9 Quick and Easy Tips to Tailor Your Resume to a Job

Your resume often gives hiring managers the first impression of your qualifications and suitability for a role. As such, ensuring your resume is as relevant as possible to each position you apply for is important. This helps the hiring manager immediately understand how your skills and experience would prepare you to succeed.

However, it's not practical to write a completely new resume each time you find a job posting that interests you. By making small, thoughtful adjustments to your resume, you can easily tailor your application to align with different roles.

1. Review the Job Description

To effectively customize your resume to a job, you must understand what the position entails. When your resume reflects the content in the job description, it's easy for hiring managers to envision you in the role.

Start by thoroughly reading the job description to identify the most important elements of the role. Pay close attention to any skills or experience requirements that appear multiple times in the job posting, as they're likely key to the position. Note anything listed as a requirement versus optional, nice-to-have qualifications.

2. Incorporate Prominent Keywords

Many employers use automated Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) to help identify the most qualified candidates. ATSs analyze the keywords and phrases in candidate resumes and compare them to those in the job posting. Thoughtfully incorporating powerful keywords into your resume can help the ATS recognize your most relevant experience.

As you update your resume, look for places where you can include language from the job posting. This could be as simple as replacing words with synonyms or rephrasing your duties. For example, if the job posting lists analyzing data as one of the key requirements, you can include 'analyzed data' as one of your duties or list "data analysis" in the skills section.

Although optimizing the keywords in your resume is a useful tool, make sure that you're still including original content that accurately reflects your experience. Simply copying and pasting full sections from the job description can negatively impact how the ATS views your application. Create a balanced resume using strategic keywords while incorporating your unique qualifications.

3. Reference the Role in Your Summary

Your resume's objective or summary section allows you to explain how you're qualified for a specific role directly. By creating a highly specific, customized summary section for each job, you immediately set the stage for the rest of your application.

Mention the company or position by name in your professional summary to indicate your interest in that specific role. Use your summary or objective to explain what interests you about the company and why you're a good fit for the job.

4. Include Relevant Skills

Because the skills section of your resume is typically a simple list of bullet points, it's one of the easiest sections to customize. Make a list of key skills from the job description and include any that apply to you in your resume's skills section. Consider how you can make your existing skills more relevant to each job. For example, if you have graphic design as a skill, consider listing specific graphic design software tools from the job description.

5. Adjust Your Formatting

Simply changing the formatting of your resume can make it appear more relevant to a specific job. Start by adjusting the order of the duties you list for your past positions. You can feature your most relevant expertise by listing your most relevant duties first.

You can also use a functional or combination resume format to highlight industry experience. If your most relevant job isn't your most recent job, you can use thoughtful headers to make it more prominent on your resume. Consider starting your resume with an "Industry Experience" section that allows you to summarize your applicable experience, then follow it with an "Other Experience" section to discuss other roles.

6. Mention Relevant Duties

For each position you include in your work history, list duties that relate to the job you're seeking. Even if your past experience doesn't perfectly match your desired role, you can highlight duties that used relevant skills.

Consider a situation where you want to move from an administrative assistant to a customer service role. Focus on listing duties that relate to customer interactions, such as answering phones or connecting visitors with helpful resources. You could also explain how your other duties, such as keeping files organized, helped create a better experience for callers and visitors.

7. Keep It Relevant

Tailoring your resume involves both adding relevant information and removing details that don't support your application. While not every job and skill has to directly correspond to the job description, having too much irrelevant information can distract from your qualifications. Each time you adjust your resume, consider ways to edit the content to be more pertinent to the job.

8. Save Multiple Versions

Having multiple versions of your resume for different situations or industries may be helpful. If you're targeting various roles, creating a general resume for each job type can give you a helpful template each time you find a job that interests you. For example, an aspiring project manager may explore project management roles at tech and healthcare companies. By creating a tech- and healthcare-based resume, they could streamline the process of tailoring their resume for jobs in those fields.

9. Proofread Your Adjustments

Before you submit your resume, carefully proofread the entire document. When creating multiple tailored versions of your resume, it's critical to use the right one for each employer. Ensure you've removed any information related to another position, replacing it with the correct details for the job you're applying to. Do a final scan to ensure all your changes make grammatical sense.

Wrapping Up

Tailoring your resume to each new job can help you make the best possible impression on potential employers. Creating a highly relevant application demonstrates your excitement for the role and stands out among other candidates with similar qualifications.