tailored resume
A tailored resume for every job posting, in about two minutes
Paste the posting you are applying to. Your summary, bullets and skills are rewritten in that employer’s words, from what is true of you, and the version is saved next to the job.
Tailor my resume, freeFree to start. No card, no timed trial.
What is a tailored resume?
A tailored resume is a version of your resume rewritten for one specific job posting. The facts stay the same: your employers, job titles, dates and results. What changes is the order and the wording. The summary names the role you are applying for, the experience that matches the posting comes first, and the posting’s own terms replace your paraphrases wherever they are true of you.
It matters because both readers of a resume look for fit. Recruiters search applicant tracking systems by the posting’s terms, and a recruiter who opens your resume skims it against the list of requirements they were given. A tailored resume answers that list in the first lines. A general one leaves the reader to work out whether you match.
Updated
One bullet, before and after tailoring
A fictional ICU nurse’s bullet, tailored to one posting.
ICU Registered Nurse (Nights)
Northbridge Health (fictional)
- Titrate vasoactive drips and manage ventilated patients on telemetry
- Chart in Epic; precept new graduate nurses
- Two years of progressive or critical care experience
Responsible for patient care on a busy hospital unit, including monitoring and training new staff.
Care for four to five step-down patients per shift on telemetry, titrate drips and chart in Epic; precept new graduate nurses through a twelve-week orientation.
Nothing was invented between the two bullets: the same nurse, the same unit, the same work, described in the posting’s terms. The candidate and the posting are fictional. The keyword match is the share of the posting’s terms that appear in each bullet, computed by the same code as the free resume keyword checker.
Why this tailored resume
Built only from what is true of you
The rewrite works from your own resume. It rewords, reorders and chooses what to lead with; it is instructed never to invent experience, skills or achievements. Where a number would help and you have not given one, it leaves a placeholder for you to fill in rather than making one up.
In the posting’s words, where they fit
The summary, the order of your bullets and the skills section are rewritten against the requirements the employer listed, so a recruiter searching for those terms finds you and a recruiter reading the page sees the match first.
Each tailored resume kept with its job
Every version is saved on its own, linked to the posting it was written for, with the application’s status and the next follow-up. Your master resume stays untouched, and you always know which version an employer has in front of them.
How it works
- 1
Bring your resume once
Upload the PDF or paste the text. It becomes your master resume, the version you tailor from and never send.
- 2
Paste the posting
A link or the text of the advert. In about two minutes you have a resume tailored to it, and a cover letter for the same company if you want one.
- 3
Read it, then apply
Change anything by typing or by asking in chat, export a PDF and send it yourself. Check how your own resume matches any posting first with the free keyword checker.
How to tailor your resume to a job description by hand
The method is the same with or without software. By hand it takes a few minutes per posting once you have a complete master resume to work from, and longer the first few times. These five steps are the whole of it.
- 1
Read the posting for its terms
List the job title, the tools and systems named, the credentials, and any responsibility the posting mentions twice. Repetition is the employer telling you what they will screen for. The free resume keyword checker pulls these terms out and shows which ones your resume already uses.
- 2
Rewrite the summary for this role
Name the job title from the posting and lead with the two or three requirements you meet most clearly. The summary is the part of the resume most worth changing for every application.
- 3
Reorder and reword your bullets
Under each recent job, move the bullets that match the posting to the top. Where you did what the posting describes, say it in the posting’s words: if it asks for “stakeholder management”, a bullet about “working with other teams” should use that phrase. Cut bullets that support nothing in the posting before you cut anything relevant.
- 4
Lead the skills section with what they named
Put the tools and skills the posting lists first, in its spelling, and drop the ones that have nothing to do with this job. Add a skill only if you could answer questions about it in an interview.
- 5
Check it is still true, then save it with the job
Read the tailored version against your master resume: every employer, date, title and result should be unchanged. Save the file under the employer’s name, so you know which version they have when they call.
The longer version of this method, with the master resume that makes it fast, is in How to tailor your resume for every job in 5 minutes. For how the finished page should look for a specific job title, see the resume examples.
Professional resume templates
All templates
What it costs
Free to start, with every template and PDF export. Premium, for tailoring to as many postings as your search needs, is $12.99 a month or $49.99 a year, the same on every platform. See pricing.
Questions about the tailored resume
Is it worth tailoring my resume for every application?
For any job you actually want, yes. A general resume makes the recruiter do the matching, and many will not. The cost of tailoring is the only argument against it, and at about two minutes per posting that cost is small.
Is tailoring a resume the same as keyword stuffing?
No. Keyword stuffing means listing terms you cannot back up, or repeating them to game a search. Tailoring means describing work you really did in the words the employer used. A recruiter reads the result, so every term on the page has to be one you can talk about in an interview.
What is the difference between a tailored, targeted and customized resume?
They mean the same thing in practice: a resume rewritten for one job. “Targeted” is sometimes used for a resume aimed at a type of role rather than one posting. Either way, the more closely it follows the posting you are applying to, the better it reads.
How many tailored resumes can I make for free?
A free account includes enough AI to improve your resume and tailor it to one real posting, and holds three resumes, so you can keep your master and two tailored versions. Premium removes the limit on tailoring for the rest of your search.
Should I tailor my cover letter too?
Yes, and it is easier once the resume is done. The same posting can produce a cover letter about that company in about two minutes, in a template that matches your resume. See the cover letter generator.
Every application goes out fitting the job.
Paste a posting, get a resume rewritten for it in two minutes.
Tailor your resume — freeFree to start. No card. Same price on web, iOS and Android.