8.3.1 Customising your CV

As discussed earlier, customising your CV based on the job description is basically matching your CV to what the Job requires.

If you remember from Module 3, recruiters and employers rely on specific systems similar to ATS (section 3.1)Link opens in a new window, to filter and select online job applications before they review the application. This initial selection depends on the layout of your CV and Cover letter and the Keywords you used in your CV and Cover letter.

Therefore, in order to pass the initial selection process you need to use the same keywords (as detailed in section 3.1 in Module 3Link opens in a new window) and key phrases used in the job description in your CV and Cover letter.

The steps of matching your CV to the job description, to include the specific job description keywords (also known as customising your CV):

1- Read: Read the full job description more than once to make sure you understand what exactly is required.

2- Identify: Identify what words or phrases in the job description are applicable to you and your experience.

Write them down or highlight them, you can choose whatever method works best for you as long as you can remember them.

3- Categorise: Categorise the keywords or phrases you identified from the job description into three categories: experience, skills and education.

4- Customise: Customise your CV, by updating your CV to use the exact phrasing or wording, used in the job description to describe your skills, experience and education.

Generally, but not always the case, keywords and key phrases found in specific sections of the job description can apply to specific sections of your CV as shown below.

Customising the CV from the job description

Some examples of what customising your CV looks like and what section should be customised are shown below.

Example of what each section of the CV might look like when customised