Written By Cherie Simms, BASc, CCDP, CVRP - Career Advisor with Student & Graduate Employment.
Are you using the same resume to apply to every job? If so, you could hinder your chances of getting interviewed. Employers can tell when you’re using a “generic” resume. This tells the recruiter that you haven’t put much thought or effort into highlighting your unique offerings and supporting qualifications, that best meet the company’s hiring needs. When it comes to resumes, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Take the time to tailor a resume that fits the company and position you are applying to. Here’s how to do it:
Start with a job posting analysis
Analyze the job posting to get a good sense of what the company is about and who they are looking for. Pay close attention to the requirements section. This section is often overlooked. Verify that you meet the minimum requirements for the position. Some requirements are mandatory and some are “nice to haves”. Be sure to know the difference and be prepared to convey to the reader that you have an interest and willingness to obtain the “nice to haves”.
- For example, a mandatory requirement might begin with “Must have”, end with “mandatory” or be a specific certification, license, education, or technical skill that you either have or do not have.
- If the requirement begins with “Nice to have”, ends with “asset, similar, or related” or, explicitly states “not mandatory”, it is safe to say that the requirement is preferred but not mandatory or that an alternate such as a related/similar qualification will be considered.
Advice: If your qualifications do not yet align with the requirements of the job, don’t be discouraged, at the very least this gives you something to work toward. Create a list of qualifications to add to your professional development and lifelong learning goals.
Keywords
Once you confirm your suitability for the role. Begin highlighting keywords such as experience, education and training, technical knowledge and skills, soft skills, and characteristics. These words will need to be embedded throughout your resume, especially in your professional profile and summary of qualifications sections.
Lead with what is most relevant
Now that you understand the job requirements and key qualifications, you need to make this stand out to the employer. This also means structuring your resume so that the sections and content, flow from the most relevant to the least.
- In your professional profile introduce your relevant education, knowledge, training, and years of experience.
- Use a key competencies section to list technical skills and specialized knowledge. Avoid creating a list of soft skills such as communication, customer service, time management, etc., this does not add value. Instead, list technical competencies like software applications, methodologies, or specialized skills that can only be acquired through experience or training.
- The “highlights of qualifications” section is a great place to showcase your transferrable skills for the job at hand. It can also be a great place to respond to the requirements listed on the job posting. For example, if the job posting says “Experience leading a team” one of your highlights could be “Over X years leading teams of X-X people with a proven record of success in achieving XX% of production/sales targets”.
Important: Any statement or claim made in your professional profile and highlights of qualifications sections will need to be substantiated with evidence throughout the remaining sections of your resume.
- If you are a current student or a recent graduate use your program/course learning outcomes for inspiration. Your academic accomplishments equate to experience and therefore, qualify you for employment.
- If your education is the most recent/relevant experience you have, it should come before work history. The same goes for clinical, field placements, co-op, and sometimes volunteer experience. Other categories include projects, research, publications, certification and training, and professional affiliations.
What you have done will prove what you can do
The most impressive work experience you can think of still might not add any value to your job application either because it over-qualifies you, or simply because it is totally unrelated. In the work history section, you want to connect your experience to the position you are applying for to demonstrate how you will bring value to the role.
- Focus on accomplishments within each role, more than job duties or responsibilities. Accomplishment statements show more than just day-to-day functions you are capable of handling. It tells the employers more about the type of employee you are and the kind of impact you can make if given the opportunity.
Don’t eliminate work history, tailor it
- It’s okay to put up to 15 years' worth of work history on your resume however, even your work experience statements need to be tailored.
- Use the responsibilities/duties section on the job posting as a guide and try to link what you will be doing (new job) to similar duties and responsibilities you’ve had in the past.
- Highlight keywords from the responsibilities section of the job posting and embed these in your experience statements.
Remember: A job like McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s is considered valuable. Employers favour seeing these jobs on resumes because they know that candidates tend to develop good employability skills while working at these places.
- When tailoring your resume, pay attention to your work experience statements and what you are highlighting to the employer. Eliminate any information that does not add value
- Ask yourself, what is most relevant about the work I did at this job? What you would least expect, might just be the most relevant or valuable piece of information.
- When in doubt, rather than highlighting unrelated job duties, showcase your essential employability skills needed to be successful in any work environment these skills include communication, organization, time management, attention to detail, and problem-solving. Give examples of how you demonstrated these qualities on the job.
- A functional style resume is useful for people making a drastic career change. For instance, an accountant with over 10 years of accounting experience, transitioning to a career as an Early Childhood Educator, or vice versa. The functional resume eliminates the need to include work experience statements under previous work history. This is NOT a preferred resume format for most employers.
Tailoring your resume may seem like a daunting task at first but it does get easier the more you do it. You can always seek the support of a Career Advisor to help get you off to a good start.
