Upload a resume to Resume AI

Upload your latest resume so the AI knows your background. Every answer in a live session, every coaching nudge, every screen-analysis pulls from your resume to make the response specific to you instead of generic.

You can use the live session without uploading a resume — the AI falls back to general best-practice answers. But the difference between "tell us about a time you led a project" answered generically vs. answered with your Q1-launch-12M-users specifics is the difference between a good interview and a great one.

Step-by-step

1. Go to Resume AI in the sidebar
2. Click Upload Resume (or drag-and-drop into the dropzone)
3. Pick a file: PDF (preferred), DOCX, or plain text. Max 10 MB.
4. The AI reads the whole thing and turns it into sections you can edit (Education, Experience, Skills and so on). It takes a few seconds.
5. Your resume opens in the editor. Everything on it is editable: click and type. The score in the bottom-right corner is its 100-point rubric score (full breakdown on Pro, Pro+ and Lifetime — see Resume scoring).

What the AI does with your resume

• Live sessions read your resume to ground answers in your actual background. When the interviewer asks "tell me about a time you led under pressure," the AI uses your real projects, not a generic STAR template.
• Coaching mode (when enabled in session Settings) uses your resume to fire nudges like "you mentioned Stripe — could be a strong example here" during candidate-turn pauses.
• Resume AI — hover a bullet and click its sparkle to improve it (AI rewrite), or ask the Resume AI box at the bottom of the editor to change anything (Resume AI chat). Undo takes a change back.

Multiple resumes

You can upload more than one resume — useful if you're targeting different role types. Pick the Active Resume from the dropdown at the top of Resume AI; that's the one live sessions pull from.

Free: up to 2 resumes. Every paid plan: unlimited.

File format tips

• PDF works best when it's the original PDF, not a scanned image. The AI uses text extraction; image-only PDFs need OCR (slower, slightly less accurate).
• DOCX is fine for most resumes. If you have heavy formatting (multi-column, sidebars), the AI may misread section boundaries. Export to PDF and re-upload if extraction looks off.
• Plain text (.txt or .md) is the most reliable — no formatting to misinterpret. Useful if your resume is in Markdown or LaTeX.

Privacy

Your resume is stored in your account, scoped to your user ID. It's never shared with other users. It's sent to the AI model you pick (Claude or GPT) to write your answers, and during a live session its lines — without the contact details at the top — go to TypeSafe AI to pick the lines that best fit each question. Each provider handles data under its own privacy policy; the full list is in our privacy policy.

If you delete your resume from Resume AI, it's deleted from our database.

Common questions

Q: My upload says "Couldn't extract text from your file." A: Your PDF is an image scan, not text. Re-export from Google Docs / Notion / Word / LaTeX as a text-based PDF (not "Print to PDF" from a scanner). Or upload the original DOCX.

Q: Can I upload my LinkedIn PDF? A: Yes — LinkedIn "Save to PDF" produces text PDFs, which parse fine. Note that LinkedIn PDFs are denser than typical resumes; the AI prefers a 1-page tailored resume.

Q: How big can the file be? A: 10 MB max. Most resumes are well under 1 MB. If yours is bigger, you probably have embedded high-res images — strip them.

Q: How many resumes can I upload? A: Free = 2. Every paid plan (Pro, Pro+, Lifetime and legacy hour packs) = unlimited.

Q: The AI is using the wrong resume. A: At top of /resumes, pick the Active Resume dropdown — that's the one live sessions pull from. Useful if you upload 3 versions targeting different role types (PM, eng, design).

Q: Why are the section names wrong (e.g., it says "Skills" but lists my hobbies)? A: The parser expects standard headings — Experience, Education, Skills, Projects. Unusual labels ("My Journey", "Things I've Done") confuse it. Rename to standard names + re-upload.

Q: The score is lower than I expected. What's missing? A: Click the Score Panel (FAB at bottom-right) → each rule has a hint. Common low-scorers: Contact Info (LinkedIn missing), Content Quality (no quantified bullets), Originality (template defaults like "Alex Johnson" still in the doc).

Q: Where does my resume data go? A: Stored in our DB scoped to your user ID. Sent to the AI model you pick as context for live AI answers, and its lines (without contact details) to TypeSafe AI to pick the best lines for each question. Full list: our privacy policy. Delete the resume → it's deleted from our DB.

Q: Can I download my parsed resume back? A: Not yet — but the original PDF/DOCX you uploaded is stored unchanged. Click "Download original" on any resume row.

Q: Can the AI work without a resume? A: Yes — answers fall back to generic best-practice. But night-and-day difference between generic answers and answers grounded in your real projects + companies + numbers. Always upload one.

Still stuck?

Contact us with category Something is broken, attach the file, and we'll diagnose. Most "upload failed" reports have been file-format quirks fixable in 2 minutes.