3 Reasons Why You Should Tailor Your Resume And Cover Letter For Every Job Application

It sounds like a pain, but you should be tailoring each resume and cover letter for every job application you submit. 

Why? 

1) Each Hiring Manager is looking for something unique and they each have exacting standards.

2) It's safer to hire people they believe want to work at their organization - not just those looking for any job. 

3) This is your best chance at standing out from the crowd and appearing like the perfect candidate.

Don't believe me? Let me give you a real-life example.

I've been in the online employment space for 20 years working with some of the best-known job board and recruitment advertising businesses, and with global hiring managers. It's not surprising to learn that employers hire people who look like the best fit for their job on paper - the resume is most often what lands the interview and gives a person the chance to succeed.

I've also personally hired people for the last 15 years, and I'll give you a recent relevant example: I posted a job for a Sales rep on Indeed and within a few hours had 400 applications.  So I paused the job ad to start working through the mountain of applications. 

I could immediately tell who applied to my job with the same resume they sent to 50 other employers the same hour, and these were generally not relevant to my role.  They were very generic. Like most hiring managers, I need someone who has done the same job, to come in and hit the ground running.  I immediately filtered out probably 350 resumes. 

Out of the 50 remaining, there were roughly 40 candidates who all said something to the effect of "Exceeded sales goals." That's basically what I need, but if 40 people all said that, how do I know who did it best?  How do I know who was the best at exceeding goals, or who worked in environments with goals similar to mine? 

That's where the top 10 stood out - they all provided more context and quantifiable ways to demonstrate their value.  Instead of 'Exceeded sales goals", they wrote things like, "Grew revenue from enterprise customer accounts by 15% QoQ through consultative process to highlight new features that solved their critical business needs." Or "Exceeded sales targets by 35% YoY using background training in Challenger, Sandler, and Dale Carnegie, which resulted in ranking #5 globally out of 300 sales reps."

Those are the candidates who landed at the top of my shortlist because they gave me a clear understanding of how well they performed in their jobs.  I didn't have to guess.

Out of the top 10, there was only 1 who sent me a cover letter that I could tell was addressed to me and written by someone who cared to find out what my company does and craft a value proposition specific to my opportunity. That was surprising - 1 out of 400 people took the time to show me why they cared to work with my company.  (Sidenote, there were 21 who sent some sort of automated message through Indeed that said, "I applied to your job and would welcome the opportunity to interview." That's not a cover letter and it doesn't help you if it's a canned message.) 

Why is it important to show an employer you really want to work with them and what motivates you?  

Because hiring and training isn't an exact science.  Many people don't work out, and it's very time-consuming and expensive for the employer to find the right people with the skills and experience with the highest likelihood of succeeding.  So they want to invest the time in people they believe are invested in working with them.

My point is, that if you have a top-notch resume tailored for their role that highlights your skills, experience, and accomplishments relevant to the role, with a personalized cover letter telling a compelling narrative - you'll get noticed.  You'll be the fit on paper that gets you a chance at an interview.

Okay, so how do you tailor your resume and cover letter for every job? 

Pro tip: It's an open-book test.  The employer tells you what they are looking for within their job posting and on their company's website. Use the keywords and ideas found on the job posting, on the company's website and LinkedIn profile, and find out the skills and accomplishments necessary to succeed in the role for which they are hiring. 

And that's what you highlight in your application. Don't make it up, but if you meet the qualifications, you owe it to yourself to put your best foot forward on paper. 

Pro-tip for the ladies:  Don't hold yourself back from applying to jobs when you feel you don't meet ALL of the qualifications.  You are already underrepresented in top jobs - don't hold yourself back! Studies show that women tend to only apply to jobs when they feel they meet 100% of the qualifications.  I get it, you are just being honest and playing by the rules.  But put yourself out there like the men, who according to the same studies, will apply if they meet only 60% of the qualifications on average.  That means some of these underqualified men are winning the jobs if they are the only ones applying.  So let's move your career forward by getting it right on paper and applying to the opportunities for advancement! Who's with me? 

Tailoring resumes and cover letters sounds like it takes too much time. 

Yes, it did - in the past.  This used to take hours and hours, preventing you from submitting hundreds of applications.  Now, however, Jobflow offers AI-powered tools to do this work surprisingly well in a matter of seconds.  

It shouldn't take hundreds of job applications to land that new job.  If you are applying to jobs for which you are qualified, you simply need to make each job application look like you spent all afternoon writing it for that one opportunity that you really want. 

That's exactly what we developed Jobflow to do.