7 Tips for Tailoring your Resume by Industry and Job Description

You may have already read our guide to personalizing your cover letter for different job applications—but what about creating a tailored resume?

The importance of honing in on your relevant work experiences and attributes in this 1-page document cannot be overstated.

Why do they matter?

According to research by Careerbuilder, 63% of recruiters want to see resumes that are tailored to the open position. That means they are looking for applicants who are highly-aware of the job requirements and have taken the time to outline why their skill sets overlap.

Not to mention, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), software programs used by 99% of large companies, will parse your resume’s content and evaluate its keywords. If your qualifications don’t match the job description by adopting its wording, the ATS might filter out your application before it reaches a recruiter’s desk.

The takeaway: investing adequate time in reshaping your resume per application is not just worthwhile—it’s often required.

Where to save them?

The answer is simple: save all variations of your resume in your Jackfruit document tab. You can save various iterations of your resume in one place on Jackfruit.

As you refine and personalize an array of resumes, you’ll find yourself dealing with a jumbled mess of files, like… 

↳“General Computer Science Resume - V1,” 

↳ “Meta App - Resume Draft 1,” 

↳ “Meta App - Resume Draft 2” 

↳ “Startup Resume Re: Entrepreneurship” 

↳ “Startup Resume - Mom’s EDITS”

↳ “McKinsey App - Resume May 2021” 

↳ “McKinsey App - Resume October 2022” 

Your list of versions will go on and on…which means you need to put a method to the madness. If not for the sake of computer storage, then for the sake of staying organized, use Jackfruit’s Document Hub

7 Awesome Tips for a Tailored Resume

Okay, now let’s talk about resume personalization, which will help you grab the attention of an employer at their first glance.

1. Pick a Format

The “bones” of your resume—i.e., the order in which you list work experiences, academic career, and skill sets—can be slightly restructured depending on where you are applying and how long you’ve been in the workforce.

You should choose a structure depending on the skills you’ll need to emphasize for a certain job. If your work experiences aren’t especially relevant, you might consider a skills-based or hybrid model.

The three core resume structures that applicants use are:

• Reverse-Chronological Order (Most Popular)
  ⁠When you imagine the average resume, it’s probably focused on work experiences and the skills developed at each job, from most recent to least recent.

WORK EXPERIENCE
⁠2017-2019 Teaching Assistant
⁠The Beekman School, New York, NY
⁠- Worked in 4th and 5th grade classrooms
⁠- Collaborated with homeroom teacher to develop a curriculum, administer test and support students
⁠- Created a friendly and organized classroom environment

2015-2017 Volunteer
⁠Family Crisis Center & Nursery, New York, NY
⁠- Spoke via phone and text message with parents and caretakers crisis to address   their concerns, ensure their safety, and work toward solutions
⁠- Attended nursery facility 1-2 times per week in order to support children whose   parents were in need of emergency childcare

EDUCATION
⁠...

CERTIFICATES
⁠...

SKILLS
⁠- Special Education
⁠- Curriculum Development
⁠- Crisis Management

• Skills-Based Order
  ⁠Here, the onus is on your transferable skills, taking the pressure off concrete work experiences. This is a good option if you are applying to jobs in a new industry or after a long stretch of unemployment—or if you don’t think your most recent position is necessarily your greatest asset. This format can also help to categorize multidisciplinary freelance projects without forming an overly-long work history section. 

SKILLS SUMMARY
⁠Special Education
⁠- Experienced in identifying and working with students with special needs or learning disabilities. Able to create and manage detailed IEPs, with unique learning goals and educational strategies for each student.
⁠
⁠Curriculum Development
⁠- Able to create creative and educational curriculums for 4th and 5th grades, with a variety of group learning activities and opportunities for one-on-one attention.
⁠
⁠Crisis Management
⁠- Skilled in evaluating the degree of emotional distress and appropriate level of care needed to support parents in crisis. Able to remain calm during intense conversations, while meditating, providing counsel and showing compassion.

WORK EXPERIENCE
⁠2017-2019 Teaching Assistant
⁠The Beekman School, New York, NY
⁠
⁠2015-2017 Volunteer
⁠Family Crisis Center & Nursery, New York, NY

EDUCATION
⁠...

CERTIFICATES
⁠...

• Hybrid Order
  ⁠Structurally, this model lists skills first, as in the skills-based model above. In the work experience section, however, it delineates the more specific elements of your responsibilities at each job.

SKILLS SUMMARY
⁠Special Education
⁠- Able to create and manage detailed IEPs, with unique learning goals and educational strategies for each student.
⁠
⁠Curriculum Development
⁠- Able to create creative and educational curriculums for 4th and 5th grades, with a variety of group learning activities and opportunities for one-on-one attention.
⁠
⁠Crisis Management
⁠- Skilled in evaluating the degree of emotional distress and appropriate level of care   needed to support parents in crisis. 

WORK EXPERIENCE
⁠2017-2019 Teaching Assistant
⁠The Beekman School, New York, NY
⁠- Worked in 4th and 5th grade classrooms
⁠- Collaborated with homeroom teacher to develop a curriculum, administer tests and support students
⁠- Identified and gave individualized attention to students with special needs or learning disabilities
⁠
⁠2015-2017 Volunteer
⁠Family Crisis Center & Nursery, New York, NY
⁠- Spoke via phone and text message with parents and caretakers in crisis to address their concerns, ensure their safety, and work toward solutions
⁠- Mediated intense conversations, provided counsel with ongoing compassion
⁠- Attended nursery facility 1-2 times per week in order to support children whose parents were in need of emergency childcare
⁠
⁠EDUCATION
⁠...
⁠
⁠CERTIFICATES
⁠...

2. Beat the Bots (Meaning Application Tracking Systems)

If you’re not getting any job interviews, it’s very likely because your resume is being nixed by Applicant Tracking Systems. 

You may be thinking: But I have all the skills they’re looking for! Why would it be filtered out? The problem, however, is that even if a human would probably interpret the statement “wearing many hats” as multitasking, a robot will not. If the job description reads “multitasking,” you’re better off weaving this word into your bullet points instead.

Let’s say you are applying to two different Production Assistant positions, one at ITV and another at Warner Music Group. Even though they have the same title, one job description might ask for multitasking capabilities, while the other says “carry out wide-ranging activities.”
⁠
To beat the ATS bots, weave in language from the job description itself, not verbatim, but so that you have a higher chance of being passed along to a recruiter.

3. Map Out Your Skills

Before even thinking about editing or creating a new version of your resume, you need to become immensely familiar with the job you’re applying for. Print the job description—or *save trees* by copying and pasting the info into a new document. Then, compare and contrast your general resume with the job description.

✅ GOT IT!: Start by highlighting the skills you’ve already put to use for previous employers; these are jobs that you’ll certainly want to emphasize in your resume
⁠
⁠🪄 KINDA GOT IT: Next, in a different color, highlight the transferable skills that you’ve developed in other positions or industries.
⁠
📌 GOTTA GET IT: Finally, mark the job requirements that you haven’t yet developed. You will benefit from noticing where you have room for growth. When necessary, you can reframe missing qualifications in a positive light, by sharing how you’d like to grow with the company.

It’s rare that an employer will expect you to have every qualification without fail, but you’ll have to use your judgment about whether you’re targeting open positions that you’re well-suited for. Read Jackfruit’s list of reasons why you’re not getting a job interview for help evaluating yourself as a candidate and setting realistic goals.

4. Identify Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are those which can be used across a wide variety of occupations. For instance, if you were on a debate team in college, your knack for public speaking and argumentation will extend well beyond your academic career. 

Let’s say you completed an internship at an ad agency, where you 1) circulated an internal newsletter that covered lifestyle and pop culture trends, as a source of inspiration for the creative department and 2) researched new clients’ brand identity and target demographics in order to brief the strategy and creative teams.

There are so many transferable skills ingrained in those experiences! Maybe you’ll graduate and decide you want to become a creative director for TV dramas. You can advocate your success in trend forecasting, conceptual development and promoting a cohesive storyline in your work experience and skills sections.

Whatever they may be, identifying and explaining your transferable skills will allow you to frame an array of academic and professional experiences as part of one targeted narrative.

5. Show You Care About Their Mission

To be sure, your cover letter is your prime opportunity to tell a company why you appreciate their mission statement. However, you can still integrate information about your passions in your resume.

Prospective employers care a lot about whether you’re passionate; studies show that passionate employees are the ones that contribute their full potential to a company.

• Professional Summaries & Objectives
  ⁠Depending on the job you are applying for, you can choose to write a persuasive objective, a professional summary, or omit the section altogether.
  ⁠
  - ⁠Objective: a topic sentence about the role you’re applying for and your career goals
  ⁠- Professional Summary: a line that highlights your key qualifications for the job at hand
  ⁠- Omitting the section… Some employers find that writing an objective or summary on your resume is redundant and outdated, since your cover letter will go in-depth about your goals and qualifications. 

• Keywords
  You can integrate keywords and themes from a company’s mission statement into your resume. Even if it’s not for the sake of making it past an ATS, it will accentuate the overlaps between your goals and theirs.
  ⁠
  ⁠For example, let’s say you are applying to work as an operations assistant at Make-A-Wish. Their mission statement reads: “It inspires us to grant life-changing wishes for children going through so much. It compels us to be creative in exceeding the expectations of every wish kid. It drives us to make our donated resources go as far as possible.”
  ⁠
  ⁠Thematically, they’re not only advocating life-changing wishes, but humanity, empathy and socio-emotional reactions. So on your resume, you can personalize it to show your heart strings—the fact that you value interpersonal connections—even during technical jobs.
  ⁠
  ⁠If you are discussing your time as a social media marketer, something that isn’t quite related to Make-A-Wish mission, you can still advocate the human-to-human elements of your role. For example, 
  ⁠
  From
  ⁠
  ⁠⁠Social Media MarketerDeveloped social media strategies across 6 platformsPartnered with community organizations and social media influencers to reach 5+ key audiencesTo
  ⁠
  ⁠Social Media MarketerDeveloped social media strategies in line with our audience’s passions and inspirations across 6 platformsReached 5+ key audiences by personally reaching out to community organizations, activists and influencers.

6. Allot Space Wisely

⁠In 2022, the average resume is 489 words long. If you’re tailoring your resume to different job descriptions, it’s safe to assume that you’re moving chunks of text around and shortening certain bullet points.

Overall, the goal is to make your resume as targeted as possible, so that every word counts.

Structure: After identifying your strong suits—the job requirements that you fulfill because of concrete prior experiences—the next step is to structure your resume accordingly. That means dedicating the majority of your word count to roles that show how you fit the bill. Of course, your work experiences should be listed in chronological order, but you can allot more space to your most relevant attributes.

Choose What to Cut: If you have many work experiences that have directly prepared you for an open position, it’s a chance to omit your former involvement in unrelated industries. Perhaps you learned 1-2 fantastic transferable skills—like leadership and team-building, as a camp counselor, but you don’t think the marketing agency you’re applying to will want the full story. You can simply list these terms in the skills section at the bottom of your resume.

7. Make Sure It Matches Your LinkedIn, Though

Last but least, be attentive to whether the changes you’re making to your resume—whether it means embellishing the humanity behind logistical tasks or the keywords you’re swapping around—match your LinkedIn account and your website, if you have one.

You shouldn’t be lying on your resume (employers know: 85% think that candidates exaggerate skills competencies on their resume). Your prospective employer is going to expect that a LinkedIn resume, which is not tailored to any specific company, will be longer, with more details about jobs you didn’t mention. However, don’t get carried away and exaggerate your skills in the editing process, because customizing ≠ creating information.

You’ve Got This! Get Started.

At first, it may seem like a lot to be editing your resume, but the more you practice, the quicker you’ll be able to turn a generic resume into a cohesive, convincing one. If you take the time to investigate and articulate why you fit a company’s needs–—you’re already more likely to make it past an ATS, to a recruiter’s desk——and it will make a marked difference in how they respond to your application.