How to tailor your CV to a job advert, step by step
A general-purpose CV is written for nobody in particular, so it rarely stands out to anybody. Tailoring means rebuilding the top of your CV around what one employer has asked for, using evidence you already have. It doesn't mean rewriting your life story every time, and it never means inventing anything. Here's a method you can repeat for every application that matters.
The eight steps
Before you start: keep a master CV
Tailoring is much faster if you have a longer "master" CV that holds everything: every role, every achievement with its numbers, every course and system. It can run to four or five pages because nobody else will read it. Each tailored CV is a two-page selection from it.
Step 1: Save the advert
Copy the full text of the job advert, including any job description or person specification, into a document. Adverts are often taken down when they close, and you'll want it again before the interview.
Step 2: Split the advert into four lists
Read the advert twice: once for the overall picture, then once with a highlighter. Sort what you find into four lists:
- Essential requirements: skills, experience or qualifications they say they must have.
- Desirable requirements: the "nice to haves".
- Main responsibilities: what the person will actually spend their time doing.
- Their language: specific phrases, job titles, tools and terms they use, especially anything mentioned more than once.
If there's a person specification with numbered criteria, use it as your outline. Public sector, NHS, charity and education employers often shortlist directly against it.
Step 3: Map each requirement to evidence
Take each essential requirement and write down where in your experience you've met it: a role, a project, a result. Then do the same for the desirable ones. This is the most important step, and it's worth doing properly.
| Requirement in the advert | My evidence | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Lead a team of 8 to 12 advisers (essential) | Team leader for 10 advisers since 2023; covered a second team during a manager's leave | Profile and top bullet of current role |
| Improve first-contact resolution (essential) | Introduced a shared fixes log; repeat calls on billing queries fell noticeably over six months | Current role, bullet 2 |
| Coaching and quality reviews (essential) | Weekly call reviews and one-to-ones; two advisers promoted | Current role, bullet 3 |
| Zendesk or similar (desirable) | Freshdesk daily; Zendesk at a previous employer | Skills section |
| Workforce planning (desirable) | Helped build weekly rota against forecast volumes | Current role, bullet 4 |
If a requirement has no evidence at all, don't fake it. Either leave it, mention a related strength, or address it honestly in your cover letter ("I haven't used Zendesk, but I've used Freshdesk daily for three years").
Step 4: Rewrite your profile
Rewrite the three or four lines at the top so they speak to this job. Use the advert's job title (if it honestly describes you), name the top two or three essentials and give one piece of evidence. This is the part of your CV most likely to be read in full, so it should feel written for this employer.
Fictional example
"Customer service team leader managing ten advisers in a busy multi-channel contact centre. Improves first-contact resolution through coaching, weekly quality reviews and shared knowledge tools. Experienced with Freshdesk and Zendesk, and with planning rotas against forecast demand."
Step 5: Reorder your bullets
Within each role, move the bullets that match the essential requirements to the top. Recruiters often read the first two or three bullets of each role and skim the rest. If your most relevant experience is in an older role, consider adding a short "key achievements" section under your profile so it appears on page one.
Keep the roles themselves in reverse-chronological order; only the bullets move.
Step 6: Use their words, where they're true
Many employers use applicant tracking systems that let recruiters search and filter CVs by keywords, and recruiters themselves scan for familiar terms. If the advert says "stakeholder management" and your CV says "working with other departments", you're describing the same thing in a way that's easier to miss.
Where a term accurately describes what you did, use it. Where it doesn't, don't. Copying the whole advert into your CV, or listing skills you don't have, is easy to spot and usually ends at interview.
Step 7: Cut what doesn't help
With two pages to fill, every line competes for space. Shorten older roles, remove duties that every candidate would share, and drop skills that the role doesn't need. A focused two pages is more persuasive than a crowded three. If you have a long career, our guide to CVs over 50 covers how to summarise earlier roles.
Step 8: Check, name and send
- Read the top half of page one only. Would it make a recruiter want to read on?
- Check every essential requirement has evidence somewhere.
- Check the employer's name, job title and your contact details are correct.
- Name the file clearly, for example Firstname-Lastname-CV-Team-Leader.docx.
- Send it in the format the employer asks for.
How long should this take?
With a good master CV, tailoring a CV for a similar role can take under an hour; a very different role, or your first go at the method, will take longer. It's worth it for the jobs you really want. For roles that are almost identical, a smaller edit to your profile and top bullets may be enough.
Then do the same for the letter: our cover letter guide uses the same requirement map to build a one-page letter. If you're changing field, the mapping step matters even more; see our career change CV guide. And if you're coming back after time out, read how to write a CV after a career break.