I've been hunting for a new job. Should I adjust my job title for each application?

I’ve been advised to tailor my resume by changing my job title to match the roles I’m applying for...

Titles mean nothing. I worked for one company where most of the employees had the title "Member of the Technical Staff", or "Senior Member of the Technical Staff". Titles are company or even project dependent. They don't translate into what other companies call them unless the title is defined either by law of industry standard.

If you change the title you may run into the issue that If they check your background the old company might respond with your actual tile, which you might have to explain.

... and adjust the content to fit the job descriptions. The issue is that if I do that, my resume won’t be entirely truthful since I don’t have the exact skills these jobs require.

This sounds like an awful idea. As described it sounds like your description of what you accomplished, produced, or were responsible for would be fiction.

When you can't actually do those things you risk being caught. It could be in the interview, or the background check, or in the first few days on the job.

Plus, if a recruiter checks my LinkedIn profile, they’ll see that my title was an architect, not an analyst or engineer, which could raise questions

That makes it even more complicated because how would you make sure that recruiters for position X see a different work history than the recruiters for position Y.

So what can you do?

The things you highlight in the resume, and the things you mention in the cover letter can vary for each job application.

If company X mentions in the job description Windows, and you did both Windows and Linux, make sure you mention Windows in the resume. Don't expect them to guess.

If they want somebody with some hardware experience, and you did that during the first 6 months while waiting to be assigned to a project, then mention it.

Don't lie, just highlight different aspects of your actual experience.

Imagine this. If they only allowed you three bullet points regarding why they should hire you based on your experience; the three you pick can vary for each application.

I’ve been advised to tailor my resume by changing my job title to match the roles

That sounds reasonable to me. The problem here is NOT that you are fudging your resume but that your employer aggressively inflated the job title. You can always add a bullet official job title: "cybersecurity architect" and talk through the discrepancy when the questions comes up. As long as your skills and accomplishments are accurate, the title is malleable.

... and adjust the content to fit the job descriptions.

Lying or misrepresenting on your resume is a terrible idea. It's a sure fire way to not get the job and get blacklisted on top of that. That's even more true for a security role.

Make sure that you understand what they are recommending. Your resume/CV should look something like

Man_castle
City, State
[email protected] +01 234.567.8901

Job Title you want
Summary of skills that you have

EXPERIENCE

Information about jobs that you have had (including the official title)

You should change the 'job title that you want' for each employer to which you apply to match what they are seeking. You should not change the titles of jobs that you have had. That's history. The job title that you want is a future goal. Change it as necessary.

You should also change the summary of skills section to emphasize the skills for which the employer is looking. For example, if you know both C# and Node.js, you should advertise C# to the Windows jobs and Node.js to the Linux jobs. Or if you have MySQL experience but not SQL Server, you might advertise SQL to the Windows jobs (MySQL is a kind of SQL) and MySQL to the Linux jobs.

You should not advertise skills that you do not actually have. You should emphasize skills that you have that match what they need.

If this is going to be your second professional job, it is reasonable for your CV to be one page. This should leave plenty of room to bullet point your professional accomplishments at your first job. Quantify them if possible. I.e. it is better to say, "Reduced fake form submissions by 90%" than just "Reduced fake form submissions". Again, these numbers should be truthful.

For a second job, it still makes sense to talk about academic achievements. Bullet point any of those that seem useful. Again, you can emphasize ones that are relevant to the job you seek.

Security architect is a better job title than security analyst. In your cover letter, you can explain that it was a small company that hired you as the primary security analyst. However, you feel that with "insert employer name here" your experience would better fit a security analyst. Don't try to explain things in the CV. A cover letter is a much better place for that.