TL;DR: Tailor them to the specific job offer.

1 - Breaking down the job offer and identifying the skills

My first step is to break down the job offer to anything that I can identify (whether relevant or not to me, as whether it’s in my set of skills or not). For example, for this totally random job offer:

The project focuses on beak morphology of the global radiation of birds (>10,000 species). You will apply statistical approaches borrowed from quantitative genetics to characterise trait correlations within and among species. These data and tools will be used to (i) determine the consistency and strength of constraints acting on species phenotypes across scales from within-species to among-clades, and (ii) use phylogenetic comparative approaches to evaluate the scale at which changes in the volume, shape and orientation of trait covariance drives macroevolutionary variation in phenotypic disparity, species diversity, and phenotypic discontinuity.

I can split it into the following aspects for which I can identify potential requirements:

a - “the global radiation of birds (>10,000 species)”

• Being a bird nerd!
• Large datasets

b - “Using statistical approaches borrowed from quantitative genetics to characterise trait correlations”

• Quantitative genetics
• Characterising trait correlations
• Borrowing stats from other fields

c - “determine the consistency and strength of constraints acting on species phenotypes across scales”

• Determining consistency/strength
• Working on things acting on species phenotype
• Working on things across scales

d - “use phylogenetic comparative approaches to evaluate changes”

• Using comparative methods
• Learning new approaches

2 - Choosing from that list what skills you can demonstrate the best and what makes you outstanding (compared to other candidates).

From that list, choose the several points where you stand out the best (i.e. for which you can demonstrate the coolest skills/potential).

a - “the global radiation of birds (>10,000 species)”

• Being a bird nerd!

Choosing this point, I’ll highlight that I’m a big bird nerd. However, I’ll have to justify what makes me more especially nerdy: e.g. I will be saying something like:

“I know five bird species that I can clearly identify when pointed out to me”

• Large datasets

Which might be a bit weak for the required job. However, luckily, I’m not to bad a working with large datasets.

“I have experience in working with large datasets, specifically I have been working on this project where I had to handle the data for 8748 species (link to that project/paper).”

3 - Maybe think of any additional skills that you think would fit nicely

You can also complement this list with bits that where actually not highlighted by the recruiters that would complement the skills you already have and want to put forward.

For example in this example I’m not a bird nerd but I’m actually a computer nerd. So maybe an extra aspect I could put forward that’s not in the job offering is that I could implement these new methods in reproducible pipelines or portable tools!

e - Implementing the methods into a new software

• Being a computer nerd

I can do computers! So I can say something like that to add to the project:

“Furthermore I am keen to develop and implement these new methods into portable tools. I have already experience in doing this with this and that project and this has brought increased visibility/citation (insert brag about download numbers or what not).”

4 - Once all your strengths matching with the job offer have been identified you can start drafting the cover letter/narrative CV to match the offer

You write it your style! I literally take the bullet points identified above with quotes and write around that.

For example:

Dear person,

I would like to apply for this job. I like jobs. Specifically I meet the requirements as follows:

1. "the global radiation of birds (>10,000 species)"
I have experience in working with large datasets, specifically I have been working on this project where I had to handle the data for 8749 species (link to that project/paper).

2. Implementing the methods into a new software
Furthermore I am keen to develop and implement these new methods into portable tools. I have already experience in doing this with this and that project and this has brought increased visibility/citation (insert brag about download numbers or what not).

Giz cash plz.
Cheers,
T.

5 - CV

For the CV I have a master CV with everything I have a record for and then I just remove things not relevant for this particular job (e.g. here nobody cares that I did 11 years of grape picking - note that could maybe be a positive if there were fieldwork involved and I have never done fieldwork, this could demonstrate that I can do physical outdoor work reliably).

Everything is transferable to an extent. You can rethink your past experiences into general/transferable skills. For example you’ve done a lot of stats but the job don’t care: this shows that you’re a keen learner and that you are competent at getting things done not just stats.

6 - out of academia

Outside of academia CVs are maybe more flashy (e.g. using some different design, adding a picture) and have more “bragging” elements. This can be because of sometimes the more specific requirements of the job that are more valued by the organism hiring you (e.g. being a nice person to chat to; being outgoing; being resilient in stressful situations, etc.).

One useful thing is to swap things around in the CV depending on what is more important or not (e.g. does the work require more fieldwork: put that forward first; if it’s teaching, put teaching first, etc.).

In the end there is a big human element: you are a person with a history that you cannot change/fake and you’re being hired by people that also have a history, they will try to choose you with the best faith/objectivity they can but they are not objective and they are biased.