Every job seeker understands that customizing a resume to the job for which you are applying isn’t just important; it’s a necessity. However, that approach often means you can’t have a resume ready for every job that may catch your interest. But what if you could always have a resume ready? And what if that didn’t require you to create handfuls of separate resumes?
Well, there is a way always to have the perfect resume ready to go without having to jam your hard drive full of different documents. If you want to know the secret to the “always ready” resume, here’s what you need to know.
The ideal way to always have the right resume on hand is to create a personal working resume. This document is for your eyes only and will contain information on every position you’ve held, every educational opportunity you seized, and every accomplishment you have ever had. It serves as a master key for the cumulative experience you had gained over the course of your life, no matter when it happened, listed in chronological order.
Additionally, there are no size limits or content restrictions, so you can contain any detail that may be relevant for future employment opportunities. But why would you create such a document when it isn’t sent out to employers? Because it contains everything you will ever need for a resume.
When a job opportunity arises, you don’t have to pull an old resume up and start revising it one line at a time to meet the needs for the position. Instead, you open your personal working resume and extract the pieces you need and bypassing the sections that aren’t pertinent in this situation.
Essentially, you have created a method for cutting and pasting together every resume you would ever need, and you may not have to rewrite a single word.
Since your efforts are directed at a single base file, you only have to update information in one location to keep everything current. As you learn new skills, acquire new duties, or experience new accomplishments, you add the new data to the existing file. Effectively, you have centralized the maintenance of your entire career file. One maintenance tip is to keep that document from getting too bulky. If you have 50 bullet points to choose from, that can become extremely tedious. Keep the master file clean with an occasional maintenance phase.
Once you begin relying on a specific tool like a personal working resume, it is critical to backup the data on a regular basis. This can include keeping a secondary copy on an external hard drive, saved in an email, or through a cloud-based storage service.
Regardless of your preferred mechanism, make sure to also save updated version to multiple locations. That way, should the original become damaged or lost, you don’t have to start the endeavor from scratch.
If you are interested in more tips for maintaining a personal working resume or are looking for new positions to which you can apply, Validity Solutions has the experience required to get you on the right track. Contact us to speak with a skilled IT recruiter in Orlando today.