Why we ask targeted questions before every tailor, and why the number keeps growing
We spent six months learning the cost of one hallucinated number on a résumé. The fix was not a better model. It was getting out of the way and letting you tell us what's true.
The hallucinated number problem
In early 2025, a user forwarded us a tailored resume we had generated. The summary said they "led a team of 12 engineers." They had never led a team of 12 engineers. They had managed two contractors. The model extrapolated. The number sounded credible. It was not true.
That incident stopped us cold. We had built a system that was confident in the wrong direction. And confidence, when it is wrong, is the worst kind of wrong on a resume.
Why the model alone cannot fix it
The instinct was to make the model more conservative. We tried that. Conservative models produce vague, hedge-everything copy that nobody wants to read. "Contributed to projects involving cross-functional teams of varying sizes" is technically accurate and completely useless.
The real problem is that the model does not know what is true about you. It only knows what is in your resume, and your resume was written by you, probably quickly, probably underselling the parts that matter most.
The gap interview
The fix we landed on is simple: before we touch a single bullet, we ask you targeted questions. Not about the job. About you. Did you actually use this tool? Can you give us a metric for that project? Is that certification current?
We call this the gap interview. It takes two to three minutes. It gives us the facts we need to write something true. And true copy, as it turns out, is also more compelling copy, because it is specific.
What happens with your answers
Your answers go directly into the tailored version. If you tell us you led a team of eight, "led a team of eight" appears in the draft. We do not embellish it, we do not scale it, we use what you said.
This is slower than pure generation. It is also the only approach we can stand behind. A resume is a legal document in most jurisdictions. It should be true.
How many questions, and why
We now ask up to 15 targeted questions per tailor, each selected because it resolves a specific gap we found between the job description and your resume. Nothing is filler.
Every question is scoped to you and this job. If your resume already covers a requirement, we skip it. If there is a real gap, we ask. The result is a resume where every claim you make is one you can actually stand behind.