It’s essential that you target your resume to fit the specific job you are applying for. Don’t simply hand in your usual résumé!
When applying for a specific job, where you know what the duties are and what skills are required, don’t just submit your “usual” résumé.
People tell me they “update” their résumé before sending it in. By this they mean they have added their last or current job. The result is a long résumé that recruiters will not read because most of it is not relevant to the job they are applying for. It won’t work for you.
No recruiter is going to search through a long document in order to find information that might be relevant to their needs.
It is your job to ensure everything in your résumé is relevant to the duties and the required skills of the target job.
So look at your résumé and start by deleting information that is not relevant – old and irrelevant jobs, useless qualifications and information that has crept in over the years, but serves no purpose.
Look carefully at the duties of the target job and what skills, experience and knowledge is required.
Then look at what you have in your résumé under these headings and add in new material, take out irrelevant stuff and reorder any list so that it will appear that you have done, or can do, everything this recruiter is looking for.
Look especially under these headings:
- Career summary
- Career objective
- Qualification
- Competency list
- Work history (reorder if necessary) and duties completed in each position
- Achievements and recent skills training
A great targeted résumé will clearly show you have done similar jobs in the past and have exactly the skills they want.
You will end up with several different résumés that you have prepared for different job applications.
