Set up your master resume by talking to Claude or ChatGPT

Why one master resume

Every tailored resume Lamr writes is built from your master resume. Tailoring picks the parts that matter for a posting, rewords them toward its language and fits the result on a page. What it will not do is add a number or a skill that is not already in the master. So the master should be complete rather than polished: every role, the projects worth mentioning, and the real results you can stand behind.

Setting it up through your assistant works well because the hard part is remembering and describing what you did. That is a conversation, and a chat is good at conversations.

If you already have a resume: import it

Paste the text of your current resume. If it is a PDF, copy the text out of it, or attach the file if your assistant can read files and ask it to pass the text along. Importing costs 2 credits and replaces the master resume you have now. The previous version is kept.

Import my resume below into Lamr as my master resume. Keep my bullets word for word. Afterwards, list anything that looks incomplete, like missing dates or locations, and ask me about each one. Don't fill gaps with guesses.

[paste your resume text]

If you do not: build it from a conversation

No resume, or one so old it is not worth importing? Let your assistant interview you. Lamr turns your answers into a structured master resume and sets up your candidate profile at the same time. It costs 2 credits.

Interview me to build my Lamr master resume. Ask one question at a time, in this order: my name, the role I'm targeting, my location and contact details, then each job I've had (title, company, dates, what I did, and any results I can actually back up), then education, skills and projects. Don't invent anything or fill gaps with guesses. When we're done, summarize what you'll send and wait for my OK before building it in Lamr.

Take your time with the jobs. The most useful answers are specific: what you built or changed, who used it, and what happened as a result. If you do not know a number, leave it out. A missing number costs you less than an invented one.

Fill in your profile

Your profile holds what a resume does not: target roles, work authorization, sponsorship, relocation, notice period, salary expectations, and anything you will not consider. Screening uses it to spot deal-breakers before you spend anything, and application forms read from it.

Show me my Lamr candidate profile, list the empty fields, and ask me about each one, one at a time. Update only the fields I actually answer.

The profile also has optional self-identification fields. Leave them blank and Lamr will not answer those questions on any form. Fill them in only if you want them answered.

Small edits, without rebuilding

After setup, change one thing at a time. Lamr updates exactly the entry or field you name and leaves everything else alone. Edits are free, and the version before each save is kept.

Add this to my Lamr master resume as a new experience entry at the top: [title], [company], [start date] to [end date or present]. Bullets:
- [bullet 1]
- [bullet 2]
Show me the entry before saving it.

Show my Lamr master resume's experience entries with their numbers. Then, in entry [2], replace the bullet that starts with "[first few words]" with: [new bullet]. Leave everything else exactly as it is.

Avoid importing or rebuilding just to make a small change. Both replace the whole master resume, which is the wrong tool for fixing one line.

One resume per career track

If you are applying in two directions, say design roles and product management roles, keep a variant for each. Screening and tailoring always read the active variant, and each application remembers which variant it was scored against.

In Lamr, create a resume variant called "[Product management]" from my current resume and switch to it. Then show me its summary and skills so we can refocus them for [product management] roles.

Switch Lamr to my "[Design]" resume variant, and confirm which one is active before you screen or draft anything.

Set your defaults once

Lamr remembers how you like documents made: how hard the rewrite goes, how long the summary is, how many bullets per role, which template. Set them once and every future draft follows them unless you ask otherwise.

From now on in Lamr, use balanced rewrite intensity, a short summary, at most [4] bullets per role, and the [modern] template by default. Show me the saved settings afterwards.

If a core skill keeps disappearing from tailored resumes because postings never name it outright, make it a skill anchor. It must already be in your master resume to appear at all.

My core tool is [Figma] and it's in my master resume. Add it as a skill anchor in Lamr so it isn't dropped when a posting doesn't name it.