How to tailor your resume to a job description

What does tailoring a resume mean?

Making your real experience easy to match to this job.

Recruiters and screening software look for the skills and duties in the posting. If you did the work but described it differently, they may miss it. Tailoring closes that gap with better wording and order, not new claims.

How do I tailor my resume, step by step?

Five steps, on a copy of your resume.

1. 1Make a copy of your resume for this job, so your original stays untouched.
2. 2Read the posting and list the skills, tools and duties it mentions more than once, or puts first.
3. 3For each one, find the bullet that shows you doing it. Note anything the job asks for that your resume doesn't show.
4. 4Reword those bullets to use the job's terms where they're accurate, and lead with the result: what changed because of your work.
5. 5Move the most relevant bullets to the top of each role, and trim ones that don't help this application.

Should I add skills the job asks for that I don't have?

No. Only add something if it's true.

If the job asks for something you've done but left off, add it. If you haven't done it, leave it out and be ready to talk about how you'd learn it. Anything on your resume can come up in an interview.

How much should I change for each job?

Usually a handful of bullets, plus the order.

Most of your resume stays the same between similar roles. The biggest gains come from the top few bullets of your most recent job and the skills that appear in the posting.

Can a tool do this for me?

It can do the first draft. Check every change before you send it.

Catchr's Tailor Resume rewrites your bullets for the job in a copy of your resume in Google Docs, highlights changes in yellow, adds comments for changes a highlight can't show (like a reordered bullet), and lists what the job asks for that your resume doesn't mention yet. Your original stays untouched. AI can make mistakes, so read each highlighted change.