Too many people make the same mistake on their resume — and it makes finding a job much harder

It's fussy and time-consuming, but the secret to job-hunting success is tailoring your resume to every single position you apply for, says Heather Barker, director of human resources for oil and gas company TGS.

Each employer looks for a unique combination of skills and experience, and you should do your best to align your resume with the profile of each company's ideal candidate (while remaining honest, of course). To figure out this profile, read the job advertisement thoroughly.

Additionally, employers want to hire people who understand the company culture and share its values. To discern these details, check out the company's website and social media accounts and talk to current or former employees.

Many companies run job seekers' resumes through applicant tracking systems designed to search for specific keywords. Resumes that don't contain these magic words are automatically discarded.

Keywords often are present in job advertisements, so be sure to read each one carefully to identify phrases that will ensure your resume makes the cut. After you've picked the keywords out, "make sure those appear at least once and preferably more than once in a resume and cover letter," Akbar says.

Additionally, she recommends saving space on your resume for a "separate section of core competencies," or a list of skills. These should contain probable keywords and mirror the requirements of the job you're seeking, plus include anything else relevant to the industry in general. On a resume for a position in computer science, for example, list the coding languages and software you know how to use that the job will require.

Employers look for people whose career experience closely matches the responsibilities of the job for which they're hiring, which means that a specific job title might be a keyword. If you've never held a position with the exact title of the one for which you're applying, but your responsibilities were a match, explain that with a brief phrase in parentheses, Akbar says: Associate People Coordinator (human resources associate).

Even though every employer has unique needs, most share a few common goals, Akbar says. Her list of skills for resumes includes these abilities:

· Increase revenue

· Save time

· Make processes more efficient

· Solve problems

· Improve the company's reputation

· Prevent liabilities

· Cut costs

If you have job skills that can help meet these needs, include them on your resume. Explain how you've used them in previous jobs in a way that makes it immediately clear to a hiring manager how you will use them at his or her company.

Other skills for resumes include proficiency or fluency in languages other than English, which are assets in the increasingly global economy. Make sure to include those, too.