How to tailor your resume to job descriptions
Not tailoring your resume? It could be the reason you’re not hearing back from companies…
The advice “tailor your resume” is everywhere when you’re looking for tips on how to make sure your job hunt is hassle free and optimised for maximum interviews
But how do you actually tailor your resume?
You’ll be glad to know that it’s much easier than rewriting your resume each and every time.
Research
Before you do anything, head to the company’s website or socials. Find their “About Us” section and give it a good read - you want to see how the company describes themselves.
Take notes on the main ways they describe their teams and their goals/mission.
Take these descriptions and add them to your professional profile. They’ll see that you’re looking to work in a team just like theirs…who would have guessed?
Pull keywords
Next, take a look at the job description. You want to look at the key things they list as necessary to succeed in this role.
For example, they may require you to be a confident negotiator and skilled report writer.
Compare these to your current resume - do your most recent jobs highlight these skills? If not, add a few dot points that link directly to the skills they’re seeking.
Bonus points if you can link these skills to achievements!
Include the job title
Is the exact job title on your resume? It needs to be!
Your professional profile is a great place to state that you’re “seeking to become a valued Communications Specialist within a high-impact team.”
Alternatively, don’t be afraid to switch out comparable job titles in your work history. Communications Specialist and Communications Executive mean pretty much the same thing, right?
There’s no harm in doing a lil polishing (as long as you don’t take it too far!)
Ready to start tailoring your resume? Here’s a mini checklist to get you started:
Do your research
Optimise your professional profile
Include keywords throughout
Add the exact job title
Tailoring your resume doesn’t have to be daunting or even time consuming. Spending an extra 20 - 30 mins tailoring your resume could be the difference to getting an interview or not. Happy tailoring!