Employers want to see how your skills and experience match the specific role they’ve advertised. Tailoring your CV will show employers you’re a serious candidate, and that you really want to work for them. Most recruiters will be able to spot a generic CV a mile off.
Frequently, we’ll see people called “Product Manager” or “Project Manager” who were just “Software Architects” or “Senior Software Developers”.
All of these fuzzy names and most peoples’ confusion about standardised market names is to be understood.
But if we’re marketing a candidate to a client and you’ve misrepresented your level of responsibility, then we’re gonna have a HUGE problem on our hands one way or the other.
Frequently, you won’t get the interview because they saw you titled yourself, “Senior Developer” when in actuality, you were a “Test Automation Lead” (with the responsibilities that come with being a “lead”).
If they look at the title and see “Senior Developer” (and nobody spends that much time reviewing resumes), they will likely pass on interviewing you because they’ll assume a talent-mismatch.
As recruiters, our job is to “dumb down” the resume to the salient and applicable responsibilities with as little fluff as possible.
Do not treat your resume as a formality; instead treat it as your career tool and personal marketing instrument. Take this approach and it will pay dividends in the form of great jobs and professional advancements.
Customizing your resume makes sure potential employers see a valuable, well-suited employee and receive information about you that’s relevant to their company. Otherwise, they’d reading a bland, generic document that looks completely out of place for the job opening.
Happy hunting
