How to Research a Company Before Tailoring Your CV
Beyond keyword matching
The most basic CV tailoring is keyword matching — ensuring your CV's language mirrors the job description's terminology. This is important and measurable (it affects your ATS score).
But the best-performing tailored CVs go one level deeper: they demonstrate understanding of the employer's specific context. Not just what they're hiring for — but why, what they care about, and what success in this role looks like to them.
This requires research. Here's how to do it efficiently.
What to research and where to find it
The job description itself (always)
Start here. Beyond the obvious keyword extraction, read the job description for:
Signals about company culture: "Fast-paced environment", "collaborative culture", "entrepreneurial mindset" — these tell you what they value.
Signals about the specific challenge: Many JDs describe the problem the role is solving. "We're entering a new market and need..." or "Following rapid growth, we're building..." — this tells you what success looks like in the first 90 days.
Signals about team structure: "Reporting to the VP of Marketing", "working closely with the engineering team", "you'll be the first hire in this function" — all useful context for tailoring.
The company's website
Company values pages, About Us sections, product or service pages. Look for:
- What they emphasise about their product and mission
- The language they use to describe themselves (borrow it in your cover letter)
- Recent product announcements or expansions that signal direction
The company's LinkedIn page for:
- Recent posts (what are they talking about publicly?)
- Recent hires in the team you're joining (what background do they typically hire from?)
- The hiring manager's profile (what did they work on before? What do they post about?)
Press and news
Google the company name + "news" for recent coverage. Look for:
- Funding rounds (a Series B company has different pressures from a bootstrapped or FTSE 100)
- Leadership changes (a new CEO often signals a strategic shift)
- Product launches or market expansions
- Any controversy or challenge they're navigating
Glassdoor and similar
For cultural insight and to understand whether the role is typically filled by promotion, lateral hire, or external candidate.
How this research shapes your tailored CV
The research primarily informs your:
Personal profile: "Seeking a role at a company entering a new market" or "Senior marketing professional with experience leading function-building at Series B stage" — specific signals that you understand their context.
Cover letter: The most direct vehicle for demonstrating company-specific knowledge. Reference something specific from your research.
Bullet point selection: If research reveals the company is laser-focused on efficiency, lead with your cost-reduction and process-improvement achievements. If they're in growth mode, lead with your scaling and demand generation experience.
How long should research take?
For a priority application: 20–30 minutes of research before tailoring.
For a standard application: 5–10 minutes — a quick read of the company website and a LinkedIn scan.
For exploratory applications: the JD research alone is sufficient.
The research-tailoring connection
Research makes your tailoring more targeted. Instead of adding all possible keywords, you add the keywords that matter most given what you know about the company's current situation.
A company that just raised Series A funding is prioritising growth. Tailor toward growth-related achievements. A company in cost-reduction mode values efficiency. Tailor toward operational improvement.
CVCircuit handles the keyword matching automatically. The company research is your strategic layer on top — informing which aspects of your experience to lead with.
Build your CV free in CVCircuit. Tailor with the right keywords in 60 seconds. Layer research to make your tailoring strategic.