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How to Tailor Your Resume to Match Each CRE Job Description
December 13, 2024 Read Time: 12 minThe modern hiring process has changed significantly from 20 and even 10 years ago. With the advent of the web, it’s easier for a larger pool of applicants to send in their resumes to a job posting. Job postings also have a much further reach and can have a massive pool of applicants — sometimes hundreds to thousands for a single position.
In this guide, we present tips for generating a resume based on a job description, with the help of two subject-matter experts from Bisnow and Select Leaders: Brittney Acosta, senior corporate recruiter, and Brittany Barragy, vice president of people operations.
Benefits of Tailoring Your Resume
According to Jobvite’s 2022 Job Seeker Nation report,1 83% of surveyed recruiters say they’re more likely to hire a candidate who has tailored their resume to the specific job they’re applying for.
“From a recruiter's perspective, a tailored resume shows that the candidate has taken the time to not only read but understand the job requirements and the company’s needs,” Brittney Acosta said. “I would say it's about tweaking key sections — such as the summary, skills, and achievements — to emphasize the most relevant qualifications.”
Here are some of the benefits to tailoring your resume to a specific position.
Alignment with the position
The hiring process for new candidates can be expensive and time-consuming. Hiring managers are looking for the closest person to a perfect fit that they can find. As your career progresses, you can expect to accumulate a lot of skills and experience. However, your resume may need only to include the experience that’s directly related to the position that you’re applying for.
The hiring process for new candidates can be expensive and time-consuming. Hiring managers are looking for the closest person to a perfect fit that they can find. As your career progresses, you can expect to accumulate a lot of skills and experience. However, your resume may need only to include the experience that’s directly related to the position that you’re applying for.
Interest in the position
Did you actually read the job description? It sounds silly, but many applicants send applications solely based on the title of the position. Hiring managers are looking for applicants who are interested in the position and the company. If you take the time to make a compelling case for why you’re the best applicant for a position, you’ll be much more likely to land the interview.
Did you actually read the job description? It sounds silly, but many applicants send applications solely based on the title of the position. Hiring managers are looking for applicants who are interested in the position and the company. If you take the time to make a compelling case for why you’re the best applicant for a position, you’ll be much more likely to land the interview.
Getting through the ATS
Many large companies, and even some smaller firms, implement applicant tracking systems (ATS) to help filter out candidates. ATSes automatically filter candidates based on the qualifications and skills specified in the job posting. For example, the hiring manager might specify certain criteria of “client interfacing” that are required for the job and automatically reject all applicants whose resumes don’t contain that term. Usually, only the applicants whose resumes make it through the ATS will be reviewed by a hiring manager.
Brittany Barragy added that tailoring a resume can ensure your application is flagged for the right reasons, but not all hiring firms leverage their ATS that way.
“The downside to this [using an ATS] is that some highly qualified candidates may be overlooked, even though they could bring significant value to the organization,” she said. “To help prevent this, recruiters with Bisnow and Select Leaders rely on skilled recruiters to review each applicant carefully, identifying the top candidates.”
Are There Any Risks Tailoring Your Resume to a Job Description?
Overdoing the tailoring of your resume
While you should find the skills from your experiences that match a position’s requirements, don’t outright lie or falsify certain skills. For hard skills like experience with software or specific legal knowledge, the hiring team will quickly find out if you’re lying or exaggerating. This can significantly damage your reputation, especially in relatively smaller industries, and may impact your chances of being hired in the future.
While you should find the skills from your experiences that match a position’s requirements, don’t outright lie or falsify certain skills. For hard skills like experience with software or specific legal knowledge, the hiring team will quickly find out if you’re lying or exaggerating. This can significantly damage your reputation, especially in relatively smaller industries, and may impact your chances of being hired in the future.
While you should select keywords from the job description to include in your resume, don’t go overboard with including every possible keyword from the job posting in your resume. This could come off as insincere, as most companies use job postings as a “wish list” rather than absolute requirements.
Keeping track of tailored resumes
As you alter and tweak your resume, you’ll create several versions of what feels like the same information. Double and triple check the spelling, grammar, and format of your new resumes. If you need help organizing all of your CRE resume versions, Select Leaders has an upload resume tool that you can use to keep track of all of your resumes. This makes it easy to identify and organize your tailored resumes into categories like employers by asset class, positions by job title or even by location.
Missing opportunities because of ATS-unfriendly resumes
Although tedious, we also recommend running the final draft of your latest resume iteration through an ATS checker to make sure your resume is compatible with ATS software. Some document formats can’t be understood by an ATS, which will result in your resume being rejected.
A Google search for “ATS checker” finds various options that offer free tools to check if your resume is ATS-friendly, including TopResume, Resume Worded, and EnchanCV. Keep in mind that some services that offer free tools to check your resume may later try to upsell you with subscriptions and other offers.
Resume Tailoring Tips for New vs. Experienced Applicants
Depending on your experience level and skills, you’ll need to tailor your resume to several potential positions across the CRE industry.
A CRE accountant, for example, may apply for an accounting associate, analyst, manager, or financial controller positions. All of these fit relatively under the same category of “controller” but have different specific requirements for skills.
How to tailor a resume to a job for new applicants
Fresh graduates and junior applicants have the difficult task of applying for positions with little to no direct industry experience. For these applicants, we have a few tips for drafting new resumes:
- Highlight relative coursework: Pick out school projects and assignments that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.
- GPA and accolades: Highlight your high-grade point average or awards and accolades that you’ve received while in school.
- Highlight hard skills: If you’ve accumulated certain hard skills necessary for success in CRE like financial modeling, tax and finance expertise, economic analysis, and developing budgets, these will make you stand out from other entry-level applicants.
- Fill in gaps: As you work on tailoring your resume, if you notice a skill that’s required across several job postings that you lack, work on gaining the experience to fill that gap. A short online course or a volunteer experience could be beneficial.
- Translate skills: Some skills, especially soft skills, are translatable across all professional fields. Communication, leadership, and analytical thinking are examples of soft skills CRE positions are looking for that can be gained in any position.
How to customize a resume for seasoned professionals/career changers
Professionals making a shift in their careers have the difficult task of organizing all their relevant experience across decades into a one- to two-page resume. We have tips on tailoring experienced resumes for job postings.
- Include all relevant experience: Most recruiters will recommend going over the one-page resume limit to fit all experience relevant to a position. If you want to demonstrate your seniority and the experience is genuinely related to the position, include it.
- Summary statement: Include a one-sentence summary of your professional career at the top of your resume so that hiring managers can remember and understand you.
- Formatting: Organize your resume logically, with the most relevant experience toward the top of the page. We also recommend looking up ATS-friendly templates, if your old resume was created before ATSes were widely implemented.
- Include a LinkedIn link: Recruiters and hiring managers may look at your social media to check your activity, mutual connections, recommendations, and relevant experience. Some may even reach out to you directly through LinkedIn.
Find Keywords in the Job Listing
Go through the job posting and pick out the keywords and skills most commonly highlighted. Some postings will list this under “required skills” or “responsibilities.” Examples of general CRE keywords are:
- Client service
- Problem-solving
- Analytical thinking
- Leadership
- Negotiation
- Communication
More role-specific hard skills may also be found in job postings. For each job application, choose keywords from the post to fit into your resume.
“If you are tailoring your resume but not getting responses, it's worth revisiting the keywords you’re using,” Brittany Barragy said.
AI tools for keyword identification
If you’re trying to efficiently filter through multiple job listings in one day and pick out the relevant keywords, try using AI software applications to quickly identify relevant keywords that you should put in your resume.
While some recruiters will tell you to avoid AI and AI tools, the cat is out of the bag with them. We don’t recommend excessive use of AI, especially when it comes to writing your resume and cover letter, but it can simplify tasks.
Try copying the job posting into a tool like ChatGPT and asking it to “please analyze this job posting for keywords I should use in my resume”. Results may vary, but this can be a good starting point for tailoring your resume.
We put this to the test using ChatGPT for a job posting on Select Leaders for an accounting position, and here is what it said: To tailor a resume effectively for the AVP accounting position, candidates should focus on the following keywords and skills extracted from the job description.
Core Skills and Responsibilities
- Accounting & Finance Operations
- General ledger (cash and accrual basis)
- Fixed asset capitalization policies
- Real estate or investment accounting
- Financial analysis and reporting for lenders, partners, and investors
- Compliance and Regulatory Expertise
- Insurance regulatory filings
- External auditor management
- CAM (common area maintenance) and lease administration
- Leadership and Team Development
- Supervising accounting teams (direct reports)
- Hiring and outsourcing solutions
- Developing high-performance teams
- Technology and Tools
- Advanced Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
- Knowledge of Yardi (preferred)
- Familiarity with SQL, Power BI, or similar tools
- Use of Accounts Payable Software (e.g., Nexus, PayScan)
- Strategic and Analytical Skills
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Variance analysis
- Process improvement for scalability
- Soft Skills
- Communication (written and oral)
- Time management
- Multitasking in a fast-paced environment
- Professional presence and teamwork
Additional Preferences
- Experience in real estate tax preparation or review
- Use of advanced Excel functions for reporting and visualization
- Familiarity with sustainable growth practices in financial processes
Check the company's about page and socials
Knowing more about the company can never hurt, especially in the interview process. But, with enough research into the company’s services page, about page, and socials, you may identify a few key areas that they’re struggling with that your specific skills can help. Matching your experience and language with their company goals can give you a secret leg up on other applicants. Also, it shows hiring managers and recruiters that you did your homework on the company, which means you’re sincerely interested.
“I do not think there is such thing as 'trying too hard' when it comes to your career search,” Brittney Acosta said. “As a recruiter, I love to see extra effort from candidates, including taking the time to tailor their resume to what we need.”
Update Your Resume Fields to Match the Job Posting
It may seem strange to copy the skills exactly as they’re listed and paste them in your resume, but this can actually be necessary to get through the ATS.
Some CRE skills like “financial planning” can mean different things. It could mean developing a budget, identifying a short-term (or long-term) financial goal, maximizing tax savings, ensuring compliance with tax regulations, and more. You may have expertise in one or more of these, but the posting may only list “experience ensuring compliance with tax regulations” as a necessary skill for the position.
In this example, we recommend replacing “financial planning” in your resume with the exact wording the job posting uses. This will ensure that the ATS picks up the skill and considers it when evaluating your resume.
That said, changing terms and keywords around can be a slippery slope. Don’t exaggerate your skills and experience too far, and be sure that you’re ready to back up the keywords and skills that you’re listing.
Compare Your Tailored Resume Using AI
Once you’ve optimized your resume for a job posting, it’s worth comparing the resume to the job posting to see if your experience matches the job posting. A mentor, coach, or trusted industry expert may be able to help, but this may have an added cost in terms of the time it takes for them to turn it around.
Try an AI tool to compare your resume with the job posting. Paste both the job description and your resume in the tool and then give it the prompt: Analyze my resume to see if it matches this job description.
The goal of this is to find pieces of your resume that may be irrelevant or gaps that you may need to fill with other experience you’ve gained. For example, if you’re an experienced property manager, but the posting you’re applying for refers to “property administration,” the AI tool will point this out. The tools can also be surprisingly effective at identifying those resume gaps we mentioned earlier.
Bottom Line: Should You Tailor Your Resume to Match a Job Description?
“Yes!” Brittney Acosta said. “Tailored resumes include keywords that will improve your chance of getting through any ATS system.”
You should be tailoring, tweaking, and customizing your resume for every application that you send in so you have the best chance of making it through the hiring process and landing that CRE job.
"The key is to be authentic," Brittany Barragy said. "Avoid exaggerating your resume to try to fit a specific mold. Tailoring should clarify and focus on your relevant strengths, without distorting the truth or making it seem like you’re trying too hard."
Sources
1 Jobvite by Employ, 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report, accessed 2024-11-25
