Guide
How to find jobs that match your résumé
A match isn’t a job title that sounds like yours. It is a posting whose requirements your résumé can show: the skills it asks for, evidence of them in your work, and the experience, field and right to work it needs. Here is how to find those — by hand, and with JAOS.
The idea
What makes a job a match
Six things decide whether a posting is one you can win. In rough order of weight:
- The skills the posting asks for — the required ones above all
- Evidence of those skills in your work, not just a list of them
- The right level of experience for the role
- A field or industry you know
- The right to work there, or a job that sponsors you
- The education the posting asks for
A job that fits on the first two is worth your time even if it is short on the rest. A job that misses on them rarely is, however good the title sounds.
The method
Finding matching jobs, step by step
Each step is what to do yourself — and, under it, the part JAOS does for you.
- 01
Write down what you actually have
Your skills, how long you have done this kind of work, the field you work in, and whether you need visa sponsorship. Be honest: this list is what every posting gets compared against.
With JAOS: Upload your résumé, a PDF or a .docx file, and JAOS reads your skills, experience and field from it.
- 02
Split each posting into must-haves and nice-to-haves
The skills a posting lists first, repeats, or calls required matter most. A job where you miss a must-have is a long shot, however well the rest fits.
With JAOS: Core skills carry the most weight in your match score — 45 of 100 points.
- 03
Check that your résumé shows it, not just says it
A skill in a list is weaker than a line where you used it. For each must-have, find the bullet in your work history that proves it.
With JAOS: Résumé evidence — skills shown in your work, not only listed — is 25 of 100.
- 04
Check the level, the field and the paperwork
Is the role pitched at your seniority? Is it in a field you know? Can you take it where it is, and do you have the education it asks for?
With JAOS: Experience level and domain are 10 and 10 points; work authorization and education are 5 and 5.
- 05
Rule out the dealbreakers early
A security clearance you don’t hold, a citizens-only role, no visa sponsorship when you need it, a staffing agency when you want a direct hire, a listing that looks long abandoned — find these before you spend an evening on the application.
With JAOS: Turn on filters that hide jobs needing a clearance, citizens-only jobs, jobs with no sponsorship, staffing agencies and likely ghost jobs. Each is off until you turn it on.
- 06
Apply where you are strongest first
Rank what is left and start at the top. A few applications where you clearly fit are a better use of your time than many where you don’t.
With JAOS: Every job is scored out of 100 and placed in a tier — Excellent, Strong, Moderate or Weak — with the skills you match and the ones you’re missing beside it.
Once you’ve found one
Tailor it, apply, track it
Tailor your résumé to the job — one credit — and get a report of the posting’s keywords your résumé already had, the ones added, and the ones still missing. The JAOS browser extension then fills in the application on sites like Greenhouse, Lever and Workday; you check it and submit. Your pipeline keeps track of it from Applied to Offered.
The honest line
A score is a guide, not a promise
A match score tells you where you fit; it can’t tell you how a particular employer will screen applications, and no tool can. What it does is show you, for every job, what you have and what you’re missing — so you spend your applications where they count.