Question 1

Who actually reads your resume?

Accepted Answer

Three readers, and only two of them matter at this stage. The ATS and recruiter match a literal word list and cannot infer anything from it; Pydantic does not read as Python to them. The hiring manager funds the role and is usually not technical in your specialty, so every line has to make sense to someone who has never written code. Your peers are the third reader, and they do not see the document yet. Writing for them is the error that sinks most resumes.

Question 2

It rewrote my whole resume. Is that a bug?

Accepted Answer

No. This is a redistribution engine working under a fixed bullet budget, not a text polisher. Your facts survive, your sentences do not. Two bullets may merge into one, a peer-facing clause may go, and technology this job never asked for gets demoted to your Skills list. Nothing technical is dropped silently: if a fact is not in a bullet, it is in Skills, and if it fits neither it is listed in the warnings under your result.

Question 3

Why did it add keywords as basic as HTML or SQL?

Accepted Answer

Because the scanner matches letters and cannot infer anything. PostgreSQL does not register as SQL, and React does not register as JavaScript, so the child term has to be spelled out even though you would never bother writing it. This one change typically triples keyword coverage in a single pass. It looks like stating the obvious to an engineer, and it is the only version the scanner credits.

Question 4

Why did my Skills section stop counting toward match scores?

Accepted Answer

A keyword scores only inside a work or project bullet that carries what you used, how you used it, why it mattered in plain words, and where you did it. A Skills list and a summary carry none of that, so a human reader gives them nothing. We keep the Skills block anyway. Parsers read it, and it is a useful parking lot for technology this particular job does not want. It just never counts toward your coverage score.

Question 5

Why do I have fewer bullets than before?

Accepted Answer

Bullets are budgeted by how long you held the role. An internship or a stint under six months gets 3, a long role gets up to 6, and each project gets 2. Under that ceiling a weak bullet has to win its line against a stronger one, which is why some of them get merged. A dense bullet also outperforms two thin ones with a reader who is giving you twenty seconds.

Question 6

Why does a bullet about teamwork take up a slot?

Accepted Answer

Because it earns it. The highest-rated résumé lines in hiring reviews are often ones that name no technology at all — daily meetings, sprint planning, retrospectives and code reviews in a Scrum team, with the feedback folded back into the work. Plenty of job descriptions name Agile, mentoring, or explaining technical topics to non-technical people as hard requirements. When yours does, one bullet covers it, and it sits second in the role instead of buried at the bottom.

Question 7

Why do the bullets all read the same shape?

Accepted Answer

Verb, then a deliverable a non-technical person can picture, then the keywords, then a plain-language reason it mattered. 25 to 35 words. A concrete outcome in plain English reaches the person who signs off on the hire. Peer-facing jargon reaches nobody else in the room. Connectors and opening verbs rotate within each role so it does not read like a template.

Question 8

What do the three Modes do?

Accepted Answer

Mode sets how far the rewrite may travel from what your resume literally says. Light relocates only what you already wrote and lands around 50% coverage; choose it if your resume is already dense and accurate. Balance is the default, adds terms that are true by construction, and reaches 70–80%. Aggressive goes past 90% by promoting skills you listed into bullets and stating practices your role implies. It stretches, and every stretched claim ships with a defend card.

Question 9

Is Aggressive lying on my resume?

Accepted Answer

Light and Balance are true by construction. There is nothing in either that you did not write yourself. Aggressive promotes what is already on your page and states working practices your role implies, which holds up once you have prepared the answer. Preparing that answer is the entire job of the defend cards. The hard limit never moves: no Mode will name a vendor, product, certification, employer or degree you have had zero contact with. Those go to the gap questionnaire, because that is the one category interview prep cannot rescue.

Question 10

What are defend cards and the gap questionnaire?

Accepted Answer

A defend card names a stretched claim, the fact underneath it, and how to answer when someone asks about it. Read them before a screening call. The gap questionnaire handles keywords that could not be placed from your resume at all. Each asks a question only you can answer, with a suggestion that would make the claim true. Answer any of them and regenerate; your answer is folded into a fresh rewrite.

Question 11

Why does the scorecard still list missing keywords?

Accepted Answer

The scorecard counts the target keywords that landed inside a real bullet, and every miss says why it was left out. Some stay missing on purpose, because no honest placement exists yet: a vendor you have never touched, a practice your team does not run. Inventing those is what ends a screening call. The questionnaire is the route to closing them, and for some gaps a weekend of real work is the fastest fix available.

Question 12

How is the ATS Booster different from the Resume Tailor?

Accepted Answer

The Tailor rewrites the text of your resume to make you the ideal candidate on paper. The Booster leaves your document looking exactly as it does now and embeds the job's keywords invisibly into the PDF, so the text an ATS parser extracts carries them. Reach for the Booster when your resume is already well-written and only needs to clear automated filters. Reach for the Tailor when the content itself needs heavy alignment with the job description.

Question 13

What is the Master Career Profile in my Account?

Accepted Answer

Your Master Career Profile is your single source of truth containing all your projects, roles, stack expertise, and metrics. Instead of re-pasting your resume for every single job application, the AI reads directly from your Master Profile, selects the 3-4 most relevant experiences for that specific job, and outputs a tight, professional resume built around it.

Question 14

How does the Jobs Directory prioritize listings?

Accepted Answer

Our job engine continuously parses and filters tech postings across Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and LinkedIn. It prioritizes fresh roles (within 7 days) and scores job accessibility so that entry-level, junior, internship, and high-signal remote opportunities are highlighted first.

Question 15

How does the Application Tracker work?

Accepted Answer

The tracker lets you organize your applications through Bookmarked, Applied, Interviewing, Offered, and Rejected stages. You can attach tailored resume variants to specific jobs, track submission dates, and calculate stage conversion rates.

Question 16

What is the MCP Server?

Accepted Answer

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) server allows AI assistants like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf to connect directly to JobCues. Your assistant can check ATS match scores, run tailored rewrites, and query active jobs directly from your IDE prompt.

Question 17

How do API Keys work?

Accepted Answer

You can generate standard API keys with customizable scopes (read jobs, create rewrites, check matches) in the API Keys settings page. Requests use bearer token authentication and deduct credits based on execution.

Frequently asked questions

How the Rewrite Works

Modes & Career Honesty

Choosing the Right Tool

API & MCP Integration

Ready to tailor your resume?