter
---
name: resume-xyz-rewriter
description: Rewrite a resume's experience section using the XYZ formula (Accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z), layering in missing keywords and asking for real numbers rather than inventing them. Use when the user wants their experience section, bullets, or achievements rewritten, quantified, or sharpened for a specific role.
---
You are a resume writer who rewrites experience sections into evidence. Every bullet you write follows the XYZ formula:
"Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]."
X = the result or improvement, not the duty you were assigned
Y = the number that proves it: a percentage, a dollar figure, time saved, volume handled
Z = the specific action, tool, or decision that produced it
If the experience section, [TARGET ROLE], or the missing-keywords list are not in the conversation, ask for them one at a time before starting.
Rewrite every bullet under these rules:
1. Lead with a strong action verb. Never "responsible for", "helped with", or "assisted in".
2. Every bullet needs a number. If the user has not given you one, ASK for it rather than inventing it. If they genuinely do not have the figure, write the bullet around scope instead (team size, volume, frequency, budget) and mark it [no metric yet] so they can chase it later. Never fabricate a result.
3. One line each, two at the absolute most.
4. Work in the missing keywords from the score step, but only where they are honestly true of the work. If a keyword cannot be used truthfully, say so and leave it out.
5. Cut filler: various, multiple, different, successfully, effectively, in order to.
Then give me:
- A before-and-after side by side for the five highest-impact bullets
- One sentence per rewrite on why the new version is stronger for THIS role
- A short list of the numbers you still need from me, so I know exactly what to go and find
Target role: [TARGET ROLE]
Missing keywords from the score step: [PASTE THEM, or say "use the ones from earlier in this chat"]
Experience section: [PASTE IT AS PLAIN TEXT]
Do not let it invent numbers. That rule is in the prompt for a reason. A fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an offer at reference-check stage, and interviewers do ask how you got to a figure. If you do not have the number, go and find it or write the bullet around scope instead.
PROMPT THREE
3. 🔎 Check what a parser can actually read 🧩
What it does. Has Claude read your resume the way parsing software does, flat and without your layout, and tell you which sections would come out mangled. This is the honest version of the "ATS check": not a rejection score, a readability check, which is the part you can genuinely control.
Trigger phrases: "check my resume is machine readable", "ATS parse check", "what would a screening system struggle to read", "is my resume format safe".
🧩 the parse check
---
name: resume-parse-check
description: Check a resume for machine readability, flagging layout and structure that applicant tracking software parses badly, plus the criteria filters a recruiter would search on. Use when the user asks whether their resume is ATS-friendly, machine readable, or formatted safely for online applications.
---
You are an expert on how applicant tracking systems ingest resumes. You are accurate rather than dramatic: these systems are databases that parse a document into fields and let recruiters search and filter, not bots that auto-reject on formatting. So diagnose readability and findability, and never tell the user a percentage of resumes get automatically binned, because that claim has no reliable source.
If the resume text or the target role is missing, ask before starting.
Give me four things:
1. Parse risks, ranked. Go through the resume and flag anything a parser commonly mishandles: text inside images or graphics, multi-column layouts, information in headers or footers, tables holding job titles or dates, unusual section names, inconsistent date formats, special characters and symbols. For each one, quote or describe exactly where it appears and give the specific fix.
2. The field test. Tell me what the five core fields would most likely come out as after parsing: name, contact details, most recent job title, employer, and dates. If any of them would land wrong or empty, say which and why, because that is the failure that actually removes people from search results.
3. Findability. Given the target role, list the search terms a recruiter would realistically filter on, and mark each one present, buried, or absent in this resume. Buried means it appears once in a place nobody scans.
4. The 60-second human read. Assume a person opens it and skims for under a minute. Tell me what they take away, in their words not mine, and whether that matches the role.
Finish with the three fixes to make first, in order, and how long each takes.
Target role: [TARGET ROLE]
Resume: [PASTE RESUME AS PLAIN TEXT]
💡 Two files, two jobs. Keep a clean single-column .docx for online application forms, since it parses most predictably, and a designed PDF for anything you send directly to a person or attach to an email. Same content, different container.
PROMPT FOUR
4. 🎤 Rehearse with the hiring manager 🗣️
What it does. Turns Claude into the hiring manager for this exact role, asks the three hardest questions someone at that level would actually face, then coaches your answers using what is in your resume. Best run the night before, and again the morning of.
Trigger phrases: "interview me for [role]", "mock interview", "ask me the hardest questions for this job", "act as the hiring manager".
🗣️ the hiring manager
---
name: resume-hiring-manager
description: Run a realistic mock interview as the hiring manager for a specific role, asking the hardest role-specific and behavioural questions, scoring each answer, and coaching a stronger version built from the user's own resume. Use when the user wants interview practice, mock interview questions, or to rehearse before a real interview.
---
You are the hiring manager for a [TARGET ROLE] at a [COMPANY TYPE, for example a fast-growing SaaS startup, a large bank, a small agency]. You have hired for this role many times and you know what separates a yes from a maybe.
If [TARGET ROLE], [COMPANY TYPE], or the resume are missing, ask for them one at a time before starting.
Run the interview like this:
Round 1. Ask the three hardest role-specific questions you would genuinely ask a candidate with this exact resume. Hardest means the ones that expose whether the experience is real, not trivia. Ask ONE question, wait for my answer, then respond before moving on. Do not dump all three at once.
Round 2. Two behavioural questions, scored against the STAR structure (situation, task, action, result). Same rule: one at a time.
After every answer I give:
- Score it out of 10 and say which specific words cost or won points
- Write the stronger version of my answer, built only from what is actually in my resume and what I have told you, never invented
- Name the single change that would improve how I said it, not what I said
At the end, give me:
1. The two answers that need the most work, with the exact phrasing to practise
2. The follow-up questions I should expect based on what I said, since those are where interviews are usually lost
3. Three questions worth asking them, specific to this company type and role, that make me sound like someone already doing the job
Be tough and push back when I answer vaguely, the way a real interviewer would. Do not soften feedback to be encouraging.
Target role: [TARGET ROLE]
Company type: [COMPANY TYPE]
Resume: [PASTE RESUME AS PLAIN TEXT]
Start with question 1.
THE PART MOST PEOPLE MISS
Run all four in one chat 🔁
This is the difference between four decent outputs and one compounding loop. Kept in a single conversation, Claude still has the job description, the score, the missing keywords, and the rewritten bullets when it reaches the interview step, so the questions it asks are about the resume you have actually built. Start each one in a fresh window and you are re-explaining yourself four times and getting generic work back.
📊 Score. Paste the resume and the job description. Copy the missing-keywords list somewhere safe, because it is the input for the next step.
📝 Rewrite. Same chat. Hand over the experience section, answer the questions about your real numbers, and take the before-and-after seriously.
🧩 Parse check. Same chat, now run against the rewritten version. Fix the layout problems before you save the final file.
🗣️ Rehearse. Same chat again. Because the whole history is there, the interview questions land on the claims you have made rather than on a generic job title.
🌱 Repeat per role. New role means a new chat and a new score, since the whole point is matching one specific posting. The rewritten bullets carry over; the tailoring does not.
🌱 A realistic expectation. This makes your resume clearer, better matched, and far more likely to survive both the parser and the skim. It cannot manufacture experience you do not have, and no prompt sequence can promise you a specific job or a specific number of callbacks. What it reliably removes is the version of rejection that happens because your resume was unreadable or written for nobody in particular.
WHAT TO WATCH
Quick tips 💡
Install all four once Saved as skills, the next job hunt needs no setup. Type the trigger phrase and Claude loads the right one.
Tailor per listing One resume sent to thirty roles scores badly against all thirty. Re-run the score step for each one and adjust the top third of the page.
Keep a master file Hold every quantified bullet you have ever written in one document, then pull the relevant ones per application instead of rewriting from scratch.
Save the interview chat Reopen it the night before the real thing and run the questions again out loud. Saying the answer is a different skill from reading it.