Whether you’re looking for positions through pharmaceutical job placement agencies or managing your search on your own, customizing your resume to the role is essential for a couple of reasons. One, a generic resume may not make it past an applicant tracking system (ATS), meaning your resume will never be seen by a person. Two, it helps you stand out from the competition, especially those who didn’t comprehensively tailor their application to the role.

Customizing your resume for the job isn’t challenging either. It only requires a few quick steps to manage and can work wonders for your job search success. If you are trying to figure out how to target your resume to a job, here’s what you need to do.

Review the Job Description

When you want to customize your resume to a position, your first step is to review the job description. You’ll find plenty of helpful information within it, including keywords you need to target and priorities you need to address.

Typically, an ATS is set up to seek out specific words and phrases that are also present in the job description. Using the exact terminology that you find in the job ad increases your odds of looking like a match.

Similarly, the hiring manager usually bases the must-have skills and experience list on their priorities. By addressing those points, you’ll look like a stronger fit. That increases your odds of getting called in for an interview.

As you review the job description, keep track of any keywords and must-haves. That way, you can integrate that information into your resume.

Update Your Skills Section

Once you’ve reviewed the keywords, determine which ones align with the skills you currently possess. Then, rework your skills section to include those capabilities, using the exact words and phrases you found in the job ad.

In some cases, you can simply add skills to your existing list or rephrase ones that you’re featuring right now. However, if your list is getting too long, you may need to cut some bullet points to make room for new ones.

If you need to make cuts, remove skills that weren’t featured anywhere in the job description, beginning with those that aren’t crucial to that particular role. That way, the most critical ones can be front and center.

Refresh Your Work History

After you’ve updated your skills section, you want to refresh your work history. Look for opportunities to work the keywords in one more. Additionally, reorder your bullet points based on the hiring manager’s priorities.

Usually, any points near the top of the must-have list in the job ad are the most critical in the hiring manager’s eyes. As a result, you’ll want to address those quickly in your work history. Make sure that bullets discussing those are near the top of your work history entries, increasing the odds that they’ll get noticed.

By following the tips above, you can make sure your resume is ready to submit to pharmaceutical job placement agencies and individual companies. If you’d like to find out more about how you can stand out as a candidate, the team at Alpha Consulting wants to hear from you. Contact us today.