If You don’t customize your resume for the job application, you won’t grab an employer’s attention
There are so many great tips on writing an amazing resume, but here, I’m going to focus specifically on taking your generic resume and customizing it for the dream job for which you’re applying.
One question I get over and over in recruiting is, what can I do to stand out on the job application? Customizing your resume is the CRITICAL skill that will help you stand out to a hiring supervisor. Ideally, you should always have a pristine, informative, relevant resume.
And when I say “resume,” I’m referring to two things:
1) the traditional resume document you have, and
2) the section on every job application that asks for you to list your work experience.
Your resume and the Job Experience section on the resume should mirror each other – and YES, you have to fill the whole job application out with your work experience even when also attach your resume. Please don’t be the one who says to us, “I’m above this and you’re wasting my time,” by writing “see resume” in every section of the application.
(The only exception I give to that rule is on a paper or fixed form job application where there literally isn’t room to include all of the good stuff! Yep, there really are some paper job applications and non-responsive PDFs still out there.)
For starters, everyone should have a strong, general resume on hand. This resume includes clean summaries of your most important work experience, education, and other accolades, and it is your staple resume that could serve for any job application in a pinch. It’s also the resume we want to build off of for the easy-to-implement tips below!
In HR, as I review job applications (thousands of them), the ones that catch my eye are the ones that feel like the applicant was made to do our job. I want to see resumes filled with work experience, skills, and education in areas that directly relate to the things we asked for in our job description.
Also, with many big companies using computer Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan resumes before a human being reviews them, it’s important that your resume contains the key words the computer is looking for.
5 Easy Steps for Customizing Your Resume to Stand Out:
1. Get in the employer’s mindset to understand their primary needs.
REMEMBER: Applying for jobs should be all about how YOU fill a need for the employer.
How the employer fills your needs comes second. All employers have a specific need when they’re hiring – which they spell out in some clear ways (like the job description) and some hidden ways (for example, talent gaps in their current work group). Then, if the employer is really great, they’ll ALSO care about filling your need, but really only after they’ve found what they need.
2. Read the job description thoroughly. Very thoroughly.
Look for the clearly stated experience, skills, knowledge, values and characteristics that the employer wants and needs.
Pick out and highlight key words and phrases that describe the work done in the position and the required and preferred skills and experience to be successful. Some examples might include:
- Mission and Vision of the company and their company values
- Professional skills: Supervision, communication, project management
- Technical Skills: Accounts Payable, Technical Writing, or Budget
- Work with particular programs or equipment: Microsoft Excel, Adobe Suite, Billing Program, etc.
- Years of experience required
- Minimum education requirement
Some job descriptions will be packed to the brim with descriptive words for the ideal candidate. Don’t be overwhelmed – focus on the primary duties of the job and also pick out the words that match your skills and experience.
Use your current general resume and identify the jobs that provided you with that directly related experience.
Go through each of your past experiences, and list the components of each job that directly match or relate to the skills you just highlighted in the job description.
It’s important to use bullet points to describe your work experience in short, clear statements (preferably no more than 5!).
Even though you want to highlight the directly related, relevant work you’ve done, you still want to start with a descriptive statement or two that describe the bulk of your work in each of your jobs. You don’t want the highly-relevant work pieces to mislead the hiring committee if they weren’t your core functions, but it is critical that, if you have that related experience, share it! Don’t assume the committee will know you did those things.
For example, if a job calls for Accounts Payable experience, you might have done that, but it wasn’t the main function of your job. You won’t list it first in describing your work in that job, but you will want to include it in one of your bullet points.
Go through all sections of your resume and apply the same technique of including relevant key words.
Related key words can (and should) go into the other areas of your resume like skills, education, and a professional summary.
If a job requires a particular college degree, you may want to briefly expand on specific courses you took that would relate to the work. I only recommend this if you recently completed your education (within the last 5 years).
Keep your resume concise and prioritize the information you share!
If resume length is an issue (in other words, if your resume is longer than two pages – for the love – no one has time to read that), you can cut out OLD jobs that have no relevancy to the job you’re applying to.
Don’t cut out your most recent job or two, because regardless of how related it is, we do want to know what you’ve been up to most recently.
Simply make sure that you title your work experience section, something like “Related Professional Experience” – use the word “related” to let the employer know that this may not be all of your experience. It’s just the most related experience.
Use these tips to craft a highly relevant, customized resume to catch your future employer’s attention!
For more great tips, read the rest of the blog HERE and join my Monday Motivation mailing list below!
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