Resume Critic

Purpose

Use this as the final quality gate before PDF delivery.

The resume should not be declared ready while a material issue remains unresolved. Do not convert editorial judgment into a universal score.

Final Gates

1. Eligibility Visibility

Check that the resume clearly and accurately shows relevant graduation timing, degree, location, availability, and other hard criteria when the job requires them.

2. Parsing Safety

Check standard section names, text-based PDF output, readable extraction order, and absence of unnecessary layout complexity.

3. Evidence Coverage

Every substantive bullet must trace to one or more of:

• verified repository implementation;
• internship/work record;
• project documentation;
• reproducible benchmark/test;
• candidate-confirmed contribution.

4. Truthfulness

Flag wording that exceeds evidence. Examples:

• Dockerfile -> containerized, not automatically "scalable production platform";
• import -> dependency referenced, not automatically end-to-end integration;
• deployment -> publicly deployed, not automatically production-ready;
• score -> diagnostic score unless calibrated probability is actually established.

5. Metric Provenance

For every metric record:

• source;
• environment;
• sample size or evaluation scope when relevant;
• whether it can be reproduced or explained.

If provenance is absent, remove the number or rewrite descriptively.

6. Role Relevance

The resume should emphasize one role family. Remove low-value technologies and projects that dilute the target.

7. Readability

Check concise bullets, consistent tense, dates, section hierarchy, links, and enough whitespace for normal reading.

8. Interview Defensibility

For every project/experience bullet, ask:

• What did you personally implement?
• Why this approach?
• How was it tested?
• What failed?
• What would you change?

If the candidate could not answer from actual work, the bullet needs revision.

9. Repository Consistency

Linked repositories should visibly support project titles, current architecture, and stated technologies.

10. Export Validation

Compile/export the actual PDF and verify:

• one-page target when appropriate for the candidate;
• no clipping or overlap;
• correct text extraction order;
• name/contact/education/dates/skills/links survive extraction.

Audit Output

Gate	Status	Evidence / issue	Required fix
Eligibility visibility	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Parsing safety	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Evidence coverage	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Truthfulness	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Metric provenance	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Role relevance	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Readability	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Interview defensibility	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Repository consistency	Pass / Needs revision	...	...
Export validation	Pass / Needs revision	...	...

A resume is ready only when no material "Needs revision" item remains.

Guardrails

• No ATS score.
• No AI-writing score.
• No arbitrary percentage threshold for truthfulness or evidence.
• No simulated recruiter approval as a quality certificate.
• Targeted revisions are preferred over regenerating unrelated content.