Tailoring your CV to land the right job

One size rarely fits all when it comes to CV writing.

When you craft your CV to meet the employer’s needs, your CV will change dramatically from application to application. Perhaps dramatically is an overstatement, but it should differ each time. To do this, you need to place emphasis on what the employer is looking for.

The perfect match

Careers are a matching exercise. Think of it as a sales process. This client wants the following, I need to sell them the following if I have it. If I don’t have it, I needn’t try to sell it.

So, one batch of experience might be really relevant for one job you’re going for. However, it might be quite peripheral for another job. You decide this by looking at the job spec and the general profile of the company to which you are applying.

Emphasising the relevant details

Looking back from there, you can craft a CV that gets their heads nodding. You’ve got to tick the boxes they want ticked. As you go along in life, you will have multiple experiences. These are not all born equal as far as the employer is concerned.

Match what they’re looking for with the most relevant and powerful examples you have and you will have a good CV. This is not to say that you leave blanks in your CV. It is more a case of emphasising those particular skills and experiences that meet the employer’s needs.

You can decide to go big on one piece of experience for one application and minimise it to one bullet point for another. In this way, you curate your career to produce the CV you need at any given time.

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