What is a targeted resume?
Simply put, a target resume is a resume that is tailor-made for a particular job. It is an industry-relevant resume that uses relevant keywords that are strategically picked from the job description of a particular job.
If you are making a generic resume, it is high time to stop and optimize your job hunt using a targeted resume.
Here is a list of the top 5 tips for writing a targeted resume:
- A targeted resume should match the job description of your target job
- A target resume should be keyword-optimized
- A targeted resume should be relevant to the applicant's niche industry
- A targeted resume format should have impeccable resume sections
- A targeted resume should pass the ATS resume scanner test
We have covered the importance of curating a job-optimized resume before.
Today, we will dig deeper and show you how you can make a target resume that is wholesome and effective over-all.
We will also show how you can curate an effective target resume sample with our Online Resume Builder. Our resume writing tool is a powerful AI-powered platform that seeks to help you curate a perfectly-optimized tailored resume.
Here's a list of the topics we will cover in this blog:
A targeted resume should match the job description of your target job
A target employee resume is a job-optimized resume. This means that a target resume is a resume that is relevant to the jobs you are targeting.
If you are looking for a given job at a given company, your resume should be the embodiment of the ideal candidate as depicted by the job posting.
When you target a job, your resume should match the job description of your target job. This type of resume is called a job description resume.
A targeted resume is inevitably a job description resume and vice versa.
Does this seem too complicated?
If it does, we can take the burden off your hands.
Our resume builder comes with a tons of targeted resume template which is designed to help you compose a job description resume using intuitive AI suggestions.
In layman terms, what this means is that our online tool will scrutinize your resume and match it with the job description of the jobs you are targeting.
All you have to do is switch on the JD Match button to the right.
When you do this, a dashboard will appear to the left.
Cut-copy-paste the job description of your target job in the empty space and click the 'analyze' button.
After you do this, sit back and see the magic unfold.
Does this seem too complicated?
Check this video tutorial to see the JD-functionality of our resume building tool.
A targeted resume should be keyword-optimized
Curating a keyword-optimized resume is the shortest route to curating a targeted resume.
And to curate a keyword-optimized resume, your resume needs to incorporate two types of keywords:
- Include industry-relevant keywords
- Include keywords used in the JD of your target job
We will now cover them individually.
Include industry-relevant keywords
Industry-relevant keywords are industry-specific keywords that are trending in your niche. These keywords are mainly based on industry-specific skillsets.
Here is a list of the top 10 trending keywords for a sales profile:
| Sales Strategizing | Prospecting / Cold Calling |
| Cross-Selling / Up-Selling | Deal Negotiation and Closing |
| Sales Cycle Management | Product Development |
| Sales Forecasting / Budgeting | Customer Retention |
| Product Lifecycle Management | Business Development |
Using these industry-relevant keywords in your resume will help you showcase industry-relevance.
These are the most in-demand sales skills. Presenting them in your resume also helps you show that you are sales-savvy and adept with the most relevant skills of your niche/industry.
When you compose your resume, adding such keywords will help you write a targeted resume, thus elevating your shortlist chances.
Let us now discuss job description-based keywords.
Include keywords used in the JD of your target job
Every job description of your target job will have keywords.
The JD of a given job will typically have one, two, or a combination of all of these keywords in the job description:
- Skill criteria
- Basic education criteria
- Work experience criteria
Most job advertisements will have a skill criteria for a given job position. They will outline a list of skills they need in the ideal job candidate.
Some job advertisements will have an education criteria. While some jobs will be open too all graduates, some might come with specialization criteria.
Then there are those job advertisements that have an attached work experience critria. While some are exclusively guarded for professionals with x number of work experience, some would be entry-level jobs open to all freshers.
Does this seem too complicated?
Get your hands on our resume builder.
You can curate a matching resume for job descriptions with our game-changing resume building tool. Make the most of our job-matching functionality now!
A targeted resume should be relevant to the applicant's niche industry
Most professionals don't get the job that they are eye-balling because their resume is not relevant. Mistake made: their resume does not align with their target industry or job niche.
If you have been replicating these mistakes yourself, stop right away.
Writing irrelevant resumes that are not related to your target job can spell disaster and banish you into the black hole of job rejection.
Put your focus on writing a resume that is relevant to your target industry.
If you are a Sales Strategist and have an internship experience in copywriting, do not mention it unless it helps you advance your job application.
In other words, mention it only if you are transitioning into a copywriting role or if your target job is part sales and part marketing.
If it does not make sense, just don't mention it.
Presenting irrelevant details in your resume does more harm than good. Avoid it at all costs.
A targeted resume should have impeccable resume sections
You cannot write a targeted resume if your resume is a pandora box of disaster.
Make sure that your resume is organized under relevant resume sections. Further, ensure that all the sections are perfected.
Here is a list of the top 7 must-have resume sections for your targeted resume:
- Header
- Personal Information
- Profile Title
- Summary
- Key Skills
- Professional Experience
- Education
As long as your targeted resume has all these sections, you'll be well.
Further, three key sections need your attention:
- Summary
- Key Skills
- Professional Experience
Let's discuss how you can perfect these sections:
Write an effective Professional Summary
The summary section of your targeted resume needs to be professionally composed.
Let's give a breakdown of what it is and why it is important.
A summary is not your life story. Don't turn it into one.
It gives an overview of your career trajectory. As such, it needs to be short and compact. Make it too long and it might not get read. Make it too short and it might fail to create an impact.
So here are a few tips to help you make an effective summary for a targeted resume:
- Compose it at the end. Doing this will save you both time and effort. It will also help you curate a resume summary that needs minimal revision.
- Compile your career highlights and present them effectively in the resume summary of your targeted resume.
- Using achievement figures to illustrate past achievements can help you attract the right attention to your professional resume summary.
- Keep the resume summary confined to a 3-5 lines paragraph.
- Begin your resume in this format: "X+ years experienced Sales Associate....."
Outline your skills under a distinct 'Key Skills' Section
Writing a targeted resume demands that your skills are on-point.
Recruiters should not have to play hide and seek with your skills.
They shouldn't have to look for them.
Your skills should be the first thing a recruiter or hiring manager comes across when they evaluate your resume.
Hiration Pro Tip: Club your skills under a distinct 'key skills' section in your targeted resume. Separate your technical skills from your core skills by grouping them under a 'technical skills' sub-section within this section.
Your targeted resume will not be a targeted resume if your skills are not visible in the first go.
So make sure that you outline your skills comprehensively.
Perfect the Professional Experience Section
Just like a constitution is the heart and soul of a democracy, the professional experience section is the heart and soul of your targeted resume.
You can't make an effective targeted resume if this section is not effective and impactful.
This section is important because it consists of some very important career-centric details about you such as:
- The organizations you have worked.
- The duration of your career in each organization.
- the job designations you have held.
- The sophistication of your work responsibilities.
As such, this section needs to be impactful.
It should burst with flavors.
It should make the recruiters want to hire you.
So here are the top tips to curating an effective professional experience section for your targeted resume:
- Don't use paragraphs to give an account of your work responsibilities. They are bulky and hard to read & comprehend. Instead, use one-liner points to communicate the nuances of your roles & responsibilities.
- Begin every one-liner point with a power verb. Instead of using words like 'did' and 'built', replace them with action verbs like 'managed' and 'designed'.
- Establish a cause-effect relationship in each point. Each point should have a relation between your actions i.e. job responsibilities and the outcome of your actions. This should be done in the form of achievement figures or numbers.
- Arrange similar points within unique headings and highlight the relevant words & career highlights within each point by marking them in bold.
- Example: 'Executed monthly marketing campaigns leading to a 50% increase in brand awareness'
Would you like to use a tool with pre-arranged resume sections?
One that comes with a free ATS resume scan?
One that gives a resume score of your resume to see if its industry-relevant and ATS-compliant?
If the answer is, use our resume builder to make the best resume for job applications now!
A targeted resume should pass the ATS resume scanner test
DID YOU KNOW that 98% of Fortune 500 companies use the ATS software to thin the competition for their job vacancies?
This means that to get into the top companies, you need to curate a targeted resume that is ATS-compliant.
How do you curate a resume that is ATS-compliant?
Let's backtrack a little here and first assess what an ATS is.
An ATS is short for Applicant Tracking System. It is a type of software used by hiring organizations to collect, sort, scan, and rank the job applications they receive for a given job position.
You can think of it as a job scanner that is designed to weed out the least desirable candidates. It uses a resume keyword scanner to see if your resume contains relevant keywords that were outlined in the job description.
While this reduces the competition, it does not do much to select the fittest candidates for the job role.
This is where a human recruiter comes in.
Your job is to ensure that your resume reaches the human recruiter.
It can only achieve this if your resume is correctly parsed by the ATS scanner. This means that your resume should be ATS-compatible.
The ATS uses various metrics to assess the ATS-compatibility of a given resume.
Here's a list of what you should do to write an ATS-compatible resume:
- Use keywords used in the job description wherever applicable
- Use a well-formatted & well-spaced design template
- Use a compatible file type for your resume
Use keywords used in the job description wherever applicable
What are good keywords for a resume?
The answer lies in the job description. Scrutinize the job description of your target profile and incorporate them into your resume wherever applicable.
All you have to do is:
- Compare resume to job description.
- Do a resume keyword search by thoroughly scrutinizing the resume.
- Look for resume keywords examples.
- For instance, a specific job title would be an example of a keyword in a job description.
- Similarly, skill criteria, education, and work experience criteria are also other examples of relevant ats keywords that you can use.
- After you identify them, use only those keywords that you can justify using. In other words, you should meet the keyword criteria.
Doing this will help you pass the ATS test as the recruiting bot explicitly matches your resume against the keywords used in the job description.
[Click here to learn all about curating a keyword-optimized tailored resume. ]
Let's say that you have successfully used these ATS keywords.
After you use these keywords, how do you know that you've done enough?
How do you know what are good keywords for a resume?
The answer is simple.
Use our Online Resume Builder.
It comes with a JD Match Functionality Feature that gives you a resume score based on your matching skills. The tool highlights points that do not match.
Thus, it gives you an insight into what your resume lacks in terms of ATS keywords and gives you a perfect opportunity to correct it.
Use a well-formated & well-spaced design template
There is no dearth of free resume templates online. Moreover, you are spoilt for choices. However, this is not necessarily a good thing as it leaves you exposed to falling into the resume death trap.
For example, most professionals today are using fancy templates with charts and graphics. This is what they're doing wrong.
If you have been using fancy charts and graphic-heavy templates, stop right away.
We advise you to use a simple text-only resume template. The template should also have proper formatting and spacing for good readability.
Long story short:
An ATS scanner is more likely to parse a text-only and minimal design resume template as it is reader-friendly. This operates on the simple principle that an ATS cannot parse your resume if it the resume is not readable.
This is where our Online Resume Builder outshines all others.
The in-built resume templates that come with our resume building tool are well-formatted and perfectly-aligned. They have clear-cut section-wise division and space adjusting options that you can easily adjust to your liking.
You can think of it as the ultimate ATS resume checker as your resume will be scrutinized and assigned a resume score based on the following parameters:
- Content Relevance
- Design Compatibility
- Conversion Scope
- ATS Compliance
- Recruiter Friendliness
- Global Compatibility
- Performance Assessment
- Compliance with industry norms
- Resume Formatting
Use a compatible file type for your resume: Avoid PDF resume formats
Most professionals tend to use PDF formats for their resume.
We all go with the general assumption that a PDF file type will retain the authenticity of your resume. We favor a PDF resume because they retain the design, content, and format of your resume.
While this is all true, it might not be the most ATS-compatible file type for your resume, especially if the hiring organization is not asking for a PDF resume.
So here's something you should know:
Unless, the hiring organization explicitly demands a PDF resume, stick to a word document resume in .doc or .docx format. MS Word resumes and plain-text files are incredibly ATS-friendly. While they limit your formatting options, they are a major hit with the ATS.
Avoid using a PDF resume unless you are explicitly advised to use one.
Doing this will keep you in the good books of the resume ATS checker.
To get a free ATS resume scan, use our Online Resume Builder.
It also comes with an AI-powered LIVE resume score to keep you abreast of where you stand in your resume optimization efforts.
Features like next text prediction also draw on pre-existing industry-based data to give you intuitive text suggestions.
It works as a text predictor on your phone. All you have to do is type a word or two and wait for our AI resume builder to suggest the next few words for you.
How to make a Targeted Resume using Hiration's Online Resume Builder
We have spent countless months and years to perfect our online resume builder for targeted resume making. Several iterations later, we have succeeded at making a resume builder we can be proud of.
Today, it enjoys a global user base running in a hundred thousand.
Here is a list of the features you will get our resume building tool:
- 25+ resume designs
- LIVE resume score
- JD-resume matcher
- Intuitive text suggestion
- Auto bold feature
- Space adjusting feature
- Full rich-text editor
- Unlimited PDF downloads
- 100+ pre-filled resume templates
- 1-click design change
- A sharable link
- LIVE resume editor
- Option to save unlimited resumes
We will now discuss those features that will help you make an ATS-compliant targeted resume:
25+ Design Templates
With over 25 well-curated, single-column, and double-column design templates, you can use a resume template that is stylish and professional.
Why sacrifice one when you can have the best of both worlds?
Moreover, our design templates are all custom-made for ATS-compatibility.
All templates are perfectly-formatted with proper spacing, thus ranking high on the readability factor.
Here's what the template selection page on our resume builder looks like:
All you have to do is:
- Sign up on our Online Resume Builder.
- Click on new resume.
- Choose the template: you will have an option to choose both single and double-column templates.
- You can change this template any time. All you have to do is click on change design.
100+ Pre-filled Resume Templates
The goodness of our Resume Builder does not end at resume templates. It simply begins.
We have 100+ pre-filled resume templates on our tool. Covering different job titles in various niches.
We have organized our content templates into industry-specific groupings in our resume builder. They are:
- Sales
- Operations
- Business Development
- Human Resources
- Project Management
- Administration
- Hospitality & Real Estate
- Customer Service & Retail
And many more...
All you have to do is choose your profile:
After you choose your profile, the tool will redirect to the profile you chose.
Let's say you click on Business Development, the tool will automatically direct you to this grouping:
Similarly, if you click on Technology, you will be directed to this grouping on our resume building tool:
Moreover, if you're still an undergraduate, you can choose from our selection of undergraduate templates in the following niches:
You can also directly type your target profile name in the search box.
Once you do that, the tool will show you a drop-down selection of resumes that are relevant to your search term.
Here's what it will look like:
You will observe that:
- We typed 'data' in the search box.
- The tool showed an option of various data-based resumes such as Data Scientist, Data Analyst, and Data Entry Operator, etc.
- All you have to do is select the profile that best resonates with your target job title and customize your resume.
LIVE Resume Score Predictor
What makes our resume building tool truly special is the LIVE resume score predictor.
You can't make a targeted resume if it is not perfect. Our tool analyzes your resume based on the following criteria:
- Content Relevance
- Design Compatibility
- Conversion Scope
- ATS Compliance
- Recruiter Friendliness
- Global Compatibility
- Performance Assessment
- Compliance with industry norms
- Resume Formatting (font, margins, the order of sections, etc.)
After scrutinizing your resume, the tool will give you an overall resume score.
Here's what it looks like:
Let's evaluate this in stages.
Resume Level Analysis
Firstly, the tool does an overall analysis of your resume. In this part, it evaluates:
- Resume length analysis
- Section-wise analysis
Based on this analysis, it gives you an overall resume score. Here you get a rating based on 25.
The resume we evaluated got 16/25. The target is to get a 20+ resume score.
How do you achieve this?
You can achieve this by first implementing the suggestions.
In this case, the resume needs to be trimmed down to 1 page or extended to 2 pages.
Skill Analysis
The tool goes on to analyze your resume based on the way you curated it.
Here, there are three categories of skill analysis such as:
- Suggestion for skills
- Key skills missing
- Essential skills found
Firstly, our AI tool analyzes the skill section and gives you a suggestion for skills. When you click on it, you will get a list of skills that the AI deems appropriate for your functional industry.
This is what the skill suggestion will look like on our tool:
Secondly, our AI tool also gives you an analysis of the skills that are missing in your resume. Here's what it looks like on our resume building tool:
Thirdly, our AI tool also goes on to applaud you on the skills that you correctly illustrated in the tool.
JD-Resume Matcher
The JD-Resume Matcher analyzes the compatibility of your existing resume with the job description and assigns you an overall score.
Here's a video tutorial on how to use our JD-Resume Matcher functionality feature to write a job-optimized & highly targeted resume.
AI Assistant Tool
One of the key highlights of Hiration's Online Resume Builder is its AI Assistant Tool.
AI gives you an intuitive text prediction based on an overall analysis of your resume. It uses industry-specific data from existing resume examples to give you an accurate prediction of what your next text or phrase should be.
Simply put, it works just like text prediction on your phone.
Secondly, it also auto-bolds those texts and phrases that AI thinks should be highlighted.
This is a simple resume trick that helps you draw attention to the key highlights of your resume.
Here's a video tutorial showcasing Hiration's AI Assistant Feature.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key highlights of our Targeted Resume 2022 Blog:
- Your targeted resume should resonate with the job description of your target jobs. In other words, you need to write a unique resume for each job application. All your resumes should be job resumes.
- To make a targeted resume, you need to keyword optimize it. Doing this ensures that your resume has a higher chance of getting parsed by the ATS.
- Your targeted resume should be relevant to your niche industry. Do not mention irrelevant past internships if it's not aligned to your current niche.
- You can make an impeccable targeted resume only when you perfect each section. Thus, organize information into relevant sections. Pay special attention to the summary, professional experience, and key skills section.
- A targeted resume needs to pass the ATS resume scanner test. In other words, you need an ATS-optimized resume to write a targeted resume.
