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by Spearchucker 4209 days ago
Had the same experience. These days I tailor my resume for every single job application. I make sure it uses the language the job description uses. If it says Red Hat, my resume says Red Hat. If it says JavaScript, my resume says JavaScript. It takes time, but its been worth it.

Where a skill is required that I don't have, I don't mention it. Where a skill applies to a version I'm not experienced with, I leave the version number out. When the job spec requires experience of say, Red Hat, and I have experience of multiple distributions, I lie and call it Red Hat. The point of the resume is to land the interview, so I make sure my resume doesn't fail me in achieving that objective.
1 comments
pc86 4209 days ago
> These days I tailor my resume for every single job application

You absolutely need to do this unless you're in crazy demand. Every generic resume I've sent out has yielded exactly zero phone calls. Every tailor-made resume I've sent out has gotten at least to the in-person interview stage.

Survivor bias? Maybe, but 5 jobs in since college and I'm never sending generic resumes anywhere ever again.

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jplahn 4209 days ago
While I understand the sentiment, I only used a single resume for all of my applications this past fall. But I think the reason it worked is that I knew what positions I wanted to apply for and they were all similar(ish). So my resume matched all of them.

I did find that when I was applying to the bigger SV companies (and Seattle), I wasn't necessarily applying for a specific position, so even if I had wanted to tailor it, it would have been more of a challenge. That's just my experience though. I do believe that if I was going for a very specific position, I would definitely spend the extra time to make sure it was perfect.

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pc86 4209 days ago
That is a good point. I have not yet applied "to a company," but rather for a specific position within a company.

I'm sure if I was trying to get a job at Buffer or someplace like that where you are mostly applying to the company, I'd need to rethink my strategy.

(I have no affiliation with Buffer whatsoever).

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