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Tailoring your resume to each job posting

Rather than sending the same resume everywhere, keep a base resume and adjust only what each posting needs.

Build a base resume first

Create one base document that covers all of your experience, then duplicate it and edit the copy each time you apply. Using the Duplicate button on VitaWrite's My resumes screen, you can make a version for each employer without touching the original.

Mark the key words in the posting

Pick out the phrases that recur in the main duties and requirements of the posting. Reorder your blocks so the experience that connects to those phrases comes early in the resume, and shorten or remove blocks that are less relevant.

Keep the facts, change only the emphasis

Tailoring is not about creating new experience; it is about choosing which of your existing experience to show first. Dates, job titles and figures must be the same in every version.

Tell versions apart by document name

Naming documents consistently, for example “Company_Role_Date”, helps you keep track of which version went where. Keeping the submitted PDF under the same name also helps when you prepare for interviews.

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