One of the best things you can do to present yourself as the right person for the job is to match your resume with the job description. This includes highlighting the skills and experience that are relevant to the role you’re applying for.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to match your resume or CV to the job description to impress recruiters and maximize your chances of getting an interview invite. We’ll give you a step-by-step guide, expert tips, and examples to help you achieve this goal.
Let’s dive in!
Key Takeaways
When you match your resume with the job description, you make it relevant, ATS-compatible, and focused on the employer’s needs.
To achieve this, you should analyze the job description, highlight the essential keywords, and update your resume, including the summary, work experience, and skills sections.
Before tailoring your resume, you should also research the company, and after you’re done writing, proofread and edit the document.
Don’t copy and paste everything from the job description into your resume to maintain an organic and natural feel.
What is the Purpose of Matching Your Resume with the Job Description?
The primary purpose of matching your resume with the job description is to show that you’re qualified for the role. The goal is to show that your experiences, skills, and qualifications directly align with the employer’s needs.
Recruiters usually receive numerous applications for a single position, and many of those applications are from candidates with similar abilities. As a result, those professionals who emphasize role-specific qualifications demonstrate an understanding of the company’s needs and show genuine interest in the role.
That’s why you should tailor your resume to a job description and the employer's requirements whenever applying for a new position. That way, you significantly improve the chances of impressing recruiters and getting ahead of the competition.
Here are three main reasons to match your resume with the job description:
#1. Boosted Relevance
When you match your resume to the job description, you make it relevant to the role. Recruiters are always looking for professionals who are the perfect fit for their organization. Someone with just a few years of work experience in a relevant field often has the advantage over a seasoned veteran with decades of work history in an unrelated profession.
#2. ATS Compatibility
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) compatibility helps your resume pass the initial software screening. These computer applications are usually set to look for relevant keywords, like skills and job titles.
Having these keywords makes your resume ATS-friendly, ensuring it doesn’t get dismissed automatically before a recruiter gets a chance to look at it.
#3. Focus on the Employer’s Needs
Your resume is most effective when it focuses on the employer’s needs to show them how they can benefit from hiring you. When you tailor your resume to what recruiters want to see, you’ll position yourself as the solution to their problems and someone who can contribute to the success of the organization.
How to Match Resume With Job Description in 7 Easy Steps
There are several steps you should take to match your resume with the job description. So, let’s find out how the role description and role responsibilities can help you in writing a resume and cover letter.
#1. Analyze the Job Description
The first step in ensuring you can appropriately tailor your resume to the employer’s needs would be to read and analyze the job description. You should focus on the role summary and role responsibilities to determine which skills, qualifications, and experiences the employer values the most.
To get a good starting point before matching your resume with the job description, you want to look for an overarching theme. For example, you might discover that employers look for a problem solver, someone who’s good at collaborating, a creative professional, or someone with exceptional technical skills.
Focus on specific phrases from the job description to identify expectations employers have and tasks you’d perform. For instance, if a job ad states that you’d be in charge of “developing marketing strategies,” you might want to emphasize your expertise in copywriting, content creation, A/B testing, etc., and highlight your creativity and critical thinking.
#2. Highlight Priorities and Crucial Keywords
Once you’ve carefully analyzed the job description, you should highlight all the keywords and phrases that can help you tailor your resume. This allows you not only to extract as much valuable insight as possible but to keep it readily available once you start writing your resume.
You should highlight everything that you can include in your resume. This includes details like the job title and how much experience is required, the tasks and responsibilities of the role, the necessary education, abilities, certifications, and more. Identify all the hard and soft skills, and pay attention to the language used so you can match it in your document.
The resume keywords are invaluable in helping you pass ATS filters and grab the recruiter’s attention. Having them neatly highlighted ensures you won’t forget any of them when creating your resume. You can even create a checklist to make sure that you’ve implemented everything to make your resume match the job description.
#3. Compare Your Resume to Your Findings
Once you’ve extracted all the important insight from the job description, you want to compare it with your existing resume. You should especially pay close attention to your resume summary or objective, as well as your work experience and skills sections.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when comparing your resume to your findings:
Key Questions to Ask While Comparing Your Resume
Does the job title in your contact information match the one in the job description?
Are your accomplishments relevant to the role you’re after, or could you swap them for different ones that demonstrate appropriate abilities better?
Have you mentioned every skill from the job description at least once in your resume?
Is the resume’s writing language consistent and in line with the job description?
Keep these questions in mind when reviewing your resume, and you’ll make a concise, accurate, and information-packed document that optimally conveys details about your expertise.
#4. Update Your Resume Summary
A resume summary is usually the first section recruiters read, which is why you want to make sure it’s perfectly tailored to the job description. Since it represents a brief summary of your document, it should accurately align with the employer’s expectations.
For instance, if a job description asks for a manager with collaboration and leadership skills with a focus on process improvement, you can start your resume summary by writing:
Example
“Results-oriented project manager with over 7 years of experience in collaborative leadership, iterative development, and process improvement.”
You should avoid having a generic resume summary that stays the same regardless of the role you’re applying for. Instead, in 2–4 sentences, you want to emphasize those skills and accomplishments that you know recruiters look for the most in candidates. This will grab their attention and persuade them to continue examining your resume.
#5. Modify Your Work Experience
A work experience section is typically the biggest and most important part of a resume, and recruiters spend most of their time reviewing it. Your past performance and accomplishments are strong indicators of future potential, so recruiters use them to determine whether you can contribute to their organization.
It’s crucial for your work-related results and accomplishments to demonstrate the skills mentioned in the job description. For example, if the job ad emphasizes “budget management” as one of the key responsibilities, you can include that skill in a bullet point like this:
Example
Managed quarterly budgets of up to $350,000, achieving an 11% savings through strategic resource allocation and cost reduction.
Pro Tip
To further increase the impact of your work experience section, you should include numbers to quantify your achievements and leverage action verbs and power words to boost the section’s memorability.
#6. Focus on Achievements
One of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re an adept professional is to highlight exceptional achievements and notable results instead of everyday tasks. They add credibility to your skills and show the tangible impact you’ve made in your previous jobs.
For example, instead of having a bullet point that says, “Handled customer complaints,” you can write a bullet point that states:
Example
Resolved 97% of customer complaints after the first call and without involving upper management, resulting in a 13% boost to the customer satisfaction rating.
This example perfectly demonstrates how you can emphasize your customer service representative skills on your resume. By focusing on achievements, you show your ability to deliver results, providing solid proof of your competence.
#7. Adapt Your Skills Section
Finally, you should adapt your skills section to showcase specific abilities outlined in the job description. Pay attention to the terminology the employer used in the job ad and match it in your resume.
For instance, if the job description lists “Proficiency in Salesforce” as a requirement, you should list Salesforce in your skills section instead of stating a generic “Experience in CRM” phrase.
Moreover, you want to organize your skills in this section to prioritize the ones that are most important and most relevant to the role. Put these abilities at the top of the list, and then include others that contribute to your application but aren’t explicitly mentioned in the job description.
Lastly, don’t forget to keep your hard skills and soft skills separate. They belong to different categories, and organizing them that way makes it easy for recruiters to understand your technical competence and interpersonal prowess.
Tailored Resume to the Job Description Example
Using a specific example, let’s see how you can tailor your resume to the job description.
First, here’s an example of a job description that you can analyze to extract valuable insight:
Job Description Example
Position: Front-End Developer
Job Summary:
We are looking for an innovative front-end developer with a collaborative mindset and a knack for creating memorable user experiences.
Your responsibilities:
Develop and maintain apps and websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Design responsive, cross-browser-compatible layouts.
Troubleshoot UI issues and debug existing code to improve application performance.
Your qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree
3+ years of experience as a front-end developer
Excellent problem-solving skills and keen attention to detail.
Now, let’s see what a resume that matches this job description would look like:
3 More Useful Tips for Tailoring Your Resume to the Job Description
Now that we’ve covered what you need to know to match your resume with a job description, let’s check out several expert tips to help you further.
#1. Do Thorough Research on the Company
In addition to analyzing the job description, you should also research the company you’re applying to. This can give you additional information about its team, culture, and values, which you can use when modifying your resume.
To research a company, you can visit its website, check it out on social media, go through its employees’ LinkedIn profiles, read the latest news and publications that mention the company, and so on. This research won’t just help you with your resume but also when preparing for the most common interview questions.
#2. Don’t Copy-And-Paste Job Description
While it’s imperative to match your resume with the job description, you shouldn’t copy all of it word-for-word. Don’t overdo the process to the point where your resume becomes artificially altered to match every detail from the job description. That might signal to recruiters that you’re not honest about your qualifications.
Instead, you want to find a balance between tailoring your resume to the job description and making it a personalized document that showcases your career and competence.
#3. Proofread and Edit Your Resume
Once you finish writing your resume, you should proofread and edit it before submission. This gives you the opportunity to correct typos and mistakes, improve your writing, and enhance the overall appeal of the document.
While proofreading, you might discover that you forgot to include some keywords or that there’s a better way to demonstrate your skills. This is the final and crucial step in making your resume the best it can be.
Final Thoughts
When you edit a resume or CV according to the job description, you make it highly relevant to the role, demonstrate attention to detail, and show consideration for the employer’s needs. This significantly improves your odds of impressing recruiters and securing a job interview.
Remember not to overdo it when trying to match your resume with the job description. Focus on your greatest strengths and present them in a way that aligns with the employer’s needs. That way, your resume will look natural while depicting you as the right person for the role.
Match Resume with Job Description FAQ
#1. Does tailoring your resume to the job description actually work?
Tailoring your resume to the job description works, as it makes the document relevant to the role you’re applying for. It ensures recruiters can see that you have the necessary skills and experiences that directly allow you to contribute to their organization.
#2. How do I identify keywords in a job description?
You can identify keywords in a job description by carefully reading its entirety. Focus on the industry-specific language to find which technical skills and interpersonal abilities are required. Also, keep an eye out for the amount of experience needed, as well as any degrees and certifications.
#3. What sections of my resume should I tailor for each job?
You should tailor most of your resume sections for each job, including resume summary, work experience, and skills. You should also check whether optional sections need adjustments or whether you should even remove one optional section to include another that’s more relevant to the job you're applying for.
#4. How often should I update my resume for different job applications?
You should update your resume with every different job application. This boosts the impact your resume has on recruiters and maximizes your chances of getting to the job interview by portraying you as a professional perfectly suitable for the role.
