Whether you’re applying for a new role in practice, industry, or financial services, your CV is your professional handshake and your sales document to get you in the door and to create an opportunity for you to speak to a prospective employer. It’s often the first impression you make with employers, recruiters and HR professionals.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be powerful allies in refining and tailoring your CV—but only if used wisely. For members of Chartered Accountants Ireland, the challenge is to harness AI for efficiency while maintaining authenticity, accuracy, and professional integrity.
✅ DO: Use AI to polish structure and language :
- Streamline formatting for clarity and consistency - Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are widely used by employers and recruitment firms. AI can help ensure your CV is clean, consistent, and easy to review, reducing the risk of being overlooked. Instruct the AI to reformat your CV to be more palatable to an ATS.
- Refine bullet points to highlight achievements and value-add - Instead of listing duties and responsibilities, use AI to sharpen your phrasing around measurable outcomes. For example:
- “Delivered audit efficiencies resulting in a 15% reduction in fieldwork hours.”
- “Implemented ERP system migration across three subsidiaries, improving reporting accuracy.”
Ask the AI to suggest and enhance these elements in your cv.
- Tailor your CV to each role - AI will help you align your CV with keywords in job specifications. Tip: Feed the job spec to the AI and then and ask it to align your CV with the required skills and competencies in the role. If you are pivoting into a different area of career direction AI tools can reposition the terms and grammar in your CV to be more pointed and bring your transferrable soft skills to the fore.
✅ DO: Let AI help with tone and grammar :
- Ensure professional, confident language AI can eliminate passive phrasing and sharpen your tone so that your CV reads as achievement-focused rather than task-oriented. Instruct it on latter iterations to ‘sharpen the tone and make the terminology more achievement focused’.
- Highlight quantifiable results: Employers value tangible outcomes. AI can help you reframe statements to emphasise your measurable impact:
- “I reduced monthly reporting cycle by 30%.”
- “I led the €5M budget planning process across multiple jurisdictions.”
✅ DO: Use AI for brainstorming:
- Generate strong action verbs - AI can suggest impactful verbs such as streamlined, negotiated, implemented, advised, or optimised—helping you avoid repetition.
- Identify transferable skills - Particularly useful if you’re pivoting from practice to industry or vice versa. AI can help you surface skills such as stakeholder management, regulatory compliance, or systems implementation that may not be obvious at first glance.
❌ DON’T: Fabricate Qualifications or Experience
- Avoid inflated claims - AI tools may suggest impressive-sounding credentials or roles. Do not overinflate your actual experience or core skills and expertise. Misrepresentation can damage your personal brand and career prospects. Always carefully review the revised CV and check your level of comfort with it.
❌ DON’T: Submit Without Personal Review
- Guard against generic output - AI-generated CVs can sometimes sound formulaic or misaligned with what an employer expects to see in a CV. Proofread, personalise and put your own stamp on it which may mean small rewrites in sections.
- Include specific context - Employers value detail such as:
- Client sectors (e.g., construction, agri-food, financial services). Company names where acceptable. Employer revenue and employee numbers to give scale context.
- Eg - Software proficiencies (Sage, Xero, SAP, Oracle).
- Eg - Regulatory experience (Irish GAAP, IFRS, FRS 102, Central Bank reporting).
- Size and scale of current company eg- Number of employees in the company. Number of people you directly manage. Detail re the turnover level of the company for context.
❌ DON’T: Overuse Buzzwords
- Substance over style Phrases like “dynamic leader” or “results-driven” are acceptable only when backed by evidence. Employers prefer concrete achievements over vague descriptors.
- Let your outcomes speak for themselves - Replace generic claims with specifics:
- Instead of “innovative thinker,” write “developed a tax planning strategy that reduced liabilities by €200K.”
⚖️ Final Thoughts
AI is a powerful tool for members seeking to sharpen their CVs. It can enhance clarity, structure, and relevance, but it is not a substitute for authenticity! Your CV should reflect your unique career journey, values, and professional integrity. Make sure your personality and ambitions shine through in the document.
Think of AI as your assistant, not your author. Use it to polish, but ensure the final document is unmistakably yours.
If you’d like tailored support for your CV or career progression, reach out to your Chartered Accountants Ireland Careers Team—we can provide personalised guidance aligned customised to your individual situation.
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