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Tailored resume

Tailor your resume to every job description, without inventing a thing

Sherpa tailors your resume to each job description by putting what's already true of you in the ad's own words. Across real applications, that raised the share of an ad's terms a resume covered from 46% to 70%. A quality check refuses any tool, skill or title your resume and answers don't support, so every line is still yours.

Step by step

How it works

  1. Your resume is the only source

    You upload your resume once, as a PDF, a .docx or a text file, and it becomes your main resume on your profile, where you can edit any line in place. Every tailored version starts from it, and no application ever changes it.

  2. You pick the job

    Tailoring starts when you press Prepare on a job you want to go for. Sherpa never prepares an application on its own, so nothing is written for a job you haven't chosen.

    Jobs on Sherpa's review list rated 92, 86 and 81, each with the reasons it fits and the gaps to prepare for, and the Prepare button beside each

  3. The ad's terms are sorted against your record

    Sherpa lists what the ad asks for, every skill, tool, domain and kind of work, and checks each one against your resume and your answers. Some are already on your resume. Some are true of you but written in other words. The rest aren't true, and they stay out.

  4. Only what's true is rewritten

    The bullets where the work happened are rewritten in the ad's words, and the ones the ad cares about move up. Then a quality check reads the result against the ad and against everything you've told Sherpa. Any tool, acronym, name or skill it can't trace back to your record is refused, and the draft is written again.

  5. Compare the two versions

    Your original resume and the tailored one sit side by side, with how many of the ad's keywords each covers and what changed. Open the comparison to read both in full, edit the tailored side where you want, and download either as a PDF.

    Sherpa's resume comparison: the original resume covers 57% of the ad's keywords, the custom resume for the role 71%, with What changed and Compare side-by-side

  6. Review the whole application, then apply yourself

    The tailored resume comes with a cover letter and answers to the application questions, written from the same record under the same rule. You read it all, tick that you've reviewed it, and press Apply now. Sherpa never submits anything.

    An application prepared by Sherpa: the tailored resume against the original, a cover letter and every application question answered, with Apply now waiting for the candidate's review

From real, live job ads

What it changes, in numbers

In short

  1. 46% → 70%of an ad's terms covered, before and after tailoring
  2. 1 in 4terms an ad asks for were true of the applicant, but missing from the resume
  3. 3 in 10terms were not true, and were left out on purpose

Data: real applications tailored against live job ads up to 26 September 2026, averaged across applications. The post breaks down every term and how it was counted.

The full story on the blogDo tailored resumes actually work? Reframing, yes. Fabrication, never.Where the 46% and the 70% come from, and where tailoring ends and lying on a resume begins.

Questions

Tailored resume: common questions

Does Sherpa add skills I don't have to my resume?

No. Every tool, skill, acronym, name and title in a tailored resume has to trace back to your resume or your answers. A quality check reads each draft before it reaches you and refuses one that adds anything your record doesn't support. Reframing is needed; fabrication is rejected.

Is the tailored resume ATS friendly?

Yes. An applicant tracking system reads text in order, so the tailored resume keeps to a single column of plain text under the usual headings, like Experience and Education, with nothing laid out in tables or boxes. Its PDF is real text you can select, and the comparison shows how many of the ad's terms it covers before you apply.

Will tailoring change my main resume?

No. Each application gets its own tailored copy, and your main resume stays as you wrote it. Only you change it, on your profile, and the next application starts from the new version.

Can I edit the tailored resume?

Yes. Open the side by side comparison and edit the tailored version in place, or download it as a PDF. The quality check binds only what Sherpa writes. What you write yourself is yours.

Does Sherpa write the cover letter too?

Yes. Each application packet has the tailored resume, a cover letter and answers to the application questions, all written from your real experience under the same rule. When a job's questions can't be read, Sherpa prepares the resume and the cover letter on their own.

Also in Sherpa

The rest of your job search

  1. Job fit rating: know why a job fits before you read the adA score from 0 to 100 against your resume, with the reasons on both sides and the deal breakers first.5 stepsHow it works
  2. Job search automation that reads every ad for youYour searches run on their own, every ad is read to the end, and only the ones worth a look reach you.6 stepsHow it works

A resume tailored to every job, without a single invented line

Upload your resume, pick a job, and read the tailored version beside your original before anything is sent.

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