One CV, three job adverts: a before and after

Advice about tailoring a CV is easy to agree with and hard to picture. So in this post we take one CV and tailor it for three different job adverts, and show what changes each time.

Alex Morgan is fictional, and so are the three adverts and the employers on the CV. They are the same example we use elsewhere on MyCVStack. The tailored versions below were written by hand for this post, following the same rules our tailoring uses: reorder, rephrase, emphasise and trim, and keep every line true. They trim harder than MyCVStack does by default, which keeps every role and achievement and condenses the less relevant ones.

The starting CV

Alex has worked in three roles since 2017, which makes them a good example: their background genuinely fits more than one kind of job.

Summary: Data and reporting analyst with 7 years' experience across IT support, project coordination and reporting. Builds SQL and Power BI reporting that managers use every week, and coordinated a CRM rollout to 300 users.

Data and Reporting Analyst, Contoso Ltd (Mar 2022 – present)

• Built 14 Power BI dashboards on SQL Server data, used weekly by operations and finance managers.
• Automated the monthly service report with SQL and Power Query, cutting preparation time from 2 days to 3 hours.
• Cleaned and merged customer data from three legacy systems, removing 12,000 duplicate records.
• Coordinated a 4-month move of team reporting from Excel to Power BI, including training for 40 staff.

IT Project Coordinator, Northwind Traders (Jan 2020 – Feb 2022)

• Coordinated the rollout of a new CRM to 300 users across 5 sites, keeping plans, risks and actions in Jira and Confluence.
• Organised user acceptance testing with 25 staff, tracking 180 test cases to sign-off.
• Ran weekly status meetings and reported progress to the steering group.

IT Support Analyst (2nd line), Fabrikam Inc (Sep 2017 – Dec 2019)

• Resolved incidents and service requests in ServiceNow for 600 users, meeting SLA on 96% of tickets.
• Built ServiceNow reports on ticket volumes and SLA breaches for the monthly service review.
• Managed Microsoft 365 accounts and licences, and set up laptops for new starters.
• Wrote 35 knowledge-base articles for common password, VPN and printer issues.

Skills: SQL, Excel, Power Query, Power BI, DAX · ServiceNow, Microsoft 365, ITIL 4 · Jira, Confluence, user acceptance testing, stakeholder reporting.

Certifications: Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (2023) · ITIL 4 Foundation (PeopleCert, 2018).

Education: BSc Business Information Systems, University of Sheffield (2014–2017).

The summary's "7 years" is Alex's own wording. Tailoring doesn't change numbers, so updating it is left to Alex.

It is a solid CV, but it is written for no job in particular.

Advert 1: Data Analyst at an energy supplier

The advert wants someone to turn operational data into reliable reporting: SQL against a SQL Server warehouse, Power BI with DAX, automating manual reports, fixing data quality at the source, and explaining numbers to non-analysts. Python, Tableau and energy-sector experience are nice to have.

This is closest to Alex's current job, so the changes sharpen rather than restructure.

Summary, after: Data and reporting analyst with over 4 years' experience building SQL and Power BI reporting on SQL Server data for operations and finance managers. Has automated a monthly service report and cleaned and merged customer data from three legacy systems, with a background in IT support and project coordination.

What changed:

• The summary now leads with the parts of the job the advert describes: SQL Server, Power BI, automation, data quality.
• The data-cleaning bullet ("removing 12,000 duplicate records") moves up to second place, because data quality is a whole line in the advert.
• The training bullet is reworded to bring out the communication side: "trained 40 staff" is evidence of explaining data to people who aren't analysts.
• The IT support role shrinks to two bullets, keeping the one about ServiceNow reporting, which is still reporting work.
• DAX moves to the front of the skills list next to Power BI.
• The Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification moves up, next to the Power BI skills.

What didn't change: Alex has no Python, no Tableau and no energy-sector experience, so none of those appear. They are nice-to-haves, and the CV is strong on every must-have without them.

Advert 2: IT Support Engineer at a law firm

This one asks for at least 2 years of 2nd-line support, ServiceNow or a similar ITSM tool, Microsoft 365 administration, laptop builds for new starters, knowledge-base writing and a patient manner with non-technical users. ITIL 4 Foundation, Intune and networking basics are nice to have.

Alex's most relevant experience here is their oldest role, which is the interesting case.

Summary, after: IT professional with over 2 years of 2nd-line support in ServiceNow for 600 users, including Microsoft 365 administration, new-starter laptop setup and knowledge-base writing. Has since coordinated a CRM rollout to 300 users and moved into SQL and Power BI reporting.

What changed:

• The summary is rewritten around the support role, even though it is not the most recent.
• In the IT Support Analyst role, all four bullets stay. The knowledge-base bullet moves up, because the advert has a whole line about how-to guides.
• The project role keeps the CRM rollout and the user acceptance testing with 25 staff, both of which show work with people outside IT.
• The data role is trimmed to the bullets that relate: reporting on service data and training staff.
• Skills lead with ServiceNow, Microsoft 365 and ITIL 4, and the ITIL 4 Foundation certificate moves up: the advert names it, and Alex really holds it.

What didn't change, and why it matters: the advert also asks for Intune and networking basics, and Alex has neither on the CV. Intune simply stays out. Networking is the more tempting one: the CV mentions VPN issues in knowledge-base articles, but that is not evidence of VPN troubleshooting at a network level, so it isn't stretched into one.

Advert 3: Project Coordinator at a housing association

The third advert is for keeping project plans, RAID logs and action trackers in Jira and Confluence, organising user acceptance testing, minuting meetings, weekly status reports to a project board, and coordinating training for staff affected by rollouts. PRINCE2 or Scrum training, Microsoft Project and housing or public-sector experience are nice to have.

Summary, after: IT project coordinator who has kept plans, risks and actions in Jira and Confluence for a CRM rollout to 300 users across 5 sites, organised user acceptance testing with 25 staff to sign-off, ran weekly status meetings and reported progress to the steering group. Since then, has coordinated a move to Power BI including training for 40 staff.

What changed:

• In the project role, the UAT bullet stays near the top, since the advert gives testing its own line. "Ran weekly status meetings and reported progress to the steering group" also stays high, because the advert asks for weekly status reports. It is not rewritten as "weekly status reports", because the CV doesn't say the reports themselves were weekly.
• In the data role, the Excel-to-Power BI migration moves to the top: it was a 4-month project with training, which is exactly the kind of rollout the advert describes.
• The IT support role shrinks to one line.
• Skills lead with Jira, Confluence, user acceptance testing and stakeholder reporting.

What didn't change: no PRINCE2, no Scrum, no Microsoft Project and no housing experience, because the CV has none of them. The advert calls them nice to have, and Alex meets every requirement without them.

What stayed the same in all three

It is worth looking at what tailoring left alone:

• Every employer, job title and date. The IT Support Analyst role is never retitled "IT Support Engineer" to match the advert.
• Every number. 14 dashboards, 12,000 duplicates, 96% of tickets, 180 test cases. Numbers are moved and reworded around, never changed or invented.
• The education, certifications and languages, apart from their order.
• Anything Alex would struggle to explain in an interview. Every line in each version is something Alex actually did.

The CVs differ in order, emphasis, wording and length, which is what tailoring is.

The takeaway

If your background is varied, you do not need to hide it or invent a straighter career path. You need to decide, for each job, which part of your real experience leads, and let the rest support it.

That is what MyCVStack does with your CV for each advert you paste in: it reorders, rephrases, emphasises and trims, so every line is still one you can talk about in the interview. You review and edit the result before you download it, and each version is kept with its advert. Create a free account to try it on your own CV.