Before talking about a target resume, let’s first start with the purpose of a resume. Many job applicants are under the impression a resume will get them a job – it will not. The sole purpose of a resume is to get an interview. How well you present yourself at the interview decides whether you get a job offer or not.
But getting an interview can be difficult if your resume does not accurately present you as at least meeting minimum qualifications and requirements of a position. One mistake frequently made by new job applicants is writing one general resume and submitting it for several different job openings. That is not to say a general resume doesn’t have its place, because it does.
If you are looking for a handout that highlights your accomplishments to give out at job fairs or at other networking opportunities, then you want a general resume. With it, you are showing your highlights – education, experience and accomplishments in a particular field, but not for a particular job.
Using Tailoring to Create a Targeted Resume
However, when applying for a specific job, a resume tailored to that posting is a must. So just what does that mean – tailored to that posting? It is one that shows the same things as a general resume does, except the information is more focused, or “targeted” if you will, to best fit the requirements and duties of a specific open position.
You do this by working keywords or keyword phrases from the job posting into your resume. And because each job posting has its own keywords, you’ll need a tweaked target resume for each job opening.
Keywords are important in today’s hiring world because resumes submitted online (and some that are not in larger companies) are screened by software to weed out the ones not meeting the basic requirements of a position. It does this by scanning each resume for a specific job and picking up on keywords it has been programmed to look for. You may be the best qualified candidate for the position, but if your resume doesn’t have what the software is looking for, you’ll never make the short list.
When applying for a job, you are trying to sell something – yourself. Your resume and cover letter should read like a sales ad. Salesmen know that to sell something, they have to not only show the features of the product, but also demonstrate the benefits or how the product will solve the potential buyer’s problem. Your resume should show how hiring you will best solve their problem of filling the job opening with the best qualified candidate.
Now is not the time to be shy. If you don’t blow your own horn, nobody will. You do so by trying to closely match what you have accomplished, as far as experience, training and education, to what is required to fill that position.
Not Just what you did – how well you did it
When trying to match to the duties and requirements of a position, one mistake many people make is they fail to show how well they accomplished something. For example, instead of saying “Directs, controls and coordinates aircraft maintenance operations” quantify it by saying “Directs, controls and coordinates maintenance operations on 23 F-16 aircraft valued in excess of $805 million. Being in charge of maintenance on 23 aircraft is a lot different than two airplanes. Numbers, dollar amounts and percentages best quantify what you have done instead of just making a general statement about the accomplishment.
Using a targeted resume, with quantified statements tailored to each position, and sprinkled with job posting keywords throughout, is a start at writing a great resume, getting noticed and offered an interview. After that, it is all up to you.
