Resume Tailor

---
name: resume-tailor
description: Tailor a resume or CV to one job posting without adding anything that isn't true: reorder, cut and reword what the person has already done so the posting's needs are answered first, keep every employer, title, date and number as it was, and report what the posting asks for that the resume cannot claim. A script lists every figure and name in the draft that the original doesn't contain. Works for any occupation and level. Use when the user says "tailor my resume for this job", "adapt my CV to this posting", "rewrite my resume for this role", or pastes a job description next to their resume.
---

# resume-tailor

You rewrite one person's resume for one job. Everything in the result was already true and
already theirs: you choose what leads, what is cut and how it is worded. You do not add an
employer, a title, a tool, a certificate or a number. The person signs this document and is
questioned on it at interview, so a claim they cannot back costs them the job later. It works
the same for any occupation; the posting sets the priorities and the resume sets the limits.

## How to respond

These four rules outrank the steps below.

- **Answer first.** The reply opens with the tailored resume, or the name of the file it is
  in. No note about how it was made comes before it.
- **Use only what you were given.** The source is the person's resume plus anything they
  told you. The posting says what to emphasise; it is never a source of facts about them.
- **Deliver from what you have.** A thin resume gets a tight, honest one-page result, not
  questions before any work is done.
- **Write for the recruiter.** The file contains the resume and nothing else: no notes,
  no placeholders, no brackets, no mention of this skill.

1. **Read everything the person gave you.** From the posting take the requirements in the
   employer's words, required before preferred. From the resume take every job, date, title,
   qualification, tool and number. The person's own material also counts as a source: facts
   they tell you, and any file they point to, such as a LinkedIn summary, a portfolio page
   or a project's README. Save every fact that is not in the resume to `notes.md`, with
   where it came from.

   When the posting is a link, read the full text. If you cannot open it, say so and ask for
   the text pasted in. Never rebuild a posting from what you remember of the employer.

2. **Decide what leads.** For each requirement find the resume lines that answer it. Lines
   that answer a required item move up within their job; lines that answer nothing in this
   posting are shortened or cut. Jobs stay in the order the resume had them, and none is
   removed if removing it would open a gap in the dates. A fact the person told you that
   answers the posting goes where a recruiter sees it early, not at the bottom.

3. **Reword, within these limits:**
   - **Fixed:** employer names, job titles, dates, qualifications, licences, and every
     number. Copy them exactly. "Teacher" does not become "Learning Designer".
   - **Free:** word order, verbs, which detail comes first, and using the posting's term for
     something the resume already shows. "Built the weekly roster" may become "scheduled a
     team of 12" because the resume says both things.
   - **Never:** a tool, method, platform or certificate the resume doesn't name; a bigger
     team, budget or scope; a result or percentage the resume doesn't give; a length of time
     the dates of that job don't add up to; "familiar with" as a way to list something unused.
   - A similar tool stays itself: ECS is not Kubernetes, Cerner is not Epic. You may name
     the category it belongs to ("container orchestration on AWS ECS").

4. **Write the summary last**, two or three lines at the top, built only from lines below it.
   Use the resume's own job title, not the posting's.

5. **Work in the resume's own format.** Many resumes are built from a source file: Typst,
   LaTeX, Word, a resume builder's data file. Find that file and edit a copy of it, named
   `resume-<employer>` with the same extension, beside the original. Never edit the original
   or anything else in its project. Keep the source valid: its imports, its escapes (`\$`,
   `\&`), its structure. Build the copy the way the original is built when the tool is
   there (`typst compile`, `pdflatex`), and look at the page count of what comes out. If you
   cannot build it, say so and give the command; do not describe a PDF you did not make.

6. **Treat the page count as a budget.** The result has no more pages than the original.
   Anything you add is paid for with a cut, and every line you cut is reported in the reply
   with a few words on why, so the person can ask for it back. Cut what answers nothing in
   this posting first: older roles' detail before recent roles', a third example of the same
   point before the only example of another.

7. **Keep it sendable.** Same sections as the original; one
   column, standard headings, no tables, images or text boxes, so application systems can
   parse it. Keep the person's contact details, spelling convention and the word they use
   (resume or CV). Do not add a photo, date of birth or anything the original left out.
   Employment gaps stay as the original shows them.

8. **Write a new file** beside the original: `resume-<employer>.md` for a text or Markdown
   resume, or the copy from step 5. Never overwrite the original.

9. **Run the check and resolve every line it prints:**

   ```
   python3 ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/claim_check.py resume-<employer>.md --source <original> --posting <posting>
   ```
   In non-Claude IDEs the same file is at a plain relative path:
   `python3 scripts/claim_check.py resume-<employer>.md --source <original> --posting <posting>`.
   Add `--source notes.md` when you saved notes. It lists figures and names the original
   doesn't contain, and wording shared only with the posting. For each line, point to the
   source line that shows the same thing or take it out. Rerun until what remains is wording
   you can trace. If you cannot run it, do the same check by reading.

10. **Reply in this order, briefly:**
   - the file name, or the resume itself when you cannot write files;
   - **What changed**: four to six lines;
   - **Cut**: each line you removed, with a few words on why. Say "nothing cut" when so;
   - **Added from outside the resume**: each fact that came from what they told you or from
     another file, with where it came from, for them to confirm before sending;
   - **Not claimed**: each thing the posting asks for that the resume doesn't support, so the
     person knows what the employer will notice;
   - **Would be stronger with**: up to five short questions whose answers you could add,
     such as a missing number, or a tool they may have used and not listed.

**With a resume and no posting**, tailor to the role the person names and say the posting
would sharpen it; if they name no role, ask for the posting in one line. **With no resume**,
build one only from what the person tells you about their history, and say what is missing.

## Quality bar

- **Every employer, title, date, qualification and number matches the original exactly.**
- **Nothing is in the result that is not in the original or the person's own words.**
- **The posting's required items are answered in the top half**, wherever the resume can.
- **The file can be sent as it is**: no placeholders, notes or brackets.
- **What the resume cannot claim is reported to the person, not papered over.**
- **Nothing is cut silently and nothing from outside the resume is added silently.**
- **The original file and its project are untouched.**

## When to use this skill

- ✅ Adapting a resume or CV to a specific posting, in any field
- ✅ Producing versions of one resume for several different roles
- ✅ A career change, where the same history must answer a different job's needs

## When NOT to use this skill

- ❌ Deciding whether to apply at all. Use `job-fit-analysis`.
- ❌ Writing the covering letter. Use `cover-letter`.
- ❌ Reviewing a resume's quality with no job in mind. Use `doc-critique`.

## Anti-patterns to avoid

- ❌ **Keyword stuffing.** Listing the posting's tools in the skills line because a filter
  looks for them. It reads as a lie at interview.
- ❌ **Inventing a metric.** "Improved efficiency by 30%" where the resume gave no figure.
- ❌ **Promoting the title** to match the posting.
- ❌ **Placeholders in the file**: "[X%]", "[add metric]". Questions go in the reply.
- ❌ **Smoothing over a gap** by changing dates or dropping months.
- ❌ **Rewriting everything.** A recruiter should still recognise the person's own career.
- ❌ **A longer resume than the original.** Tailoring cuts.
- ❌ **A silent cut.** The person finds out at interview that their favourite line is gone.
- ❌ **Converting the format.** A Typst or Word resume handed back as Markdown loses the
  design the person chose and cannot be sent.
- ❌ **Claiming a build.** "The PDF is two pages" when no PDF was produced.
- ❌ **Showing the machinery.** No mention of the check, this skill, or how the file was made.