Ask HN: Are "% improvement" stats in resumes an AI indicator?

4 pointsfloren28d ago4 comments

I've been reviewing a lot of resumes lately, and most of them include very detailed statistics in the previous employment sections: "improved performance by 30%", "reduced memory usage by 55.3%". I counted 14 such statistics in a recent resume, for instance.

I swear I didn't see this kind of thing the last time I was reading resumes. Is this something LLMs tend to do when writing a resume, or has everyone been keeping extremely detailed performance metrics for the last 10 years and I've missed it?

4 comments

epistasis28d ago

I've seen this a bit in resumes before LLMs. It seems much more likely to be an indicator of current "best practices" somewhere than LLMs. The number of significant digits on 55.3% is a bit concerning though, and having 14 percentages is also a bit weird, especially going back 10 years. I think you're probably the best guide here, and hopefully a phone screen or similar would smoke out the reality!

recursivecaveat28d ago

I think it's a weak positive signal for AI use. Including quantitative impacts has been a recommended practice for a long time. Humans struggle to do it though because they don't have the numbers. Maybe the frequency is increased slightly by everyone using LLMs for resume reviews and getting the same advice. If you rewrite your resume directly with the bullshit machine though.. you might invent some quantitative values you never knew before.

florenOP28d ago

Forgot to mention in the OP but I also see a lot of resumes where the recent job conveniently involved EVERYTHING we ask for in the job posting, which I assume is another LLMism

manuelabeledo28d ago

I've been seeing this for years, and most of the time they are either lies or, at best, half truths.

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