When I tell job seekers they should tailor their résumés to every position, their eyes widen. Some protest that this is too much work and one or two even become angry and profusely refuse to put in this hard work.
The reason I tell my customers to make the effort is because they need to speak to the needs of the employer. Further, this will impress the employer with their research of the position and demonstrate how they can solve problems the company is facing.
But let’s be realistic; this is not possible for every résumé you write, particularly if:
- you’re posting your résumé on a job board where it will be stored in a résumé bank among millions of other résumés;
- you don’t have a descriptive job ad and/or;
- there’s no one to network with to find the real deal about the job for which you’re applying.
So what’s the solution?
In his Knock ‘Em Dead series, Knock ‘Em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World, Martin Yate offers his Target Job Deconstruction (TJD) method as the next best thing to a tailor-made résumé. His method makes sense to me, so I teach it in my workshops.
“Your résumé,” he writes, “will obviously be most effective when it starts with a clear focus and understanding of a specific job target. TJD allows you to analyze exactly how employers prioritize their needs for your target job and the words used to express those needs, resulting in a detailed template for the story your résumé needs to tell.”
There are eight steps Martin describes when writing your TJD (they can be found in his book), but I’ll talk about the most immediate steps for creating your résumé template.
1. The first task in creating your résumé template is to collect approximately six job ads for a position you’re seeking. Use websites like Indeed.com. They use spider technology pulling from other job boards and deliver a plethora of positions from which to choose. The locations of the jobs matter not.
2. From there, you’ll note a requirement (skill, deliverable) most common for all six positions. Next, identify a common requirement for five of the six positions, a common requirement for four of the six positions, and so on, until you have a list of the most common requirements in descending order.
This will give you a good understanding of how employers think when they determine who they’d like to hire. It will also give you a foundation to write a résumé template, which you can modify whenever you send your résumé to a particular company.
Let’s look at a Marketing Specialist position in the Boston area. I managed to find six job descriptions by using Indeed.com. Listed below are the six most common requirements for this position.
- Common to all six companies is writing copy for web content, as well as creating a social media campaign.
- Common to five of the companies is managing relations with appropriate departments.
- Common to four of the companies is coordinating projects with outside vendors.
- Common to three of the companies is researching competitors’ websites and reporting activity.
- Common to two of the companies is coordinating trade shows.
- Another notable duty is Photo shoots/animation development, which drew my attention, as I enjoy, but have limited experience in photography.
3. Now write your résumé. Given the above information, your new résumé should first verify in the Professional Profile your qualifications for the most common requirements listed. Your Performance Profile could read as follows based on the general requirements:
Produced compelling content for website and social media distribution ~ Manage communications between engineering, production, and sales ~ Develop and nurture vendor relationships ~ Direct trade shows from planning to completion ~ Acknowledged by CEO for cost reduction.
4. You will next extract all the key words that apply to you and create a Competencies section including those key words, as your résumé might be scanned by large and even midsize companies. Don’t forget the strong transferable skills you possess.
5. Finally, you will prove in your Employment History what you have asserted in your Professional profile. Try to prove your assertions with accomplishment statements that are quantified. For example, the following accomplishment addresses the first statement from the Performance Profile above:
Produced persuasive content which was distributed via the company’s website and major social media platforms. During this time, revenue increased by 56%.
Final Note: I continue to insist that, when at all possible, my customers tailor their résumés to each job they apply, as it demonstrates their knowledge of the position and effectively demonstrates their qualifications to meet the position’s requirements. This is ideal when you have a list of your top 20-30 companies, the companies for which you want to show your love.
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