🧐 What Am I Thinking This Week

Should I put AI on my resume?

Lately I’ve been getting questions from new grads and professionals exploring opportunities overseas: “Should I list AI on my resume? Is proficiency with AI tools now an expected skill?” There’s a bit of confusion here. Let’s unravel it.

Job Description

A job description outlines the core responsibilities and must-have skills for the role. For a frontend engineer, you’ll typically see:

• TypeScript or JavaScript

• Preferred frameworks (React, Vue, Solid)

• Library experience (e.g. React Query, Tailwind)

• Soft skills like mentorship or collaboration

For backend roles, expect to see:

• Primary language (Python, Go, Java)

• Cloud platform (AWS, GCP, Azure)

• Architectural patterns (micro-services, event-driven)

• Similar soft skills like cross team collaboration

Notice what isn’t listed: skills like “how to Google” or “use StackOverflow”. They are under the umbrella of problem solving skill. To extend a bit, they would love to see how you break a big problem down to small and manageable problems and search for resources to help you solve them. Nowadays, people use AI for the same purpose. Unless using AI directly contributes to the company’s projects otherwise it won’t be listed.

When Does AI Become a Requirement?

You should only feature AI on your resume if the role explicitly requires machine learning, data science, or AI-driven product development. For example:

• AI Research & Development: Companies like OpenAI or startups in the AI space expect familiarity with PyTorch, TensorFlow, and experience in training or fine-tuning models.

• Data Science & ML Engineering: Roles emphasizing data pipelines, feature engineering, and model deployment.

• AI-Enhanced Products: Positions building AI-powered features (e.g., recommendation engines, computer vision tools).

If your job description asks for deep learning frameworks, model training, or algorithm development, by all means, list your AI experience. Otherwise, it can distract from the skills that truly matter and add noise to your resume.

How to Showcase AI Expertise

Similar to finding a job in any software engineer roles, here’s how you can showcase your AI expertise effectively:

1. Be Specific: Don't just say “You have worked with AI” or “Proficient in AI,” instead:

   • “Designed and deployed a BERT-based NLP pipeline achieving 92% accuracy on sentiment analysis.”

2. Highlight Impact: Quantify outcomes, people like to see number and business impact:

   • “Implemented computer vision model reducing manual image tagging time by 60%.”

3. Mention Tools & Frameworks: List the technologies you used:

   • PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, MLflow, Docker.

💡The ONE thing I've found interesting

The introduction of smartphones help people realize they could do more on their phones than ever before. It unlocked many life and business opportunities and it’s hard to image a life without it now. We are going through the similar phase with AI and it does make people wonder what the next big thing is after mobile? Will it be AI? How will we use it in the future if not mobile?

If you like what you’ve read, considering subscribing and sharing and join with other 100 subscribers that want to improve with me along this journey right in their inbox.