Lesson 4 of 4 · 13 min
Tailoring one CV to a specific advert
A tailored CV is not a different career, it is the same career told in the advert's vocabulary. Screeners search for the advert's phrases; humans recognise their own wording.
- Pull the six to ten repeated terms out of the advert — systems, qualifications, sector language.
- Make sure every term you genuinely have appears somewhere: profile, experience bullets or skills.
- Retitle the profile to the exact role name used in the advert.
- Move the most relevant experience block to the top of that section, even if it is not the most recent, and say why in one line.
The honest line
Never add a skill you cannot defend in an interview. A false claim may clear the screen and then fail the panel, which is worse than not applying. If you lack a listed requirement, address it in the cover letter with the nearest real experience.
Try thisKeep one master CV with everything in it, and save a tailored copy per application named with the employer and date, so you can reopen it when the interview call comes.
Takeaway
Tailoring is not rewriting. It is mirroring the advert's own language in the four places a reader looks first.