How To Target a Resume to a Career Objective

An essential resume writing skill today is the ability to target a resume to a specific job ad or a career objective. The verb "target" is used in a special way in this context so let me define it. Years ago, job seekers would write a resume based upon their education and experience. It would have a standard format and functioned as an employment history record. Job seekers would take their resume, print out a 100 copies and send them out to employers. So, all the employers would receive the same resume, no matter what the job entailed. This is an example of an untargeted resume. These resumes were good enough to get interviews for their owners because employers had a small talent pool to choose from. But, in subsequent years, as technology has created a very large, documented and data-warehoused talent pool (via resume databases), the nature of how employers select resumes has changed. These changes drove changes in how resumes are written and the "targeted" resume was born.

A targeted resume is really a resume that emphasizes not simply a job seeker's skills and experience, but the relevant skills and experience for a specific job and a specific employer. So, a targeted resume is flexible and variable depending on what the employer says it needs in the job ad. So, the phrase "targeting a resume" describes the process by which a resume is closely adapted to the requirements delineated in a specific job ad.

A targeted resume is more than an employment history record. While it contains all your job experience, it also includes additional information that weights that information to what is relevant for a specific job application. It also contains more summary information that helps to focus the reader's focus on the relevant details. So, in a targeted resume, you will often see information repeated. This usually means that a targeted resume is longer than an untargeted resume. The length is not a problem since most targeted resumes today are transmitted electronically.

Let me work through an example. I had a client who asked me to rewrite his resume. He was a technology consultant and wanted to have his resume targeted to three different positions:

• Digital Media and Analytics
• Business Development/Client Service
• Start Up Operations/ New Ventures

His original resume was in the following format:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, San Francisco, CA (2007 – Present)
Technology Consultant - Enterprise Intelligence (Analytics)

• Created SOWs and managed relationships that led to over $2M of work
• Managed 15 person team to integrate Salesforce.com with client’s core business system, which helped the sales/marketing process
• Tracked a global remediation for one of the largest banks in the world by working with teams of over 200 people in Poland and India

JP Morgan Chase Bank, Chicago, IL (2003 - 2007)                                    
Portfolio Analyst

• Optimized portfolios exceeding $2B in assets using internal platforms, Excel models and monthly reporting
• Won new business through developing high-profile relationships with portfolio managers
• Led a three person deal team over six months to resolve discrepancies in the group’s largest portfolio resulting in the recovery of $1.5M+ in funds

EDUCATION   

• University of Minnesota, B.S. Economics, May 2003

SKILLS

• Stradegy, AdBuyer, Microsoft Power Point and Excel, MySQL, Bloomberg, Adobe Photoshop, HTML, Certified Information Systems Security Professional/CISSP, Ruby on Rails, Salesforce.com     

(end of original resume)

The resume looks pretty good, doesn't it? He seems to be a highly skilled and experienced professional. But he wants this resume to be used for the three different objectives  I cited above. The reason this version of the resume would not achieve his goals is that it is an untargeted resume. Had a recruiter seen his resume in a database, she would call him for a technology consultant or a portfolio analyst position. That's all she has to go on -- his previous job titles or job skills. Nothing in this resume hints towards his interest in working for a new venture or his qualifications for a digital media job (What kind?) The resume reader (recruiter) doesn't have a reference to understand his interests or objective. When I asked him why he started with his experience and didn't even include an objective, he said,

"I have never had text at the top of my resume. However, having reviewed resumes in the past, I think that the less text, the better."

Clearly, he has a preference for an untargeted resume. But after a few email exchanges with him, I convinced him that to make his resume more appealing to a recruiter, he needed to target the resume. This process began with a little research. We reviewed a number of job ads and the stated requirements. I wanted him to learn what the employer wanted. In other words, I wanted him to think about his resume from the point of view of the employer. Then, for each position we expanded upon the skills and achievements he did that would be of interest or have relevance to the employer. But the actual targeting of the resume occurs in what I call the "header section." This section contains an objective, summary and key skills. The header section is drawn from the job ad, employer research, and the key attributes the job seeker wants to "market" to the employer.

The rewritten resume turned into the following:

Managing Consultant and Technology Entrepreneur 

Performance Improvement | Start Up Ventures | Digital Media

Entrepreneurial, collaborative, and versatile consulting professional with 7 years of progressive experience spanning project management, and process improvement across Business Development, Media, and Technology. Proficient at managing large, global client teams, creating strong relationships with client executives, and organizing activities across multiple business units to achieve aggressive project timelines. Able to leverage entrepreneurial skills as well as technical experience to foster an environment of mutual trust, high productivity, and accountability.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, San Francisco, CA (2007 – Present)
Sr. Technology Consultant  (2008 -- Present).

• Created SOWs and managed relationships that led to over $2M of work
• Managed 15 person team to integrate Salesforce.com with client’s core business system, which helped the sales/marketing process
• Interfaced with top executives and planned client and team outings, which led to stronger client relationships and more sales opportunities  

Consultant (2007 -- 2008)

• Tracked a high-profile global remediation for one of the largest banks in the world by working with teams of over 200 people in Poland and India under very short deadlines
• Gained hundreds of man hours by acting as project manager and taking the initiative to move 300+ resources to a faster share drive
• Used MySQL and visual analytics to display the data quality of every data element at one of the largest banks in the country

(end of rewritten resume)


While there are no hard-and-fast rules of creating both the header section and the targeted resume, you will know that you have properly targeted your resume when someone can quickly skim the resume and determine what you are seeking in a few seconds. The targeted resume has the additional benefit of a higher keyword density. This attribute usually will improve the resume's visibility and ranking in a resume database.