Applications that fit the job
Adapt your CV to each ad in about twenty minutes, use the employer's words honestly, and write a short cover letter that connects their needs to your proof.
WORK ONCE
The master CV
Keep one long private document with every job, project and achievement bullet you could ever use, even if it runs to four pages. For each application you copy it, pick the bullets that match the ad, reorder them and trim to one page. The hard writing is done once.
Ehsan's master CV has 30 bullets. For a sales role he picks the eight about customers and targets; for an operations role, the eight about schedules and suppliers.
Tailor a CV in about 20 minutes
- Underline the top needs
Read the ad and mark the three to five things they want most. Clues: what's listed first, what's repeated, what's in the job title.
- Match proof to each need
For every need, find a bullet in your master CV that proves it. A need with no proof is a gap to mention honestly, or a sign this ad isn't for you.
- Reorder and trim
Move the matching bullets to the top of each job. Cut what doesn't help this application.
- Rewrite the summary
Change the two lines at the top so they name this role and the two proofs that fit it best.
Check yourself
An ad for 'Sales coordinator' lists, in order: CRM software, weekly sales reports, and experience with business clients. Which of Tina's bullets should move to the top of her current job?
- Organised the office's New Year party for 40 people, including the budget, venue and catering
- Kept the team's customer records in the CRM and sent weekly sales reports
- Answered phones and greeted visitors at reception every morning
- Completed an online course in graphic design last summer
Show the answer
Kept the team's customer records in the CRM and sent weekly sales reports
Yes. That bullet proves the first two needs in the ad at once. The party and reception duties are true, but they don't answer the question the reader is asking.
Keywords
The exact words an ad uses for skills, tools and tasks. Recruiters and screening software often search for them. If you have done the thing, describe it in their words: if the ad says 'customer retention' and you wrote 'keeping clients happy', switch to theirs.
The ad says 'bank reconciliation'. Arman's bullet says 'checked the bank statements against the books every month'. He rewrites it: 'Did monthly bank reconciliation…' Same work, now easy to find.
Check yourself
Farid pastes the ad's whole requirement list into his skills section, including two tools he has never used, so that the screening software ranks him higher. This is a smart way to tailor.
Show the answer
False
False. Tailoring means choosing and rewording what's true. Listing tools he's never used may get him past a filter, but an interviewer will ask about them, and being caught out damages trust in everything else on his CV. Better: list what he has, and say he's learning the rest if that's true.
COVER LETTER
Three short paragraphs
A cover letter connects their needs to your proof, in well under a page. One: the role, and a specific reason you want this one at this organisation. Two: their two or three top needs, each with a piece of your evidence. Three: a short, confident close offering to talk.
'Your ad puts weekly reporting first. At my current job I send the manager a sales report every Monday, built from our CRM data…' That sentence does more than any line about being 'passionate'.
Two opening lines
Generic
'I am writing to apply for the position advertised on your website. I am a hard-working and passionate professional.' This could be sent to any company, and it tells them nothing.
Tailored
'I'm applying for the Sales Coordinator role because your team sells to the same clinics I've supported for two years.' Specific, true, and about them.
Check yourself
Match each part of the letter to what belongs in it
Show the answer
- Opening paragraph → The role and why this organisation
- Middle paragraph → Their top needs, each with your proof
- Closing paragraph → A short offer to talk
- Before sending → Check the company name and role are right
Check yourself
Change it for each application, or keep it the same?
- The two-line summary at the top
- Your phone number and email
- The order of bullets under each job
- The dates you worked at each place
- The first line of the cover letter
- Your degree and university
Show the answer
Tailor each time: The two-line summary at the top, The order of bullets under each job, The first line of the cover letter
Keep the same: Your phone number and email, The dates you worked at each place, Your degree and university
Keep a simple log
- For each application, note the date, organisation, role and CV version you sent.
- Add a follow-up date, about a week or two later. Lesson 9 covers what to send.
- After 10 to 15 applications, look at which versions got replies. That's your feedback.
- Fewer, better applications are easier to track, and easier to learn from.
Lesson recap
- Keep a long master CV; for each ad, pick, reorder and trim to one page.
- Find the ad's top needs and put matching proof at the top.
- Use the ad's words for what you've really done; never claim what you can't show.
- A cover letter is three short paragraphs linking their needs to your proof.