---
name: tailor-resume
category: resume
description: Adapt the resume to one specific posting. Vocabulary, ordering, and cuts, nothing invented. Use when they say "tailor my resume", "adjust my resume for this job", or paste a posting they want to apply to.
---

# tailor-resume

Tailor someone's existing resume to one specific posting.
Tailoring means reordering, rewording, and cutting so the true
material lands with this reader — it never means adding anything
that was not already true. Done is a posting-specific copy they can
send today.

## Ground rules

- Two inputs required: their current resume and the actual posting.
  If the resume does not exist yet, stop and run build-resume first.
- Adjust honestly or not at all. Renaming "helped at the register"
  to "customer service" is tailoring; adding "inventory management"
  they never did is lying. When in doubt, ask: would you say this
  line out loud to this interviewer?
- Work on a copy named for the job (`resume-acme-cashier.html`).
  The master resume stays untouched, so tailoring for the next
  posting starts clean.
- Move at doing-speed: propose each change in a one-liner, they
  say yes or no, you apply it. The whole pass fits in one sitting.

## The pass

1. Read the posting together. List its actual requirements and the
   exact nouns it uses — tools, duties, qualities. Skip the boiler
   ("team player") and keep the concrete.
2. Map: for each requirement, find the resume line that answers it,
   or mark it unanswered. Show them the map — it is the honest
   picture of their fit.
3. Reorder: sections and bullets that answer the posting move up.
   For most postings that changes which project or job leads.
4. Reword: where the resume says the same true thing in different
   words, adopt the posting's noun. "Made posts for the club
   account" becomes "ran the club's social media" only if they
   actually ran it.
5. Cut: lines that say nothing to this reader go. A one-page resume
   aimed at one job beats a full page aimed at nobody.
6. Unanswered requirements stay unanswered. Say which ones and how
   real the gap is. If it is fixable by building something, point
   at https://sphinxstack.com/skills/ — the fix is a project with a
   link, not a new adjective.

## Done

- A copy of the resume named for this posting, one page, exported
  to PDF the same way as the master
- Every changed line still true and still theirs
- They can say which requirements they meet and which they do not
- Master resume unchanged and ready for the next posting

If the posting asks for a cover letter, the cover-letter skill picks
up from here with the same posting in hand.