How to Tailor Your Résumé to a Job Description

As a candidate who is desperately in need of a job, how do you utilize your skills and qualifications to persuade the hiring manager that you are the best candidate for the position? It takes employers few seconds to decide whether they want to continue reading your resume and cover letter or not. Hence it is essential that you make it obvious that you possess the skills and experience that the employer is interested in.

When writing your resume, bear in mind that the recruiter is not first of all interested in how impressive you can write or how smart you are. Rather what they look out for, is whether your resume matches the job description.

So how do you tailor your resume to match a particular job?

Identify What’s Most Important to The Employer

In order to write a resume that resonates with the job description, you must first of all identify and understand what the employer considers as important,  then mirror you resume to reflect that. Take note of the job responsibilities, specific requirements or qualifications and any keywords that might be highlighted by the employer.

Match Your Resume Content To The Job Description

Since you have identified those things that matter most to the employer, tailor your resume to mirror them. Start by matching the most important things on the job description with the most visible areas on your resume. If you are an entry level candidate tailor your educational qualification and other related experience to match the requirements listed buy the employer. Look at how the company describes the job role and tailor your resume to suit that description.

Edit and Rearrange

To make your resume most appealing and attention grabbing, it is essential you rearrange it by pushing to the top the most relevant experience that align with what is important to the hiring manger. You can use bullet point to highlight these key experiences that are likely to attract the recruiter’s attention. Your resume must be applicable to the position, therefore it’s essential to remove certain information that does not tally with the job role description.

Highlight Results

Even though you have highlighted several skills and experience employed in the past to achieve certain results, it is still not ok to leave it at that. To really sell yourself to the employer, go the extra mile of providing specifics, facts, figures, and examples of those thing you did using those skills. Draw upon previous experience and how you applied your skills to solve complex problems and get positive results.

Review What You Have Written

Once you are at peace with the resume you have written and believe that it aligns with what the hiring manager is looking for, it’s now time to carefully review what you have written. Lay your resume side by side with the job description provided by the employer, glance through both of them to ascertain if the employer will be able to clearly see why you are the best choice for the position. It is also good to let a third eye, like a family member or a friend go through your resume in order to pin point errors and judge if it aligns with the job position.