How to tailor your resume to a job posting

To tailor your resume, read the job posting, mark the skills and duties it repeats, and then change the order and wording of your resume so those things are easy to find. You aren't inventing anything. You are moving the most relevant parts of your real experience to where a busy reader will see them.

It takes about twenty minutes once you've done it a few times.

Step 1: Read the posting twice

The first time, read it normally. The second time, mark:

• the job title they use
• skills or tools they mention more than once
• the main duties, usually the first three or four bullet points
• anything listed as "required" rather than "nice to have"

Write these down in a short list. That list is your guide.

Step 2: Match the title and summary

If your resume has a short summary at the top, rewrite it for this job. Use their job title if it honestly fits what you do. If they're hiring a "Customer Success Manager" and you've been doing that work under the title "Account Coordinator", say so plainly: "Account coordinator with four years of customer success work for software clients."

Step 3: Reorder your bullet points

Under each job, put the bullet points that match the posting first. Recruiters often only read the first two or three lines under each role. If the most relevant thing you did is fifth on the list, move it up.

Step 4: Use their words

If the posting says "stakeholder management" and your resume says "worked with different teams", change it to their phrase, as long as it's true. Many companies use software that scans resumes for the words in the posting, and people skimming do the same thing with their eyes.

Don't copy whole sentences from the posting. It reads as lazy and it's easy to spot.

Step 5: Cut what doesn't help

A tailored resume is often a shorter one. That summer job from twelve years ago, the list of every software you've ever opened, the hobbies section: if it doesn't help with this job, it can go. One or two pages is normal for most people.

Step 6: Check the numbers

Wherever you can, show results with numbers that are true: "cut response time from two days to four hours", "trained 12 new staff". Numbers stand out on a page full of words.

Step 7: Save it with a clear name

Save each version as "Firstname Lastname Resume Company" so you know which one you sent where. If they call you, you'll want to see exactly what they read.

Doing it faster

Once you have a good base resume, tailoring is mostly reordering and rewording. Vibitely's resume builder can do the first draft of that for you: paste the job posting and it adjusts the wording and order of your CV to match. Always read the result before you send it, because you know your own work better than any tool.