Tailoring A Resume For Different Job Applications

Stop customizing your resume for remote jobs until you've done this crucial step first... 👇🏼 Everyone tells you to tailor your resume for each application. Sometimes you simply take what you have and try to turn it into something remarkable. But after helping hundreds of remote job seekers land their dream roles, I've discovered most people are customizing based on the WRONG information. They're wasting hours making changes that hiring managers don't even notice. Here's the crucial step you need to take BEFORE touching your resume: ✅ 1 // Decode the company's remote work culture Most job seekers skim the job description and tweak a few keywords. This is surface-level customization that doesn't work. Instead, spend 30 minutes researching HOW the company actually operates remotely: • Do they work asynchronously or have core overlap hours? • What communication tools do they prioritize? • How do they measure productivity and results? • What values do they emphasize for distributed teams. This deeper understanding reveals what they ACTUALLY care about in remote candidates. ✅ 2 // Find the remote work patterns in their language Study their blog posts, social media, employee LinkedIn profiles, and Glassdoor reviews. Look for repeated phrases and emphasized qualities. One client discovered her target company mentioned "self-documentation" in multiple team member posts - a skill she had but never highlighted. Adding this to her resume led to an immediate interview request after months of rejections. ✅ 3 // Position yourself as the solution to their specific remote challenges Every remote company has unique pain points: • Some struggle with cross-time-zone collaboration • Others prioritize security and compliance • Many need strong independent problem-solvers Once you identify their particular challenges, THEN customize your resume to show how you solve those specific problems. My client Michael had applied to 40+ remote developer roles with a "customized" resume focused on technical skills. After implementing this research-first approach, he landed 3 interviews in his next 5 applications. The difference? He stopped trying to be the perfect candidate for a generic remote role and started positioning himself as the specific solution each company needed. Remember: Effective customization isn't about cramming in more keywords - it's about demonstrating deep understanding of their unique remote environment. What's your biggest challenge when customizing your resume for remote roles? Here’s to us “escaping the cubicle” Wes 📌 Remote job searching? Comment “resume” and I’ll send you my Remote Resume Checklist to help you get started. #remotework #jobsearchtips #resumewriter 🎥 (@davidzinn)

If you're juggling 14 different resumes, your strategy is broken. And put simply you are wasting your time. One of my clients told me he had 14 completely separate variations. Different lengths, different formats, different content. He'd rotate them depending on the type of role. And he was still getting ghosted. So let me make this clear. You don’t need 14 versions of your resume. You need ONE great resume—and a 2-minute system to tailor it. Here’s how it works in 3 simple (but effective) steps 1. Start with a Master Resume. 90% of it should apply to every role you’re targeting. (Which only works if you’re clear on what you want.) 2. Tailor the 10% that matters. That means updating: → The job title (match it exactly) → Your top bullet points (mirror the job description) → Your summary (make key qualifications blindingly obvious) 3. Use the Ctrl+F Test. → Search the document by pressing CTRL+F → Check If the job title and key requirements show up → If they don't make sure to add them If the key information does not show up... Neither will you—in a recruiter’s inbox. I’ve seen clients go from zero interviews to three job offers—just by doing this. Forget “more effort.” Focus on better clarity. Your resume shouldn’t raise questions. It should answer them in seconds. Would a total stranger know you’re a fit—just by skimming your summary? If not, you’ve still got work to do. 👉 Want to see how this works in action? 🔥Watch the video: https://lnkd.in/e63pxgsU Oh and do subscribe for new videos every Monday.

This is one of the most important things I’ve learned about resumes, and most don’t do it. Not doing this can hurt your chances of getting an interview 👇 Your resume 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 a description of what you are 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 for. Your resume 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 a collection of your 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 to the job you are applying for! Here's a simple example: A Project Manager's resume that describes what they are 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 for looks like this: - Delivered the project on time and within budget. - Communicated updates regularly to all stakeholders. This is a terrible way to "stand out" - In this example, every Project Manager is responsible for delivering projects on time and budget, and for communicating with stakeholders. In other words, there's nothing 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 about this person's resume. Your resume has to show: - Evidence that you have the experience they are looking for (Tailored resume) - Evidence of the value you bring to the team (Your past accomplishments) To write a resume that 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭, here’s what you should do 👇 Write 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, not what you were responsible for : - What did you do? - What was the impact? - How did you accomplish it? Use the “𝐗 + 𝐘 + 𝐙” formula to write accomplishments: “Accomplished [𝐗] as measured by [𝐘], by doing [𝐙]” 🛑 Instead of writing: “Delivered a project on time and budget” ✅ Write this: 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 [𝐗]: “Launched ____ project” 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 [𝐘]: “1 month ahead of schedule and increasing ROI by Z%” 𝐁𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐙]: “, by creating a new communication process that allowed low and medium risk tickets to be pre-appproved, reducing friction during development” Together X + Y + Z: “Launched ___ project 1 month ahead of schedule and increasing ROI by Z%, , by creating a new communication process that allowed low and medium risk tickets to be pre-appproved, reducing friction during development” 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 help you show that you have the experience companies look for in 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 of a project that had impact to customers, your team or the organization. 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 your 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 to the job you are applying to will increase your chances of getting an interview. Adding more colors, graphs and random keywords will not. A few extra tips as you go through your accomplishments: 1. Not every accomplishment will have a number (impact). It’s ok, try to have as many as possible. 2. Accomplishments tailored to the job you are applying to >>>> accomplishments you believe are the most important. 3. You can skip the XYZ formula and instead write them as: Verb in past tense + what you did + the impact it had. ------ 🚀 Need help with your resume or Product Management interviews? Check out my comment below for THE BEST resources 👇 #productmangement #resume

As a hiring manager, and a manager of hiring managers, I've probably reviewed close to 1,000 resumes in my career. Here are the biggest mistakes I see people make over and over again (and what to do instead): ❌ Focusing on responsibilities rather than impact. If your title is "e-commerce editor," someone reading your resume can probably guess at what your basic duties were—so don't waste a lot of space listing them out. ✅ Emphasize the accomplishments you had in each role. What impact did you make to the team or the business? Did you increase traffic to your vertical by X%? Contribute to the highest-ever Black Friday/Cyber Monday revenue sitewide? Streamline the publishing process? Tweaking your bullet points to highlight impact will help you stand out from the crowd. ❌ Not tailoring your resume to the job you're applying for. When I was hiring a Director of SEO Content at Policygenius, it was shocking how many resumes I got from very experienced editors that did not include the words "SEO" or "search" at all. They might have had the relevant experience, but how could I know that? ✅ Take the time to make sure your bullets match up to the job description. Don't force the hiring manager or recruiter to guess at your qualifications; make it easy for them to see that you're a great fit. ❌ Overstuffing your resume. I'm not strict about the one-page rule (though if you have less than 5 years of work experience, stick to one page!). But I once saw a resume where the person used four whole pages (!) to cover the last four years of their career. Unless you're creating an academic CV, a resume is meant to be a synopsis of your career, with emphasis on the last 5-10 years—not an exhaustive accounting of everything you've ever done at work. ✅ Be ruthless about highlighting your biggest accomplishments in each role, and keep it to two pages or less. Once you've got 10-15 years of experience under your belt, your early career roles should start dropping off your resume altogether (let's face it, they probably aren't relevant anyway). Bonus note: A big contributor to overlong resumes is summary statement bloat. If your summary statement is 3/4 of a page, that's not a summary! Try for 4-5 lines—1/4 page at most—and put those big accomplishments under the relevant role instead. I could go on at much greater length about each of these—which would you like to hear more about? And what are your favorite resume tips?