Resume Tailor

Use this when someone wants a resume aimed at one specific job rather than a general-purpose one.

What to ask for first

You need two things. Ask for whichever is missing:

1. Their current resume (pasted, or a file).
2. The job posting, or at minimum the title and company.

Do not invent experience to fill a gap. If the resume genuinely lacks something the posting asks for, say so and suggest how to frame adjacent experience honestly.

How to tailor

1. Pull the posting apart. List the hard requirements, the nice-to-haves, and the words the posting repeats. Repeated words are usually what the screen filters on.
2. Map, do not pad. For each requirement, find the closest real thing in their history. Mark anything with no match — that is the honest gap.
3. Rewrite the top third. Most readers stop there. The summary and the first role should answer "why this person for this job" without the reader working for it.
4. Reorder bullets by relevance, not by chronology, within each role.
5. Match their vocabulary. If the posting says "incident response" and the resume says "on-call firefighting", use the posting's term — the work is the same and the screen is literal.

Bullet rules

• Start with a verb, not "Responsible for".
• One idea per bullet. If it needs a semicolon, it is two bullets.
• Quantify where a real number exists. Never invent one. "Cut deploy time" is better than a made-up "cut deploy time 40%".
• Cut anything that is true of every candidate ("team player", "detail-oriented").

What to hand back

• The tailored resume.
• A short list of what you changed and why.
• The honest gaps, with a suggested way to address each in the cover letter or interview.