Tired of Tailoring Your Resume for Every Job? Me Too.

A post on r/jobs is titled "I'm sick and tired of tailoring my resume to every job". Another on r/jobsearchhacks asks how to tailor a CV from a master resume, and what the best tool is. On r/askrecruiters someone asks if tailoring makes a big difference at all.

Same pain, three subreddits.

I'm a software developer in Harare. I built FitMyCV because of that exact pain: paste a job link, get a tailored CV. So read this knowing I sell the shortcut. I'll still tell you where you don't need it.

My take: tailor every job, but only the top third

Most people quit tailoring because they do it wrong. They open the whole CV and rewrite everything. Every bullet. Every role. An hour per application.

That's not tailoring. That's rewriting your career every time.

Here's what actually changes per job:

1. 1The summary. Three lines, in the posting's words, about the job they're hiring for.
2. 2The skills order. The skills they named go first.
3. 3The first two or three bullets of your most relevant role. Same facts, their language.

Here's what doesn't:

• Your older roles.
• Your education.
• Your contact details and layout.
• Anything you'd have to invent to make it fit.

If a job needs you to invent experience, it's the wrong job. Don't tailor that one. Skip it.

Keep one master CV

Tailoring gets fast when you stop writing and start choosing. Keep one long master CV with every role, every bullet and every number you've got. For each job you copy it and delete what doesn't fit.

Deleting is faster than writing. That one change cuts most of the time. The full method is in how to tailor a CV from a master resume.

Check before you rewrite

Don't guess what the posting wants. Paste it next to your CV in the job match checker and look at the missing terms. That list is your tailoring to do list. Nothing else.

When to stop tailoring

Two jobs with the same title at similar companies? Send the same tailored version to both. Tailor for the type of job, not the company logo.

And if you're applying to dozens of jobs a week, hand tailoring will burn you out. That's when a tool earns its price. If you want to do it for free, here's how to tailor your resume for free.

Why I keep building this

I've shipped apps nobody used. I've shipped apps 3 people paid for. I've shipped apps that just… sat there. Still building. Still looking for the one.

FitMyCV exists because tailoring is the most boring part of a job search and the part that matters most. If it saves you the hour, use it. If you'd rather do it by hand, the top third is all you need.