Skip to the page

Tailor your resume to a job description

Without inventing anything

The method by hand A worked example Prices Questions

Summary

Upload your resume and paste the posting. You get a version written for that role, every change beside the sentence from your original that supports it, the posting's requirements marked supported, needs your answer, or not shown, and a Word or PDF file that parses cleanly.

Prefer to do it by hand? The method is below, with a worked example. Either way, the rule is the same: reorder and reword what is true, add nothing you cannot source.

Tailor one now

Not taking applications yet.

The free application opens as soon as the service is switched on. Until then, open a sample of the whole review: the changes with their sources, the labels and the final document.

See a sample applicationNo card, nothing to sign up for yet.

What tailoring is, and what it is not

A tailored resume is your resume rewritten for one reader: the person screening applications for one posting. That person has the posting open in another tab and is checking, line by line, whether you have done the things it asks for. Tailoring is the work of making that check easy. The facts you lead with, the words you use for them, and the lines you cut all change from posting to posting. The facts themselves do not.

Three things count as tailoring. Reordering, so the bullet that proves the posting's first requirement is the first bullet they read. Rewording, so a bullet that says “responsible for new business” becomes the quota figure that was two bullets down, in the terms the posting uses. Cutting, so the newsletter you organised in 2021 stops competing for attention with the work that matters here.

Three things do not count, and they are where most AI tools go wrong. Adding a skill the posting names that you have not used. Adding a result you cannot show. Promoting your role, so “supported the migration” becomes “led the migration”. Each of these gets a resume past a skim and then costs the candidate the interview, because the first technical question lands on the line that was invented.

How to tailor a resume by hand, in about 25 minutes

This is the method the tool automates. If you only apply to a job or two a month, it is enough on its own. Start from a complete master resume that lists everything you have done, with numbers wherever you have them.

Pull the requirements out of the posting

Step 1

Read the posting once, then read it again with a notepad. Write down every requirement as a short phrase, in the posting's own words. Mark each one “must” or “nice” according to how the posting treats it. Most postings produce eight to fourteen phrases. Ignore the boilerplate about the company and the benefits.

Map each requirement to one sentence on your resume

Step 2

For each phrase, find the single sentence on your master resume that best proves it. Write the location next to the requirement: “Finwell, bullet 2”. Three outcomes are possible. Supported: a sentence proves it. Needs an answer: you did it but never wrote it down, so you need to write a new, true bullet. Not shown: you have not done it, and the resume will stay silent about it.

Be honest in that third column. A requirement you cannot support is not a reason to stop applying. It is a reason not to claim it.

Reorder so the strongest proof comes first

Step 3

Within each role, move the bullet that proves the posting's most important requirement to the top. Screeners rarely read past the third bullet of a role on the first pass. If your best proof is bullet five, it is invisible.

Reword in the posting's terms, keeping your numbers

Step 4

Where the posting says “quota attainment” and your bullet says “hit target”, use their phrase. Where it names a tool you used, name the tool. Keep every figure exactly as it appears on the master resume. If a rewrite makes a bullet sound bigger than the original, it has gone too far. Read the before and after side by side and ask whether a colleague who was there would nod.

Write the summary last, from the bullets

Step 5

A summary is a three-line index of the resume below it, not a personality statement. Put the role, the years, and the two or three figures that match the posting's top requirements. Every figure in the summary should also appear in a bullet. “Results-driven professional passionate about growth” tells the screener nothing they can check.

Cut what does not speak to this posting

Step 6

Remove bullets that prove nothing on the requirements list, unless they fill a gap in the timeline. You are not deleting them from your career; they stay on the master resume. Aim for one page for under ten years of experience, two pages above that.

Check for overstatement, then check the format

Step 7

Read the tailored copy once more looking only for verbs that claim ownership: led, owned, built, architected, managed. For each one, confirm the master resume says the same thing. Then save it as a Word file or a text-based PDF in a single column with real headings, and paste the text into a plain text editor to see what a parser sees. If the dates, titles and companies survive that paste in order, the format is fine.

A worked example

One invented account executive against one invented posting, in the format the tool produces. The names are made up; the labels, sources and layout are the real product's. More roles are in the examples hub.

Tailored to Senior Account Executive, Mid-Market, Globex. Sample listing: on the employer's careers page, checked Nov 3, 2026. Globex is invented.

Maya Chen

Austin, TX maya.chen@example.com linkedin.com/in/mayachen

Summary

Original: Experienced sales professional with a passion for building relationships.Rewritten: Mid-market SaaS account executive, full-cycle. 117% of a $1.2M quota in FY2025 at Finwell, 37 closed deals averaging $38k, 45-day sales cycle.
EachroleThe posting opens with quota and deal size, so the summary now does. Every figure is already in your bullets.
Source: Finwell, bullets 2 and 5; skills line

Experience

Finwell

2022 to present

Account Executive, Mid-Market

  • Original: Closed $1.4M new ARR in FY2025 against a $1.2M quota (117%).Rewritten: Closed $1.4M in new ARR in FY2025, 117% of a $1.2M quota.
    EachroleThe result now leads the role, moved up from the second line. Every figure is in this one source bullet.
    Source: Finwell, bullet 2: “Closed $1.4M new ARR in FY2025 against a $1.2M quota (117%).”
  • Responsible for new business in the mid-market segment.
  • Supported the team's outbound prospecting and ran discovery calls.Rejected rewrite: Led outbound prospecting for the mid-market team.
    Rewrite rejectedYour resume says you supported the team. The suggestion said you led it, so it was rejected and your line stays.
  • Worked deals in Salesforce with SDR hand-offs; calls reviewed in Gong.
  • Average deal size $38k across 37 closed deals, sales cycle 45 days.

Northbank

2020 to 2022

Sales Development Representative

  • Booked 212 qualified meetings for three account executives in 2021.

Skills

Original: Outreach, Gong, negotiation, Salesforce, discovery, full-cycle SaaS salesReordered: Salesforce, Gong, full-cycle SaaS sales, discovery, negotiation, Outreach
EachroleSame skills, reordered so the posting's terms come first. Nothing added.

Fictional resume and posting. Blue underlined text is written from lines already on this page; red struck text is what it replaced or what was rejected. Review marks stay here; the downloaded file is clean.

The posting's requirements

Quota attainment

Supported

Finwell, bullet 2

Full-cycle mid-market SaaS sales

Supported

Skills

Deal sizes $25k to $75k

Needs your answer

Average deal size $38k is shown (Finwell, bullet 5); the full range is not

Outbound prospecting

Supported

Finwell, bullet 3

Salesforce, Gong

Supported

Finwell, bullet 4

MEDDPICC

Needs your answer

Asked below; left out unless you answer

Enterprise procurement

Not shown

Not in the resume; left out

No score. Whether to apply is your call; this is the evidence.

One open questionThe posting asks for MEDDPICC. Your resume mentions discovery calls but no qualification method. Describe any qualification method you used, or leave this out.Your answer is labelled “added by you”, never shown as something your resume said.

What the tool does that you would otherwise do by hand

It runs the seven steps above and shows its work. The posting's requirements come out as a list, each marked supported, needs your answer, or not shown, with the sentence that supports it where there is one. Each change to a bullet or the summary is shown as a before and after beside the source sentence and its location, with one line on why it helps. You accept each change, edit it, or keep your original.

Two things are built in that are easy to skip by hand. First, a check pass reads every rewritten line against your original and rejects the ones that claim more than the original supports; the rejected rewrite is shown to you with the reason, and your wording is kept. Second, where the posting asks for something your resume only half supports, the tool asks you a question in plain words, such as “Which qualification method did you use, if any? Describe what you did, or leave this out.” Your answer goes in labelled “added by you”. Leave it blank and the resume says nothing about it.

There is a dial on the form for how much rewording you want: keep my wording, standard, or rewrite more. The no-unsupported-claims rule holds at every setting; the dial changes how much the sentences are reshaped, never what they claim.

After the resume, the same approved facts feed a cover letter and answers to the posting's own application questions. The posting itself is looked up on the employer's own careers page and dated, so you know it was listed when you applied.

Keywords, parsers and the ATS question

Using the posting's terms matters, but not for the reason most tools sell. An applicant tracking system is a database with a search box. The recruiter searches it for the terms in the posting, so a resume that proves a requirement in different words can be missed by a search even though a human would count it. Matching terms helps you turn up in that search. It does not get you past a robot that rejects on formatting, because recruiters on record say that robot mostly does not exist; knockout questions on the application form do the rejecting.

Formatting still matters for parsing. Single column, standard section headings, no tables or text boxes holding the facts, a Word file or a text-based PDF. The tool exports that way and shows you the plain-text view a parser reads. More on what is actually true about applicant tracking systems is on the ATS page, with the survey and its sample size.

What tailoring tools cost

Monthly prices in US dollars, read on Nov 7, 2026 from each company's own pricing page unless noted. Prices change; check the page before you buy. Some of these pages show rupee prices from India, which are not the figures below.

Eachrole Search

$19

30 applications a month, source sentence per change, requirements view. First application free, once.

Eachrole Pro

$29

50 applications a month, interview prep, LinkedIn rewrite, unlimited answers.

TailoredCV

$15

Or $150 a year. No free plan. Pause option.

Kickresume

$24

Or $96 a year. Free plan with four templates.

Jobowl

$24.99

Three free tailorings. Refund if you get no more interviews.

Rezi

$29

Or $149 lifetime. Free plan: one resume, three PDF downloads, no Word file.

Teal

$29

Also $13 a week or $79 a quarter. No annual plan.

Huntr

$40

Secondary source, Sept 2026; check their page.

Jobscan

$49.95

Premium plan. Keyword match score is the core product.

What the list cannot show: whether a tool adds claims. Several add a skill or a result when you click yes to a keyword, or run a “creative” mode that fills gaps. Whatever you use, read the before and after of every line before you send it.

Questions people ask

What does tailoring a resume actually mean?

Reordering, rewording and trimming the facts already on your resume so the ones this posting cares about come first and use the posting's own terms. It does not mean adding skills or results you do not have. A tailored resume is the same person, described for one reader.

Is it lying to tailor my resume?

Not if every line stays true and traceable to something you did. The line is crossed when a tool, or you, adds a tool you never used, a result you cannot show, or a level of ownership you did not have. That is why every change here is shown beside the sentence from your original that supports it, and anything without a source is kept out unless you supply the fact.

How long should tailoring take?

By hand, about 25 minutes per application once you have a clean master resume. With the tool, a few minutes: most of that is you reading the changes and answering the one or two questions it asks instead of guessing.

Do I need an ATS score?

No. A score from a third-party tool is a keyword-overlap estimate, not the employer's system. Recruiters surveyed in late 2025 mostly said their systems do not reject resumes automatically for formatting or content; knockout questions on the application form do that. Use the requirements view instead: which requirements your resume supports, which need your answer, and which it does not show.

Should I write a new resume for every job?

Keep one complete master resume with everything you have done, then make a tailored copy per posting. Never edit the master down. The tool keeps your approved facts between applications so each new one starts from what you have already confirmed.

What is the free version?

One complete application, once, with the Word and PDF downloads, no card. After that, Search is $19 a month for 30 applications and Pro is $29 for 50. Cancel or pause online, 48-hour money back on the first paid month.

The rule in one line

Reorder and reword what is true. Add nothing you cannot point to on the original. Show the source for every change.

See a sample applicationPricing