How to tailor your résumé to a job posting

To tailor a résumé to a job posting, find what the posting asks for most, put the experience that matches it first, describe that experience in the posting's own words where those words are true for you, and leave off what this job doesn't need. Your history stays the same. What changes is what you lead with and how you say it.

1. Find what the posting asks for most

Read the posting once for its shape. The skills and duties named near the top, or named more than once, are usually the ones that matter most. Note the exact words it uses: "data integrity", "stakeholder communication", "patient intake".

2. Put the matching experience first

Within each job, move the bullet that answers the posting to the top. If an older role or a project fits this job better than your latest one, give it the room.

3. Use the posting's words where they're true

If you "kept the records in sync" and the posting says "data integrity", say "data integrity". The person reading, and any software searching the applications, look for the posting's own terms. Only use a word your work backs up: an interviewer will ask about it.

4. Leave off what this job doesn't need

A bullet that would impress a different employer takes space from one that answers this one. Leave it off this version. It's still yours for the next job.

5. Keep each version

Save each tailored résumé with the job it was for, so you know exactly what you sent when an interviewer asks about it.

Doing it with bettershell.ai

You enter your experience once. For each job, paste the posting's link, or its text. bettershell.ai picks the experience that fits that posting, rewrites bullets in its words where your experience supports them, and sets the result on one page as a PDF with real, selectable text. Every change is marked on the page with its reason, and you can keep or revert each one.

Example résumé of an invented person, Avery Kim, tailored for a backend engineering posting. Not a customer.