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Learn how to customize your CV to match each job posting and significantly increase your chances of getting invited to an interview.
Get Started FreeA generic CV rarely works. Employers expect you to have read the job posting and tailored your CV accordingly. It demonstrates interest and professional competence.
ATS systems (Applicant Tracking Systems) scan your CV for specific keywords from the job posting. If your keywords don't match, your application may be filtered out before a human even sees it.
By tailoring your CV, you can highlight the experiences and skills most relevant to that specific role. This makes your application much stronger.
Research shows that candidates who tailor their CV have up to 40% higher chance of being called for an interview compared to those sending the same CV to all jobs.
Read the job posting multiple times. Note all requirements, preferences, responsibilities, and skill descriptions. Highlight the most important points.
Extract the 5-10 most important keywords and competencies from the posting. These are the words the employer prioritizes highly.
Write or edit your summary so it directly addresses the role's requirements. Use the same language and terminology as in the posting.
Sort your previous job duties and achievements to match the advertised requirements. Place the most relevant ones first.
Update your skills list to reflect the technical and soft skills mentioned in the posting.
Keywords are specific words and phrases that employers and ATS systems look for. They're usually found in the "Requirements," "Responsibilities," and "Preferences" sections.
Examples of keywords can be: "project management", "agile", "Python", "budget", "customer relations", "team leadership".
A good strategy is to copy relevant phrases from the posting and include them naturally in your CV. Avoid forcing in words that don't match your experience.
Look at the job posting's specific tool requirements, certifications, languages, and years of experience. These are high-priority matching criteria.
If you have experience in 70% of the requirements, it's often worth applying. Focus on showing how your skills match the most important 50% of the job requirements.
Here's a practical example of how you tailor your CV for a specific role as "IT Project Manager".
BEFORE: "Responsible for various projects at my previous workplace. Worked with teams and solved problems when they arose. Had good skills in Excel and presentations."
AFTER: "Led 8+ agile projects from initiation to delivery within budget and timeline. Managed cross-functional teams of 5-12 members. Implemented JIRA for project tracking, improving delivery times by 25%. Certified Scrum Master (CSM) with expertise in risk management and stakeholder communication."
CVLab offers smart customization tools to help you identify which keywords you're missing and how to improve your CV for a specific role.
Use our "CV Optimizer" to compare your CV directly against the job posting's requirements. The system flags which skills and keywords match and which don't.
The tool also suggests language improvements and rewording of your achievements to better resonate with employers.
You can save multiple versions of your CV and quickly select the most relevant version for each application.
Ideally yes, but it doesn't need to be drastic changes. A good strategy is to have a main CV and then customize the summary, experience section, and skills list for each role. With modern CV software, this can be done in 10-15 minutes per application.
Simple customization takes 10-15 minutes if you already have a well-structured CV. With CVLab, you can do this even faster. A more thorough customization with rewriting of achievements can take 20-30 minutes.
In order of priority: (1) The summary - this is what the employer reads first, (2) The skills list - it must match the job posting's requirements, (3) Work experience - describe your achievements with focus on what's relevant for the role.
CVLab offers smart matching between your CV and job posting, automatic keyword extraction, and suggestions for language improvements. You can also use our templates that are already optimized for ATS systems.