Creating a resume can be overwhelming since it requires various tasks, such as organizing your qualifications and work experience. And as such, you’ll be tempted to create a one-size-fits-all document, but this is not recommended.

To stand out from other candidates, it's beneficial to tailor your resume for each job you apply to. This highlights your enthusiasm and shows adequate consideration of the company’s needs, increasing your chances of being chosen by hiring managers. So, keep reading as we discuss critical steps to tailor your resume for different job types.

1. Closely Examine the Job Description

To tailor your resume for a specific job, it's crucial to grasp the employer's requirements. The most effective way to do this is to carefully analyze the job description, which highlights the necessary skills and qualifications for the role.

While reading, evaluate your skills and determine whether they align with those outlined in the job description. If so, jot them down. Additionally, take note of any unique prerequisites, such as years of experience or specific training, that the employer may be looking for.

Doing this helps you determine what you’re up against and whether you stand a chance or not.

2. Identify the Ideal Candidate From the Keywords

Employers and hiring managers look for specific things in job applicants, and the more requirements you meet, the more likely they are to hire you. These requirements also serve as a yardstick for screening with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and are often expressed as keywords in the job description.

Hence, it’s important to develop a keen eye for keywords and use them in your resume to position yourself as the ideal candidate. By writing an ATS-friendly resume with these keywords, your resume has increased chances of scaling through any ATS tests. Additionally, you can stand out from the competition and catch the attention of employers and hiring managers.

For example, suppose they're looking for an SEO specialist. In that case, you should consider using the term "SEO Specialist" in some way, such as listing your SEO certification courses and including it in your summary.

3. Match Your Resume to the Ideal Candidate in the Job Description

Identifying requirements and keywords is essential, but you should also know how and where to use them in your resume. Once you have a general idea of who employers are looking for, start customizing your resume to fit that ideal.

Here, review your summary, work history, and skills sections and ensure that these areas reflect as many requirements as possible. A good way to do this is by tactically incorporating keywords from the job description without sounding forced or unnatural.

For instance, if the employer is seeking a security consultant, then highlight your relevant work experiences in your work history section. You could also list essential cybersecurity skills, both technical and interpersonal, in the skills section.

4. Revise Your Summary

You may want to list as many positive qualities as possible in your summary to impress hiring managers. However, when tailoring your resume for different job types, it’s critical to include only relevant information. This is because hiring managers are busy and don't have time to read lengthy essays, so keep your summary section short and remove unnecessary information.

Doing this lets hiring managers know immediately that you are a suitable candidate for the job, as the summary section comes first. It also shows your thoughtfulness and attention to detail, which hiring managers will appreciate. This may even lead to a desire to meet with you, increasing your chances of securing an interview.

5. Modify Your Work Experience or History

After writing your summary, it's important to consider how to present your work history section. You may either remove positions irrelevant to the job you're applying for or organize your work history into different sections. For example, you could create one section for your relevant work experience and another for your other roles.

One huge benefit this provides is that it allows you to demonstrate your professionalism, an essential quality for a job hunter. For instance, if the employer is seeking a digital marketing manager, you can highlight your experience in digital marketing. Additionally, you could discuss your other careers in digital marketing to impress hiring managers and strengthen your candidacy.

6. Emphasize Your Relevant Skills

When editing your skills section, you should highlight skills related to the job description. It's important to prioritize the skills that the employer mentioned first, as those may be the most important to them. You can also consider removing less relevant skills or placing them at the bottom of your list.

Say your potential employer is looking for someone adept at community management. Instead of writing Audience Engagement and Coordination as a skill, describe it as Community Management.

The goal here is to find an intersection between your skills and what the employer wants. As such, simply phrasing your skills wrongly can put you on the negative side of the ATS.

7. Quantify Achievements if Applicable

Quantifying your achievements in your work experience section makes more of an impression on the hiring manager’s mind. It demonstrates your value and makes your claims more credible.

For instance, stating that you resolved numerous customer complaints is less credible than stating that you resolved over 300 customer complaints by the second half of the year, boosting the resolution rate by 90%. The former gives a vague summary of what you did, while the latter puts it into perspective.

As such, the hiring manager can gauge your work rate and affirm you’re worth taking a shot with.

8. Organize and Format Your Resume

Formatting your resume properly makes it attractive and easy to read, and helps retain hiring managers’ attention. Moreover, a good layout improves your resume’s readability and success rate with ATS systems.

The most common resume formats include the functional, reverse-chronological, and hybrid styles, and you can use whichever works best for your resume. However, remember that the style you decide on should prioritize your most relevant information at the top. This makes it easier for hiring managers to identify your strong points quickly and helps ATS systems scan your resume more efficiently.

For example, if you have a long employment history, choosing a more functional format that emphasizes your skills may be helpful. Other tactics you could use in this situation include merging similar roles, excluding short-term positions, or finding other ways to address any job changes you've experienced.

Avoid garish, decorative fonts; instead, stick with professional styles like Arial, Georgia, Verdana, or Times New Roman. These simple and clean fonts have distinguishable characters and height differences that make them easy to read.

Additionally, you should also use one-inch margins on all sides, left-aligned text, clear headers for each section of your resume, and bullet points to list your skills and achievements. These will create a balanced and professional look for your resume.

9. Proofread for Typos and Inconsistencies

Before sending your tailored resume, it's essential to review it for typos, spelling errors, and grammatical mistakes. Utilizing tools like Grammarly and Quillbot can help, and you can even enlist a professional to assist you in catching any errors you may have overlooked.

Proofreading your resume before you send it out ensures that your qualifications, skills, and achievements are communicated properly. This leads to a better understanding of your value, whereas a poorly proofread resume will confuse hiring managers at best or cause them to dismiss you at worst. Overall, a well-proofread resume makes a positive impression on the reader.

You Need to Craft a Tailored Resume

Tailoring your resume to the position you are applying for is a crucial tip to keep in mind when crafting a winning resume. Writing a generic resume listing your skills and achievements is not enough. You need to customize your resume to show how you are the best fit for the specific role and company you are targeting.

By doing so, you can capture the attention of potential employers and demonstrate your alignment and interest in the role. Lastly, tailoring your resume may take extra time and effort, but increasing your chances of being hired will pay off in the long run.