How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job Application

How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job Application How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job Application 56customizing your resume has become just like brushing your teeth: a necessity that ultimately welcomes the prospect of meeting and interacting with someone face-to-face. So what is this “customizing” and how can you be sure you’re doing it right? Weve developed five simple ways you can custom tailor your resume and impress a potential employer. Here are five ways you can customize your resume for each job application: Customize your title: Most professionals resort to creating an objective section at the top of their resume, but this is a resume faux pas. It’s now considered best practice to start out your resume with a title and summary of qualifications that reflect your areas of expertise in some way. Your top header can be as easy as writing your current job title or you can directly insert the title of the position you’re applying for. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, you can try both! The header should be centered and bold at the top of the resume (under your name and contact information) and resemble something to the effect of: “Project Controls Engineer | Senior Planning Scheduling Specialist” Customize your value statement/summary of qualifications: After your title, include a brief summary of qualifications that can be easily tailored by inserting key terms and phrases from the job posting. Is there a particular qualification or responsibility listed in the job advertisement that resonates with you? Include it! You can even go as far as copying the phrase directly to really hit the keywords like you mean it. If you’re a marketing manager, for example, include the fact that you have “5+ years of experience in a marketing management role with a proven ability to develop innovative strategies to achieve desired market positions for various brands.” I wrote that by combining phrases from the “minimum requirements” and “essential functions” sections of a job posting. To amplify your chance of getting an interview, back up each statement in your summary of qualification with a brief, measurable example. Print out the job advertisement: You’ll be surprised at how having a hard copy of the job description can really help you. Once printed, read the document closely and highlight every verb (action word) you see. When finished, you’ll have a highlighted document with key terms like “managing,” “implementing,” and “analyzing.” Now use a pen to underline all nouns, such as “marketing campaigns,” “operations teams,” and “budgets.” These highlighted and underlined words are terms that you need to include in your resume. To make life easier, include a “core skills and competencies” section and mix and match the verbs and nouns by creating a bulleted list that looks something like this: Customize your professional experience to reflect phrases and terms in the job posting: Since you need to do this for every job you apply to, it’s best to keep one generic resume saved on your desktop that you can add relevant responsibilities to. Remember to save your changes as a new document so that your original, generic version doesnt get lost. This process is as simple as adding a key phrase from the job posting and offering a brief highlight or accomplishment to quantify your ability to perform the task. Example: “Provide exceptional ongoing service to customers, as evidenced by two consecutive years of 100 percent customer satisfaction rating.” Include company information or evidence that you did research on the organization: This is a direct indication that you created a custom resume just for the employer. You can go to the company’s website to research their mission statement, read recent news coverage, and review annual reports. Tie in the fact that you’re “excited at the prospect of working in an environment that rewards creativity, strategic thinking, and the willingness to go the extra mile for every project” and you’ll really impress the hiring manager at Apple. (This phrase was taken directly from the Apple website and took less than 2 minutes to find.) The goal is to show that you align directly with the company’s values and overall culture. It may seem daunting and time-consuming at first, but with a bit of practice you’ll be shooting off resumes and scheduling job interviews in no time! Readers, what do you do to customize your resume for each job application? Share your tips with us in the comment section below! ResumeTarget.com provides professional resume writing services for clients of all career levels across North America. We are the only resume writing company that offers a professionally written resume- coupled with the guidance of recruiter- to guarantee that your resume will get results. Tweet us with any resume questions you have at www.twitter.com/ResumeTarget, we’re here to help!