Sending the same resume for every job is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You must customize your document to every job description.
Just as a seamstress makes clothes to fit each customer, tailoring your resume for success means adapting your resume to make your skills and experience align with each job.
In this article, we’ll explore the following so you can tailor your resume with confidence:
- Why you need a tailored resume
- How to adapt your resume to a job description
- Why keywords are important
- Examples of how to tailor your experience to different roles
You’ll have all the explanations and details you need to know to create your own targeted resume.
For an extra boost, use our AI-powered resume builder to get concrete examples for each section and easily tailor your experience to the job you are applying for.
Why Do You Need a Tailored Resume?
Remember, hiring managers might only scan each resume for six or seven seconds, so you must make yours stand out.
There are several key reasons to tweak your resume for every job application you submit:
- A tailored resume helps show that you’ve taken the time to familiarize yourself with the job and company.
- It reflects skills like attention to detail and critical thinking.
- It establishes you as a hard-working individual who is willing to go the extra mile.
- Adapting your resume for each role allows you to incorporate important keywords into your document, which is helpful when a company uses an applicant tracking system (ATS).
- Finally, you are more likely to be invited for a job interview if you tailor your resume.
How To Target Your Resume Step-by-Step
Now you know why you should target your resume to a job description.
But how do you tailor your resume? Here are the first three steps you should take.
- Read the job description carefully, noting the skills, experience, and qualifications listed. Then, consider how you can highlight those attributes in your resume.
- Dedicate a little time to researching the company you are applying to work for. Their company culture and values will determine whether you need to change what you highlight in your resume. Look at their website and social media channels and review the kind of language they use. Try to reflect the tone in your resume.
- You may need to tweak your resume headline to reflect your target title. If you are a Back-end Developer recently trained in full-stack development and applying for a Full-stack Developer role, make sure your headline reflects the Full-stack title.
After completing your resume, use our resume checker to get a detailed score, see if all of these points are addressed, and uncover if anything can be improved.
💡top tip
We are not talking about a major overhaul of your resume each time you send it out in response to a job post. It’s merely tweaking minor—yet critical—information to reflect the details found in each job description.
-
💡 Our expert’s advice
“Making these minor tweaks might sound simple, but many candidates skip them. Spending 20 minutes tailoring your resume to each job description can set you apart and land you that coveted interview,” says our in-house job search expert, Dr. Kyle Elliott.
How To Update Key Sections: Summary, Experience, and Skills
To tailor your resume effectively, ensure each key section includes only relevant information to the job description.
Below, you can find how to customize your summary and other sections for the job you’re targeting.
Summary section
Arguably, your resume summary is one of the most important sections when grabbing a recruiter’s attention.
-
💡 Our expert’s advice
“If you tailor nothing else, make sure you tweak your headline and summary, as it’s the first thing employers see,” says Dr. Elliott.
To tailor your summary, start by identifying key skills, qualifications, and responsibilities from the job description. Then, rephrase them naturally to reflect your own experience and results.
Take advantage of our free AI summary generator to help you create a custom summary in seconds.
Skills section
Your skills section should also be tailored to reflect the abilities sought by different companies. If one job description lists “strong written communication and creative skills” and another “excellent critical thinking and leadership skills,” then adapt the order of your skills list.
💡top tip
Use our free skills generator to come up with skills that match the job description.
Experience section
Next, tailor your experience section to show professional achievements that match the job description.
Highlight results using metrics, and reorder bullet points, so the most relevant ones appear first.
A tailored resume should contain industry-specific keywords to help you get found by recruiters in an applicant tracking system (ATS). Recruiters rely on these keywords to sort resumes and identify the most relevant candidates, explains Dr. Elliott.
Therefore, pulling keywords from the job description is crucial for increasing your resume’s chances of being found in the ATS and reaching a recruiter.
Let’s see an example. First, here is a sample job description.
Digital Marketing Specialist
Our company is seeking a creative and analytical Digital Marketing Specialist to join our growing team. In this role, you’ll play a pivotal role in crafting and executing innovative social media campaigns that build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads. You’ll also leverage your SEO expertise to optimize our online presence and improve organic search rankings.
If you were applying for this role, include phrases like “social media campaigns,” “brand awareness,” “website traffic,” “generate leads,” and, of course, “digital marketing specialist” on your resume.
According to Dr. Elliott, you can skip keywords like “crafting” and “executing,” as recruiters are unlikely to use those terms when filtering through the ATS.
Note: It’s not only about using the keywords. It’s also about how you applied those skills or carried out those tasks.
Instead of adding “creative” and “analytical” to your list of soft skills, demonstrate that you were creative and analytical by adding a bullet point in your work history like this:
Experience
- Drove 30% increase in website traffic and generated leads for the sales team by implementing brand awareness campaigns across social media accounts.
💡top tip
Avoid keyword stuffing on your resume. If you don’t honestly have the skill or work experience reflected in a keyword, do not use it.
Tailored Resume Examples
Now that you have seen step-by-step advice on how to tailor your resume, let’s look at an example job description and how you can adapt your resume summary and experience sections to cover all the key points.
Digital Marketing Specialist
Our company is seeking a creative and analytical Digital Marketing Specialist to join our growing team. In this role, you’ll play a pivotal role in crafting and executing innovative social media campaigns that build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads. You’ll also leverage your SEO expertise to optimize our online presence and improve organic search rankings.
Qualifications
- Expertise in brand management, social media content, and marketing campaign development
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Marketing Communications, or Business
- At least 5 years of experience in marketing, promotion, or public relations
- Excellent people management, communication, and project management skills
- Experience in data analysis and reporting.
Now, here’s a targeted resume example based on the above description.
Summary
Creative and analytical Digital Marketing Specialist with 10+ years of experience developing innovative social media campaigns and SEO strategies that build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate qualified leads. Proven ability to optimize online presence through data-driven insights, improve organic search rankings, and deliver measurable growth for sporting goods brands. Adept at leveraging market trend analysis to strengthen digital performance and support business objectives.
Skills
- On-page optimization
- SEO strategy & organic search ranking improvement
- Google Search Console
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
- Data analysis & reporting
- Social media campaign development
- Lead generation strategies
- People leadership Project management
Experience
Digital Marketing Specialist
08/2022 to Current
HomeRun Bats, Canton, OH
- Led marketing team of 8 members to create and implement inspired social media campaigns, increasing overall sales by 38%.
- Developed online brand awareness campaign in November 2023 that increased website traffic by 35% and sales leads by 23%.
- Oversaw monthly market analysis meetings to ensure optimal company positioning in online sales and repeat business.
- Restructured company website for SEO optimization, realizing a 10% improvement in search rankings.
This resume summary and the achievements outlined in the experience section align with what was required in the job description. The candidate has demonstrated team leadership experience, successful campaign history, qualifications in SEO, and strong analytical and reporting skills.
💡top tip
Potential employers love to see measurable accomplishments, i.e., “increased website traffic by 35%”, so incorporate those details wherever you can.
Tailoring the same experience to a different job description
Here’s another targeted resume example using the same job title but a different job description and keywords:
Digital Marketing Specialist
Leading brand management company seeking to fill a Digital Marketing Specialist role in our fast-paced environment. Strong writing, analytical, and graphic design skills are required to create effective social media campaigns to increase brand recognition and sales. Ability to use excellent collaborative skills to work closely with our Marketing Director. Experience in Google Analytics is strongly recommended.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing or a similar area
- Experience in building brand awareness
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Strong technical and analytical skills
Your tailored resume might look like this:
Summary
Digital Marketing Specialist with 5+ years of experience developing high-impact social media campaigns to strengthen brand recognition and support sales growth. Skilled in crafting clear, compelling written content and applying strong analytical abilities to optimize digital performance. Proven success collaborating closely with marketing leaders and cross-functional teams to create cohesive online and print campaigns. Delivered measurable results, including a 28% increase in brand recognition across top client accounts.
Skills
- GA4 / Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Ahrefs & SEO analysis
- Social media marketing & campaign development
- Strong written and oral communication
- Graphic design collaboration (Adobe/Canva awareness)
- Analytical & technical problem-solving
- Cross-functional collaboration
Experience
Digital Marketing Specialist
08/2022 to Current
HomeRun Bats, Canton, OH
- Collaborated with Marketing Director and marketing staff to create and implement inspired social media campaigns, increasing overall sales by 38%.
- Devised online brand awareness campaign in November 2023 that strengthened brand recognition and increased sales leads by 23%.
- Reviewed website performance using Google Analytics and A/B testing, resulting in a 40% increase in conversion rates.
The same candidate has adapted their resume to focus on relationships with executives, the use of specific SEO tools, and their success in building and implementing digital marketing campaigns. It just took a little tweaking!
Remember, our free online resume builder is available to help you every step of the way. This AI-powered tool can make suggestions for each section of your resume if you are feeling lost for words.
Is Tailoring Your Resume Worth It?
We wholeheartedly believe that it is always worth adapting your resume for each role you apply for. Remember: You only have seconds to grab the attention of a hiring manager, and they need to see that you are a perfect fit.
Key points to keep in mind when creating your targeted resume:
- Read the job description carefully and pick out the key requirements.
- Research the company and its culture, and think about how you can adapt your resume to it.
- Incorporate keywords from the job description into your resume summary, skills, and experience sections.
- Include measurable achievements that align with the job requirements.
- Use keywords wherever appropriate without overdoing it—and be sure they are truly skills you possess..
Finally, why not try out our resume builder and review our resume examples to create the polished document hiring managers like to see?
FAQs
Yes, tailoring your resume for each job helps you match your skills and experience to what the employer is specifically looking for.
It helps demonstrate your understanding of the role and meet their needs, which makes your application stand out to recruiters and easier to find in the ATS. Even small adjustments can make a big difference.
Yes, ChatGPT can help tailor your resume by rewriting sections to align with a job description. You can share your current resume and the job ad.
Importantly, though, if you solely rely on ChatGPT, you risk sounding like every other candidate. Make sure you add your own flair.
However, resume builders and resume checkers are tools specifically made for tailoring or upgrading a resume.
Absolutely. A tailored resume increases your chances of getting interviews because it directly connects your background to the employer’s needs.
In fact, a study showed that “users who customized their resumes for specific positions achieved a 5.75% conversion rate from application to interview or offer stage, compared to just 2.68% for those who did not have a tailored resume, representing a 115% improvement in success rates.”
Struggling with Resume Writing?
Ease the process with our templates
Related Posts