How-to guide
How to build a professional CV with AI
A CV does one job: get you the interview. Recruiters spend seconds on each application. Your experience has to be visible immediately, the role fit has to be obvious, and the format has to survive an ATS scan. Most people spend too long on formatting and not enough on the substance of what each role actually produced.
Quick answer
Updated July 3, 2026
Make a CV with AI by listing your roles, dates, and quantified achievements raw, then naming the target role precisely. Slaide structures and writes the CV, summary, experience, education, and skills, ordering sections for impact and formatting the layout cleanly. Check that job-posting keywords appear naturally for ATS compatibility, then export to PDF and scan it as a recruiter would.
AI produces a clean, structured CV fast. Your job is to feed it accurate, specific experience and to target it at a real role. A generic CV submitted everywhere performs worse than a targeted one submitted selectively. Write honestly. Embellishments are easy to spot in interviews.
Step-by-step: how to build a CV / resume with AI
- 1
List your experience raw before you prompt
Write out every relevant role, company, dates, and three to five bullet points of what you actually did and what it produced. Numbers matter: revenue, team size, growth rate, cost saved. Do not edit for style yet. Just get the facts down. This raw list is your brief.
- 2
Identify the target role precisely
Name the role title, the company type or specific company, and the two or three things the job posting emphasises. If you are applying to multiple similar roles, note the common requirements. The AI uses this to sequence and frame your experience for that audience.
- 3
Let AI structure and write the CV
Slaide produces a complete, designed CV: summary, experience, education, skills. It orders the sections for maximum impact, writes achievement-focused bullet points, and formats the layout cleanly. One-page output for most roles, two pages for senior positions with extensive relevant experience.
- 4
Check for ATS compatibility
ATS systems parse CVs for keywords from the job posting. Read the output and confirm the key terms from the job description appear naturally in the experience section. Do not keyword-stuff; place terms where they are accurate. Standard section headings ('Experience', 'Education') scan better than creative alternatives.
- 5
Export to PDF and check it on screen
Export as PDF. Open it and read it as a recruiter would: skip the summary, scan the most recent role, check the dates are continuous. If anything is unclear in five seconds of scanning, edit it. Send the PDF, not a Word file, unless the job posting specifically asks for Word.
Example prompt, copy and paste
“Build a clean one-page CV for a [target role] application. My background: [list experience with company, dates, and key achievements]. Highlight [2-3 specific strengths]. The company is [company type/name]. Keep it ATS-friendly.”
Start with this promptCommon mistakes to avoid
- Writing responsibilities instead of achievements. 'Managed a team' says nothing. 'Grew the team from 3 to 9 and shipped the product six weeks early' says everything.
- Using the same CV for every application. A CV not targeted to the role reads as generic. Hiring managers notice.
- Including a photo or personal details in markets where they are not expected. In most English-speaking markets, leave them out.
- Making the file name generic. Name it 'FirstName-LastName-RoleName.pdf'. Recruiters download dozens of CVs and 'CV.pdf' gets lost.
FAQ
Should my CV be one page or two?
One page for up to about ten years of experience or for roles where brevity is valued (startups, agency roles). Two pages for senior positions with substantial relevant experience. Never go to three pages unless you are in academia. The rule is: every line should be earning its place.
Can Slaide tailor my CV for a specific job posting?
Yes. Paste the job posting text into the prompt or upload it as a file. Slaide reads the requirements and frames your experience to match. It surfaces the skills the posting prioritises and sequences your experience accordingly.
What format is best for ATS systems?
Clean PDF with standard section headings. Avoid tables, text boxes, headers and footers, and multi-column layouts where text might be read out of order. Slaide produces a layout that is visually clean and structured for reliable parsing.
Can I upload my old CV and have Slaide rewrite it?
Yes. Upload your existing CV as a PDF or Word document. Slaide reads it and rewrites it with better structure, achievement-focused language, and a clean design. You can add new roles or context in the prompt.
Build your CV / resume with Slaide
Describe what you need and Slaide plans, writes, designs and self-checks the whole thing. Free to start, no credit card.
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