As a recent graduate you’re likely applying for many different positions at just as many companies. These jobs are as diverse in their requirements as they are in their quantity so why would the one generic resume give you the best opportunity to land the job?

In this article we’ll discuss the importance of tailoring your resume to a job opportunity and give you an easy five step checklist to make your resume the best it can be for any specific job listing.

Why tailor your resume to a job opportunity?

A good resume is like nice clothes, they should reflect who you are and the best version of yourself. But for the same reason a suit is great for a wedding but bad for the club, one resume might have been great during university for a hospitality job but bad when going for a professional position.

Tailoring a resume not only gives you more control of your application with a few small adjustments but shows to an employer you took the extra time on their job listing. Tailoring your resume may also help you get past any initial robots and in front of a person.

The below five steps will allow you to quickly make any resume the best it can be for your application.

Step 1: Carefully read the job description

After enough job descriptions they all might start looking the same but it’s important to resist the instinct of just breezing over the sentences without really reading them. The job description is our much less cool Rosetta Stone and it will unlock the pointers we’ll use to guide our tailored resume. For example, the keywords the employer uses in the job description could be used to describe yourself.

Also, this is an opportunity to check the qualification and experience prerequisites to make sure you are qualified for the position. Tailoring your resume can be time consuming, especially if you’re doing it for many job listings, so this could save you some wasted time.

Step 2: Investigate the employer

Investigating the employer isn’t like Sherlock Holmes or Four Corners (but feel free to imagine yourself this way if it’s motivating) but instead a way of working out what sort of people work at the company. Read up on their values, look at what their mission statement is, and consider the experience of people who already work there in similar positions on LinkedIn.

These steps will help you work out what the company looks for in applicants so you’re more equipped when you reach Step 4.

Step 3: Compare your generic resume

Now it’s time to pull out your generic resume and compare it to the notes you’ve taken. What keywords could you add, how might you change your professional profile at the top of your resume to make it more relevant, how might you change your skills section and much more? If you have a printer handy it can be a good idea to get a physical copy of your resume so you can physically make notes on it with a pen and highlighter.

Step 4: Tailor your resume

Now you’re equipped with a plan and a blueprint of your old resume you can go through the digital file and make all your changes. Following these steps you can tailor any resume to any position. A good rule of thumb in this step is to put the most relevant experience to the top of the resume and delete anything that’s not important. Furthermore, at the start of each paragraph frontload the keywords that the employer used so when a hiring manager scans your resume the keywords will jump out at them quickly.

After all they likely have had hundreds of applications so it’s good to make it as easy as possible for them to notice you.

Step 5: Don’t forget the basics

After all those steps it’s easy to forget the basics, not see the forest through the trees or get lost in the sauce if you will. On GradConnection we have many articles targeted towards students and recent graduates to help them with their resume writing. From writing up a resume when you feel like you have no experience through to how AI can be a tool to help you write your resume. Best of luck!