How can you stand out in today’s competitive job market? Tailoring your application is key. What, though, does it mean to tailor your documents? And how exactly does it help you?
The first half of this article will consider those questions and more. In the latter half, we’ll discuss how tailoring the application process can also help hiring managers locate the right candidates and reduce the lead time of the recruitment process.
Applicant Benefits
Many people consider writing or updating their resume to be a pain. These documents follow an exacting format, and most people approach them just often enough to feel unfamiliar with them. As a resume, many people call it quits after making just one generic resume.
If you’re hoping to stand out in a crowd of qualified applicants, relying on one basic resume can be a problem. It will come across as just what it is—basic, generic, and blasé. Tailored resumes, on the other hand, help identify you as the “right fit” for the job at hand.
How does a tailored resume differ from an untailored one? Consider an illustration. Imagine that you are shopping for a wedding dress or a suit. You might find something that fits fairly well right off the rack. In fact, there are hundreds of options that fit okay. But what if you take advantage of the store’s tailoring service? How will things change when the tailor takes your measurements and alters the garment just for you? Something good becomes something amazing—and unique.
A tailored resume follows the same pattern. There may be hundreds of candidates, you included, who appear to be an okay fit for the position. But when you tailor your resume—making small adjustments so that your skills and experience reflect exactly those called for in the job description—you can stand out as uniquely suited for the job: the best option.
Now that you understand the benefits of tailoring your resume, how do you do it? For each job you apply for, scour the description to find potential resume keywords. Look for skills, years of experience, educational and certification requirements, or specific tools and computer programs. Wherever possible, include these in your document. You can also research the company itself to highlight soft skills and values important to its company culture. Repeat this process for each job you apply for.
An added benefit of this is that your resume is more likely to be ranked highly by a computerized applicant tracking system (ATS) and make it into human hands.
How Tailoring the Process Helps
Tailoring an application can increase an applicant’s chances of landing a job, but tailoring the process can make the hiring manager’s job easier. How so?
Your job requires you to (1) screen candidates to select the best one for the job and (2) fill open positions quickly. These facets can be in conflict with one another—screening takes time. How can you tailor your hiring process to make things smoother for you and the applicant?
The Scope of the Search
The needs of the position should determine the scope and location of the search. If you’re looking for a highly specific skillset, for example, this should be clear in the parameters you set for your job listing. You might even consider advertising to a specific community (for example, subscribers to a professional tech blog if you’re looking for programmers) who are likely to possess those skills.
You may also internal recruitment—promoting or transferring an existing employee to fill the vacancy. In this way, the candidate’s skills and work habits are already well known. It may also be easier to fill their former, less-skilled position than to conduct a traditional search for the more skilled position.
Address Pain Points
According to Forbes, “jobseekers who apply for 21 to 80 jobs have about a 30% chance of receiving a job offer.” Another survey reports that many candidates apply to as many as 200 jobs before landing one. This can be tedious and discouraging even for highly talented individuals.
You can tailor your application process to address these pain points. For example, if you want to attract top talent, don’t rely on copy-and-paste screening tools. The questions and wording should be aligned with your company’s brand and culture. Just as you don’t want to receive a generic, one-size-fits-all resume, skilled candidates won’t get excited about a one-size-fits-all application. But they will be enthusiastic if they realize the questions are geared towards their unique skills and how well they will fit with the company.
Key Takeaways
Tailoring your resume or your application takes time, but doing so is well worth the effort. A well-tailored resume can help you break free from the churn of the job search process and land a position you’ll love. Likewise, taking a tailored approach when recruiting can help hiring managers source highly skilled employees in less time and with less frustration.
