One CV doesn't fit every role

If you’re open to more than one kind of role, a backend position and an AI engineering one for example, a single CV ends up underselling you for both. The person reading it has a few minutes to see whether you fit this role, and the most relevant part of your experience shouldn’t be on page two.

Tailoring doesn’t mean rewriting your story for every application. It means keeping a version for each kind of role you’re going for, and sending the one that fits.

What’s worth tailoring

• The headline. One line that says what you do, in the vocabulary of the role: “Backend developer · Go, PostgreSQL” reads very differently from “AI engineer · retrieval systems, evaluation”.
• The summary. Two or three sentences about the work you want to do next, with the experience that backs it up.
• The order of your skills. Lead with what the role asks for. Keep the rest, lower down.
• Your links. A portfolio for a design role, your GitHub for an engineering one.
• Which projects get the most space in your CV.

What you should never change

The facts. Titles, dates, employers and degrees must be identical in every version. Tailoring is about emphasis, not invention. Hiring teams compare notes, and an inconsistency costs more than any headline gains.

Keep it to a handful

Most people need two or three versions, not ten. If you find yourself making a new one for every application, the versions are probably too specific. Aim for one per kind of role, then adjust the cover note if the application needs it.

How profiles work in Cortopus

In Cortopus, those versions are profiles, shown as a wallet of cards: one per kind of role.

• Each profile has its own CV, headline, about, skills and links, so you can tell them apart at a glance. Keep a General profile, plus a card for each kind of role.
• You pick one when you apply. The company receives a copy of that profile and its CV, as it was at that moment. If you edit the profile later, what they received doesn’t change.
• The profile’s name is yours alone. Call it “Plan B” if you like: the company never sees it, nor your CV labels or private notes.
• Your personal details are shared by all profiles: your name, phone, location and photo, so you only keep them up to date once.
• The CV builder helps you get it right. Write and export CVs inside Cortopus, with a score for how well applicant tracking systems can read them.

Start with the profile you use most, then duplicate it and tailor the copy for the next kind of role. That’s usually all it takes.

Written by the Cortopus team. Found something unclear or out of date? Tell us.