Here we are in mid-late January, so now is a GREAT time to get active in your job search!
And…job searching is hard. Very hard.
It’s easy to start questioning if all the effort is even worth it—especially when you’re facing it alone and dealing with rejections and ghosting.
But what if you could really learn how to start getting better results in your search?
What if, instead of spinning your wheels, you had: ✔ A clear plan for what to do next. ✔ The confidence to go after roles that truly excite you. ✔ A supportive group of people who are right there with you, cheering you on.
Well, that’s exactly what The Brave Club is all about: Finding your way forward through all the confusion.
With just a few days left to snag Early Registration pricing (ends this Friday!), there’s no better time to kick it into gear.
Wanna know what some of the benefits were according to people who joined? Check it out:
Identifying your transferable skills
Articulating your short- and long-term goals
Describing and emphasizing the impact you’ve had
Writing a compelling resume
Negotiating
Navigating LinkedIn, cover letter writing, and networking
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not fun. It’s just that tailoring your resume to match the job description probably doesn’t need to take as long as you might think, assuming that you’re largely applying for the same type of job over and over again.
Maybe 15 minutes in that case.
Once you get the branding down well, it should not be taking you hours to craft a resume to fit a job you’re applying to. So read on for some initial crafting tips.!
First, Why Tailor Your Resume?
When hiring managers review resumes, they’re looking for candidates who align closely with their specific needs. A tailored resume quickly shows that you’ve taken the time to understand the role and helps highlight why you’re the perfect fit.
Four Pillars of Effective Resume Tailoring
1. Job Title Alignment
Your job titles are often the first things recruiters notice, and they give a quick impression of what your experience and skills are. Make them count by:
Using industry-standard titles that align with your target role
Ensuring titles accurately reflect your responsibilities while matching the target role’s terminology (if the title doesn’t accurately reflect your responsibilities it can come off as being deceptive. Or ya know…lying.)
Adding contextual titles in parentheses when needed for clarity (e.g., “Project Lead (Technical Learning Specialist)”)
2. Keyword Optimization
The right keywords can make the difference between your resume being seen or overlooked:
Mirror key terms from the job description thoughtfully
Focus on relevant skills and achievements/outcomes that match the role
Remove or downplay unrelated experience that might distract from your core qualifications
3. Outcome/Result Framing
It’s not just what you did—it’s how you frame it and what happened as a result:
Highlight accomplishments most relevant to the target role
Quantify results in ways that matter for the position
If you’re having a hard time quantifying things (looking at you, Higher Ed and Non-Profit professionals), use qualitative/descriptive outcomes
Use industry-specific metrics that resonate with hiring managers
Transform generic achievements into role-specific wins
4. Responsibility Focus
Every bullet point should serve a purpose:
Emphasize duties that align directly with job requirements
De-emphasize or remove unrelated responsibilities
Use similar language to the job posting to demonstrate alignment
Focus on transferable skills when switching industries
The Golden Rule: Maintain Authenticity
A crucial aspect of resume tailoring is maintaining honesty throughout the process. Tailoring is not about fabrication or making stuff up—it’s about presenting your genuine experience through the most relevant lens for each specific role. Think of it as translation rather than transformation. You have to help people understand how relevant your experience and skills are.
Practical Tips for Implementation
Create a Master Resume
Keep a comprehensive document with all your experience
Use this as your base for creating tailored versions
Create a Resume Version for Each Role Type You Apply For
You’ll want a version that aligns with each of your target role types
Tailoring within a role type shouldn’t take you long
Analyze the Job Description
Highlight key requirements and qualifications
Note specific terminology and phrases used
Identify the most important skills and experiences sought after
Make Strategic Choices
Prioritize relevant experience by reorganizing bullet points
Consider the company’s culture and values
Review and Refine
Double-check alignment with job requirements
Ensure all information remains accurate
Proofread carefully after making changes
The Bottom Line
Resume tailoring is not so much about creating different versions of yourself—it’s about highlighting the most relevant aspects of your experience for each opportunity. When done correctly, it helps employers quickly understand your value proposition and increases your chances of landing an interview.
Remember: Your resume is often your first impression. Make it count by presenting your experience in a way that resonates with each specific opportunity while staying true to your professional story.
The Brave Club!
If you’re looking for a way to be more effective in your job search (in other words, get better at landing interviews and jobs), come join The Brave Club!
It’s my group coaching program designed for job seekers. If you’re an educator, leader, or career pivoter, this was built for you.
The Brave Club is a more affordable/accessible coaching option that provides you with community, strategy, accountability, and confidence you can use to more skillfully and successfully navigate the circus that is the job search.
Check out some quick details below:
6 45 minute group sessions focusing on Branding, Resume Development, Job Alignment, and Negotiation
Access to the private Facebook group for members
Regular job search advice straight to your email inbox
Open office hours for you to get specific answers to your questions
Early Registration starts today! Register as an early member by Friday, January 24th and you can get in for only $75!
Click here to learn more and get started with bolstering your job search!
Here’s what someone from the pilot group had to say about their experience in The Brave Club:
I had a great experience for someone that has a non traditional job and has not worked in a corporate environment it definitely made me start to think differently in my current role. I feel more confident having the tools to start applying I am not as scared. I highly recommend anyone to join (already have a few friends that are interested). Come in ready to share job search and interview experiences.
-Alicia S.
This is your sign! Come sign up and let’s get to it. See ya there!
So we’ve all seen that submitting the same generic resume for every position simply doesn’t cut it anymore. The key to standing out lies in strategic branding, targeted networking, and–of course–resume tailoring.
That means you gotta customize your resume for specific roles while maintaining complete truthfulness. I have a comprehensive guide to mastering this essential job-seeking skill for y’all. Keep reading!
Why Tailor Your Resume?
When hiring managers review resumes, they’re looking for candidates who align closely with their specific needs. A tailored resume quickly shows that you’ve taken the time to understand the role and helps highlight why you’re the perfect fit.
Four Pillars of Effective Resume Tailoring
1. Job Title Alignment
Your job titles are often the first things recruiters notice, and they give a quick impression of what your experience and skills are. Make them count by:
Using industry-standard titles that align with your target role
Ensuring titles accurately reflect your responsibilities while matching the target role’s terminology (if the title doesn’t accurately reflect your responsibilities it can come off as being deceptive. Or ya know…lying.)
Adding contextual titles in parentheses when needed for clarity (e.g., “Project Lead (Technical Learning Specialist)”)
2. Keyword Optimization
The right keywords can make the difference between your resume being seen or overlooked:
Mirror key terms from the job description thoughtfully
Focus on relevant skills and achievements/outcomes that match the role
Remove or downplay unrelated experience that might distract from your core qualifications
3. Outcome/Result Framing
It’s not just what you did—it’s how you frame it and what happened as a result:
Highlight accomplishments most relevant to the target role
Quantify results in ways that matter for the position
If you’re having a hard time quantifying things (looking at you, Higher Ed and Non-Profit professionals), use qualitative/descriptive outcomes
Use industry-specific metrics that resonate with hiring managers
Transform generic achievements into role-specific wins
4. Responsibility Focus
Every bullet point should serve a purpose:
Emphasize duties that align directly with job requirements
De-emphasize or remove unrelated responsibilities
Use similar language to the job posting to demonstrate alignment
Focus on transferable skills when switching industries
The Golden Rule: Maintain Authenticity
A crucial aspect of resume tailoring is maintaining honesty throughout the process. Tailoring is not about fabrication or making stuff up—it’s about presenting your genuine experience through the most relevant lens for each specific role. Think of it as translation rather than transformation. You have to help people understand how relevant your experience and skills are.
Practical Tips for Implementation
Create a Master Resume
Keep a comprehensive document with all your experience
Use this as your base for creating tailored versions
Create a Resume Version for Each Role Type You Apply For
You’ll want a version that aligns with each of your target role types
Tailoring within a role type shouldn’t take you long
Analyze the Job Description
Highlight key requirements and qualifications
Note specific terminology and phrases used
Identify the most important skills and experiences sought after
Make Strategic Choices
Prioritize relevant experience by reorganizing bullet points
Consider the company’s culture and values
Review and Refine
Double-check alignment with job requirements
Ensure all information remains accurate
Proofread carefully after making changes
The Bottom Line
Resume tailoring is not so much about creating different versions of yourself—it’s about highlighting the most relevant aspects of your experience for each opportunity. When done correctly, it helps employers quickly understand your value proposition and increases your chances of landing an interview.
Remember: Your resume is often your first impression. Make it count by presenting your experience in a way that resonates with each specific opportunity while staying true to your professional story.
Looking for help enhancing your job search? Let me know! What’s your biggest challenge in your job search right now?
Did you know that you should be following up on all of your job applications?
In fact, I tell all my coaching students they need to follow up on every single one of their applications within 24 hours or less.
Yes, that fast.
“But why? Because even when I do follow up, I almost never hear anything back.”
“What should my approach be when I do that kind of follow-up?”
“Who am I supposed to follow up with?”
These are some of the things I cover with the people in my coaching program. But keep reading for some insight.
Why You Should Follow Up That Fast
Every hiring process moves at its own pace. Once a job is posted, you never know how fast the hiring party is going to move.
By the time you see it, you won’t necessarily know where they are in the hiring process. For example, the recruiter may have already identified the 10 candidates they want to pass on to the hiring manager for interviews. And recruiters don’t always go back to the candidate pool once this happens (unless they need to).
So if you’ve submitted your application after they’ve found 10ish applicants that meet the hiring manager’s criteria, there’s a good chance your app is not going to be seen in part because the recruiter might not know you even applied.
That is, of course, unless you tell them right away. See what I’m sayin?
What Should My Approach Be When I Follow Up?
Your follow-up needs to be concise and done in a way that very quickly and clearly communicates that you’re an amazing candidate for this role. You gotta convince them that they need to add another person to their small circle of really qualified candidates. In other words, you have to be incredibly well-branded. Especially if you’re pivoting from one industry to another.
Read those last few sentences again!
Who Should You Be Following Up With?
The people with hiring say-so should be your targets. That generally means recruiters and hiring managers. If you’ve networked well, you can get right into the interview room via the hiring manager.
You might have to do some digging to find these people, but there are ways and it’s well worth it. Keep in mind that this is a–if not THE–crucial part of your job search.
Coaching Slots Open
We’re getting close to the end of the summer, and that can mean we’re heading into a time of year where hiring sees an uptick for a bit.
Getting hired is hard. If you’d like help making that happen, let me know quickly! I have a few more slots open in my coaching program.
You can get into my most popular tierfor $1099 if you contact me before Wednesday, September 4th. After that, it will go back to its normal price of $1295 before going up in the fall!
It’s an offer that’s only going out to those of you seeing this post, so take advantage! Message/email me if you have questions, or click here to set up your free consultation now.
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the common resume advice:
“Tailor your resume to each job posting you apply to!”
It’s how you get more interviews. Sorta (go here to understand what I mean).
But I’ve been seeing some information floating around about resume tailoring that could be a little confusing.
Specifically, I’ve been seeing people on LinkedIn post things like “Tailoring your resume for each job posting is a waste of your time and energy! You don’t need to do all that”
Aaaaww snap! Which is it then? What should a job seeker like you do?
I wrote about it briefly in this LinkedIn post, but let’s explore a little more here.
SHOULD YOU TAILOR YOUR RESUME FOR EACH JOB POSTING?
The short answer to this is still “yes” but there’s some nuance involved. Before we get into all that nuance, though, it’s worth it to discuss why it’s important to tailor your resume.
It’s pretty simple, truth be told. You tailor your resume to show you’re qualified and actually should be applying to the posting. Seems obvious, but the truth is a lot of people apply to jobs that they’re either not super qualified for, or not at all qualified for.
Recruiters and hiring managers don’t want to spend a whole lot of time combing through each and every resume–they want to quickly glance at them and be able to determine who’s worth taking a longer look at and who isn’t. Tailoring your resume helps whoever’s reading it understand that at the very least you’re one of the ones that’s worth that deeper look and potentially moving on to the call/interview stage.
The question, though, is do you need to tailor your resume every time you submit an application. I mean, what if your resume is already in pretty good shape?
The answer: yes and no (dang it! Why’s it always “yes and no” or “it depends”?! Why can’t it ever not depend??).
Here’s the thing. You need to determine what industry and type of job you’re generally going to be applying for. Are you applying for Customer Success Manager jobs? Social Media Marketing Strategist jobs? Project Manager jobs?
Many companies and institutions have the same types of jobs, and Customer Success Managers across companies play very similar roles. They kinda do the same things, with maybe a couple differences from company to company.
So if you’re a non-profit recruiter or a higher education resident director, you’re going to need to first take your resume from being a “recruiter” or “resident director” resume to being a “customer success manager” resume.
Similarly, if you’re also applying for project manager jobs, you’re also going to need to make another version of your resume that’s a “project manager” resume. And so on and so forth. The tailoring involved in this step will probably take you a while.
Once you’ve done that, though, things get a little simpler. When you submit your resume for a specific Customer Success Manager job, you should tailor it to fit that specific posting, but this should not take you very long to do. I’m talking minutes.
You’ve already done the heavy lifting of tailoring when you first made your “Customer Success Manager” resume, ensuring that the marketable skills and outcomes you described are relevant and appealing for customer success manager jobs. The tailoring at this step is just making sure you use the words in the specific posting you’re applying for (i.e. if the job posting says “management” instead of “supervision”, you want to make sure you reflect that in your resume), and double check that your resume hits on the key skills/results described in that posting.
There’s some variability between Customer Success Manager jobs from company to company, but probably not very much. So while you should be tailoring your resume to each job you apply for, it should not at all take you very much time to do it…if you’ve done your job of creating the right “base” resume to begin with.
WRAPPING UP
It’s not that tailoring your resume is a waste of time. It’s not. I mean, it can be, but not necessarily. It really just depends on if you’re doing it the right way.
Make sure you have the right “base” resume(s), and go from there. When done well, you can then tailor your resume to each job in a matter of 5-10 minutes.
Y’all got this. And if you have questions, let me know! Send me an email at brandon@begallantcoaching.com and I promise I’ll get back to you.
WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT!
Very soon I’ll be hosting a free webinar on an important mindset shift that will make you a stronger candidate. I’m talking more interviews, more offers, better offers. I’ll give you a hint.
If you’re applying for jobs, that makes you an applicant. So I bet you’re also thinking like an applicant. That’s not a good thing. I will send you an invite soon, but if you want to make sure you get it, just drop your name, email, and “invite me!” in the form below and I’ll make sure you get it.
By the time they come talk to me (click here if you’re ready), they’ve usually been searching for a while. They’re also usually pretty frustrated, confused, and at least a little disappointed because they’re struggling to land interviews. And it’s pretty hard to get jobs if you’re not getting interviews.
Here’s the thing: It’s not that they’re not applying for enough job openings–they’re usually applying for plenty (in some cases 100s). It’s not that they’re not qualified for the jobs they’re applying for–they have great qualifications. It’s also not that they don’t have the right skills–they’re skills are valuable and aligned with the job description.
So what’s the deal?! Why so few interviews???
Walk with me…
YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE…
You gotta tailor your resume to the job description. Scan the job description to identify the keywords and make sure you include them and speak to those skills. This is very important.
But you’ve heard this before, right?
You’ve already done this. Over and over. Every time, in fact. And you’re still bamboozled because…crickets.
Still little to no interviews to show for it. Damn.
I hear this story from job seekers ALL THE TIME, and here’s what I’ve noticed.
In the vast majority of cases (very nearly all of them), their resume is almost entirely tasky. Take a look at your work experience in your resume. Is it essentially no more than a list of tasks you’ve carried out? That is not a good thing. If it’s basically just a list of tasks you’ve carried out, then there’s no difference between you and anyone else who’s carried out those same tasks (at least on paper). And in that case, there’s no real reason for a hiring manager to interview you over anyone else with the same or similar job history.
If your resume is task-driven, you probably won’t land very many interviews. In order to differentiate yourself from other candidates, you need your resume to be results-driven.
TASK-DRIVEN VS. RESULTS-DRIVEN
A task-driven resume is essentially the job descriptions of the jobs you’ve held. It may demonstrate skills, but no matter how aligned those skills are, there’s nothing really special about that resume because it tells me nothing about your proficiency with the skills. Having the skills is great, but what a hiring manager ultimately cares about is whether or not you can actually produce desirable results.
All of your bullet points should clearly demonstrate that you have a track record of driving a positive impact in your work. This is how you show them you were actually successful and are a top-notch employee.
And that’s the candidate that gets interviews.
Show me those numbers, those increases, those tangible changes!
THE USUAL FOLLOW-UP QUESTION
“But Brandon, I feel like I don’t really have many outcomes to speak to, so what do I do?”
I usually get some version of that when I give this feedback to someone. Here’s my response:
How did you and/or your supervisor know you were successful at this *chooses random bullet point* task?
Light bulb moment! The answer to that question is a positive outcome, and you should speak to it! And I bet you can answer that question for each of your bullet points.
I bet the reason why you’re having such a hard time identifying results you’ve produced is because you’re thinking strictly in terms of the numbers. And numbers are good! Great, in fact. If you can attach a % increase or number to it, please definitely do so. But if you can’t–depending on your role or your field it might be hard to have the numbers on hand–that doesn’t mean you don’t still have positive results to speak to.
You can–and absolutely should–still produce a results-driven resume. Every time.
WRAPPING UP
If your resume is task-driven, you’re facing an uphill battle. Candidates with task-driven resumes are really hard to distinguish between, especially if they have a similar background or work history. It’s also really hard to tell your proficiency if you’re just describing the tasks you’ve executed.
So let’s see those outcomes!
WANT MORE SUPPORT?
The people in my coaching program get this kind of stuff from me all the time. And if you’ve been job searching for a while now, you probably recognize that a successful job search goes way beyond a good resume.
Job searching is hard. Where do you even start? How do you make a good resume (and cover letter)? How do you communicate the unique value you bring via your professional brand? How do you network in a way that’s strategic and gets your foot in the door?
Come talk to me! We cover all this and more in my coaching programs (click here for details!). If you want to bring your search to a close and land a job that you really feel good in, then give yourself permission to look into some good support.
Get a head start on the new year and step out of your comfort zone so you can land that new job. I’ll help you!
Fill out this short interest form today and I’ll contact you!
For the best experience, view this issue on the website.
THE GRAVY, ISSUE 1
Resumes.
Or should I say…résumés. It’s French, ya know.
They’ve become the go-to tool hiring managers use to initially assess candidates nowadays. They also strike fear in the hearts of applicants (and hiring managers, but that’s another story) all over the world. Still, if you wanna get that next job and move on in your career journey, you gotta write a good resume. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive in.
THE GOOD NEWS
Writing a good resume is not as hard as you might think.
You just have to learn how to do it the right way. And guess what! You can learn that! Include the right sections. Keep your writing concise. Communicate value. Don’t distract your reader. Before you know it you’ll have a strong resume.
THE NEWS THAT KINDA SUCKS
You have to tailor your resume for each job.
Yup. That means you have to retouch your resume every time you apply for a job. Dang. It’s tedious work, but it’s well worth it. The reason is because hiring managers want to see information that’s relevant to their posting. They don’t care about everything you’ve done, just the relevant stuff. So ya see, tailoring your resume will yield you better results on your apps.
Let’s examine the how-to of good resume writing:
TAILORING YOUR RESUME
Why this is important:
Along with hiring managers wanting to see what’s relevant to them, there’s potentially another reason why you need to tailor your resume: the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). An ATS is basically a piece of software that stores application materials. Some of them can be used to help hiring managers scan for relevant qualifications. Make it easy for whoever–or whatever–is scanning your resume to see that you have relevant skills and experiences!
How to tailor correctly:
Dap up your best friend and thank them for the good times, because the job description is your new best friend. Read it thoroughly and identify the key words in it (i.e. what words or phrases are repeated? What essential skills and experiences can you pull out? What are the first few “asks” in each section?). Once you’ve identified the key words, USE THEM. Use the job description’s language in your resume. This is part of what the ATS is looking for.
Reorder your bullet points so that the more relevant ones come first within each job experience.
Scan that thang like a consultant, not a job seeker. That means read it to identify the problem(s) that needs solving. Address the company’s needs through your bullet points in your experience section(s).
Really though…how long does it take?
A RESUME SHOULD BE SIMPLE
When you look at your resume, is it distracting? Got a lot of extras like colors and photos and shapes and stuff? Take those things out (unless you’re a designer or artist). They’re distracting.
Use a basic format, but avoid downloaded templates. ATS’s don’t always read those well.
Generally speaking, your resume should be pretty short. Unless you’re an executive-level candidate with loads of experience, try to keep it to 1 full page. No one likes reading long resumes. Or resumes at all.
SECTIONS
There’s a lot of sections you could have on your resume. Some of the common ones include:
Header
Education
Experience
Volunteer Experience
Skills
Research
Language
In general, the most important ones are Experience, Education, and your header, which includes your name and contact information. I’d throw Skills in there too, especially if you work in a more technical field or have a lot of technical skills to highlight.
*Pro-tip*: A Skills section is for hard/technical skills, not soft skills. Things like communication, leadership, patience, teamwork, etc. should show up in your Experience section via your bullet points, NOT the Skills section.
Got a question yet? Submit it and I’ll answer selected ones in the next issue! Otherwise, read on…
C = Challenge. What was the challenge you took on or needed to overcome?
P = Process. How did you overcome the challenge? What skills did you use?
R = Result. What was the outcome of your actions? If you got a number or percentage to include, please do!
I should be able to pull out each of these elements from your bullet points! Here’s an example of a bullet point that I can’t pull those things out of:
Helped student organization raise funds
I can see the challenge: raising funds for a student organization. I don’t know how you did that or what the result was, though. Here’s one that’s much better:
Outreached via email to 12 potential sponsors for student networking event, resulting in $2,000 raised to cover costs
See what I’m sayin’? I can see the challenge, the process (email outreach), and the result ($2000). The result helps me understand your proficiency with the skills you communicated in the bullet point, so definitely include the result.
Again, it’s not particularly hard once you get the hang of it. Just takes practice.
Community Bin
I went ahead and sourced some questions from the community regarding resumes. Let’s take a look and do some Q & A:
Q: I regularly update my resume (like every few months) so I can stay ready to apply, but I don’t always tailor my resume for each specific job I apply for. Should I change my approach?
A: It’s good that you regularly update your resume because it allows you to update it while your experiences are still fresh. Still, you definitely should be tailoring your resume for each job. I recommend keeping a master copy (one that houses all your experiences) that you update sorta regularly, and then making tailored/shortened versions specifically for each job you apply for.
Q: Do I need a professional summary on my resume?
A: In many-to-most cases, I’d say no, you don’t need one. If you’re a particularly seasoned professional with a really dope specialty or loads of experience you want to tie together, then go for it. But it’s gotta add value. Generally, I’d say save the space.
Next Issue on January 19th: Identifying Your Skills
The next issue of The Gravy will be released on January 19th! We’ll take a look at something I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with: Identifying Your Skills. It’s good gravy.
If y’all have any questions related to identifying your skills, submit them below and I’ll address selected ones next time.
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