Do you need to tailor your resume to every single job you apply for?
Well, the answer is “it depends” don't you hate being told that it's not the most unhelpful answer ever. In my experience, this is how it works…
Higher-level Jobs
If you're going for a higher level job like executive level, in those cases, generally speaking, you don't tailor your resume, or if you do, it's very minimal tailoring.
This allows people at that level to hire professional resume writers for like four figures, and those people will write them an amazing resume that shows off their particular strengths and capabilities and represents them really well.
Generally speaking, you don't tailor resumes at that level, and that's the assumption that you're applying for positions that are mostly in the hidden job market.
Mid-level jobs or Worker-level jobs
For middle-level jobs like middle management and the like, it's going to vary, but for worker-level jobs, you're going to want to tailor your resume to every single job you apply for.
You might be thinking that’s a lot of work, and it is, but it's much more effective in getting an interview when you send in a resume if you tailor your resume, especially at that level.
Now, this is true if you're applying for jobs on the internet, and it's especially true when you're applying for a job where you're responding to a job posting with the job application and attaching your resume.
Why do you need to tailor your resume?
Specifically, the reasoning behind why you need to tailor your resume is because when you send in a resume under those circumstances; the first line of filtering that it encounters is; it's not read by a human instead.
How does keyword matching software works?
Your resume is read by keyword matching software that's usually the first stage of filtering, and the keyword matching software is looking for specific words in your resume.
If it doesn't find those words, it's not going to pass it on to the next line, usually a human reading / a recruiter reading your resume.
How to use proper keywords in a resume?
The keywords it's looking for will be keywords found in the job posting, specifically in the requirements section. So in the job posting, it says these are the requirements that the applicant must have to get this job, and they list several things.
They're going to be finding specific words on your resume. So it's not enough that you say, “I meet all these requirements…” you have to say that “I need all these requirements,” and you have to use the same lingo, the same terminology that they're using the employer is using to describe the qualifications.
And that's why you need to tailor your resume. Doing so will have a much higher success rate in getting interviews. And although it's more work, just sending out hundreds and hundreds of job applications using a stock resume for lower-level jobs is usually not that effective.
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