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Guide 9 min read

Tailor your CV without inventing evidence

Tailoring is selection and emphasis. You can make a CV more relevant by choosing the right examples, using language a hiring team recognises, and moving important evidence where it is easy to see. You do not need to claim experience you do not have.

Read as Markdown

Read for evidence, not keywords alone

Mark the advert’s responsibilities, required experience, and useful extras separately. A repeated phrase may matter, but first ask what work the phrase describes. “Own the CMS roadmap”, for instance, could mean prioritising platform improvements, coordinating stakeholders, or maintaining a publishing queue.

For each important requirement, find a real example from work, volunteering, study, or a personal project. If you do not have one, note the gap honestly and decide whether the role still makes sense.

Build an evidence table

  • Requirement from the advert: what would the person need to do?
  • Your example: the situation or project where you did related work.
  • Your contribution: what you personally decided, made, changed, or supported.
  • Result: an outcome you can explain. Use numbers only when you know and can stand behind them.
  • Gap or boundary: what the example does not show, so the wording stays accurate.

Write a clear bullet

A useful bullet gives enough context to understand your action and its result. Strong verbs help, but precision matters more. If you worked with a team, describe your part. If you do not have a measured outcome, name the delivered work rather than inventing a percentage.

Make the first page do useful work

Put the most relevant recent experience and skills where a reader can find them quickly. A short profile can name your focus and strengths, but avoid generic claims such as “results-driven team player” unless the evidence immediately follows.

Use a consistent layout, readable headings, and plain text for key information. Before sending, check that dates, role titles, and company names agree throughout and that the file opens correctly on another device.

Run a truth check

  • Can I explain each claim in a conversation and give a concrete example?
  • Does this bullet describe my contribution accurately?
  • Are the dates, tools, figures, and level of responsibility correct?
  • Have I used the advert’s terminology only where it matches what I actually did?
  • Is any important qualification or limitation hidden by vague wording?