What does it mean to "tailor" a resume?

"Hi Mike - I've got 20 years' experience in retail management. Can you tailor a resume towards something that is more of a 9-5 job with better work/life balance?"

This question, or some variation of it, is probably the most common inquiry I get these days, and to be honest, the answer is no - I can't tailor your resume to something that has a set schedule with better work/life balance without knowing what that something is. It's like asking someone to hit a target without telling them what the target is.

For example, a construction worker probably has a set schedule and pretty good work/life balance. So does a receptionist. So does a garbage collector, landscaper, and lab tech. So do thousands of other jobs. And because they're all different, recruiters and hiring managers would likely be attracted to different things on your resume.

Tailoring a resume means narrowing the focus

​To tailor a resume means to draw attention to certain aspects of your background, or certain qualifications, that will be most appealing to a recruiter who is sourcing candidates for a specific position, company, or industry. It may also mean leaving out otherwise valuable information that may not be relevant to that company or industry.

To be clear, a "tailored" resume will be more effective for your chosen job target, but less effective for other job targets. The focus is narrow, not wide.

I have tailored resumes to certain job types before. If a store manager wants to pursue, say, a position in HR, then I can tailor their resume by focusing on their achievements in team building, recruiting, training, performance management, retention, engagement, talent development, and so on. If they want to pursue a position in sales or account management, I can focus their resume on all their sales-related achievements. If they want to target roles in operations management, I can focus on their success with P&L, payroll, budgets, inventory, and so on.

But you can really only tailor your resume to something that you have some experience or skill in. If you've spent your last 20 years in retail as a store manager and now you want a job as, say, a cloud architect in the IT industry, I'm sorry, but I can't tailor your resume towards that (unless, perhaps, you had related training/education).

Now that doesn't mean my clients never transition to new industries - they frequently do. I've had clients move into many other fields and occupations. But to tailor a resume to something new, it needs to be fairly specific and related to some aspect of your experience.

Can I just make my resume less retail-focused?

Yes, if you know you'd like out of retail, but you don't know what you're looking for, there are subtle ways to make your resume seem a little less retail-focused - particularly with your headline and summary at the top.  But keep in mind, if all your experience is in retail, there's not much you can do about that. You can't create a resume that doesn't show the companies you worked for and the positions you held. If those companies were all in retail, you can't escape that.

Some resume writers suggest creating a functional resume that compiles different aspects of your background and lists them under common headings or areas of expertise - and then your actual work history is just shown at the bottom. They do that to try and hide the fact that your background is in a different industry from what you're targeting. They focus on your skills and achievements, while "hiding" the fact that you had all that success while working in retail.

I don't create resumes in that format, and that's because, in my experience, recruiters overwhelmingly don't like or trust them. More than anything else on your resume, they want to know where you've worked, when, and what positions you held. If you attempt to "trick" them by burying that at the end and instead focusing on skill areas, you'll only frustrate them - and they'll likely move on. Instead, I strongly recommend that you stick to a standard reverse chronological format, and include your achievements within each job. In my experience, that's what they expect to see, and want to see.

The bottom line

If you know exactly what type of position you're looking for, and there are certain aspects of your background that you'd like to draw specific attention to, then definitely tailor your resume to that. It will give you the best chance of success at that particular job. (But remember, that same resume will then be less effective for other jobs.)

If you don't know what you want to do, but you know you want out of retail, then create a resume that showcases all your great achievements so the reader can see how well-rounded your skills are.

Hope that helps!