Earlier this week, Meta began a round of job cuts and has signaled that 2025 will be a tough year. But they’re far from alone—Microsoft, Workday, Sonos, Salesforce, and several other tech companies have also announced layoffs, leaving thousands of professionals searching for new roles.

In the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia), the federal government is also facing unprecedented headwinds, with DOGE taking the lead on buyout packages and the shutdown of entire agencies, including USAID.

Like many of you, some of my friends and family were impacted, and one thing I hear over and over again? The job application process has become a nightmare.

Why Job Searching Feels Broken

For many, job hunting now means submitting tons of applications per week, navigating AI-powered screening tools, and attempting to “game” Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) just to get noticed. If you’ve ever optimized a website for search engines (SEO), you already understand the challenge—your resume now needs to be written for AI just as much as for human reviewers.

As someone who has been a hiring manager, I know why these AI-powered filters exist. Companies receive an overwhelming number of applications, making AI screening tools a necessary first layer of evaluation—but they also mean that perfectly qualified candidates might never make it past the system.

To get past these filters, job seekers need to think like SEO strategists, using resume optimization techniques to increase their chances of reaching an actual hiring manager.

AI Resume Optimization Tips

To level the playing field, resume-scoring tools have been developed to help applicants evaluate their resumes against job descriptions and ATS filters. These tools offer insights such as:

• Include the job title in a prominent header.

• Match listed skills exactly as they appear in the job description.

• Avoid image-heavy or complex formats—ATS systems are bots parsing text, not designers.

• Optimize keyword density to align with job descriptions while keeping it readable.

• Ensure your resume meets the minimum qualifications—AI won’t infer missing experience.

Once you’ve optimized your resume with these strategies, AI-powered tools can help you analyze your resume against job descriptions to see how well it matches and provide targeted improvement suggestions.

Testing AI Resume Scoring with JobScan

To put this into practice, I submitted my resume to Jobscan to see how well it aligned with a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) job posting in Baltimore that I found on ZipRecruiter.

I’ll admit, Jobscan was a bit finicky at first and pushed hard for an upgrade, but once I got my resume and job description uploaded, it generated a report analyzing my match score and offering several helpful suggestions to improve my resume for the job description I provided.

The results provided a rating based on my resume’s content and offered useful insights, including:

• Hard and soft skills are mentioned in the job description and I should add.
• Missing sections or details that could improve my resume’s match.
• Formatting adjustments (like date formats) to improve ATS readability.

It also provided a very detailed report with suggestions to improve the readability, and density of keywords for example, the words “collaboration” and “innovation” were both used 3 times in the job description but the resume mentioned collaboration once, and innovation 6 times.

The tool also offers an option to provide a URL to the job listing it will identify the ATS being used and provide additional suggestions specific to what It knows about that tool.

ChatGPT for Resume Optimization

These days many of us have access to a free or paid version of AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, so I decided to create a prompt and see how well it could help me. I crafted a prompt that spoke to my needs and provided it with the same resume and job description. For reference here is the prompt I used:

I need to optimize my resume for an AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to improve my chances of passing the initial screening process. Below is the job description for the role I’m applying for, followed by my current resume.

Please analyze my resume against the job description and provide the following:

1. A match score or summary of how well my resume aligns with the job description.

2. Key skills, keywords, or qualifications from the job posting that are missing or need to be emphasized.

3. Suggestions for improving formatting and structure to ensure compatibility with ATS filters.

4. Any red flags or areas where my resume could be better tailored to the role.

Jobscan rated my resume at 49%, pointing out missing skills, formatting issues, and keyword gaps. On the other hand, ChatGPT, rated it between 80-85%, focusing more on content alignment rather than rigid formatting rules. However, it had great suggestions and naturally picked up on skills missing in my resume that exist in the job description.

While the ranking was different the recommendations and things ChatGPT pointed out are similar to the results of JobScan just not laid out as simply in a dashboard. This final recommendations section gives a pretty good overview of ChatGPT’s recommendations.

Beating the ATS Game

Most resumes now pass through an ATS before reaching a human hiring manager. Understanding how to optimize for these filters is critical in a competitive job market.

In conclusion, AI and resume-scanning tools have the potential to level the playing field for job seekers—provided they know how to leverage them effectively. And if traditional methods fall short, why not turn the tables? Use AI to go on the offensive, automating your job applications and maximizing your opportunities. Tools like Lazy Apply let AI handle the applications for you, so you can focus on landing the right role.