Posted By Amanda Collins on September 4, 2010

I can’t tell you how many times clients have come to me asking for a “general” resume. When I started this game nearly 15 years ago, that’s pretty much all there was: you listed your career history in bullet form on one page and hoped the reader figured out where you best fit. Now, however, it’s a totally different situation.

Your resume truly is a marketing document, and it needs to be tailored to the position you want. Now, employers are wading through hundreds of resumes for each position, so they don’t have time to ascertain what you want to be when you grow up and then try to figure out if you fit with what they want. Truly, they’re looking for reasons to exclude resumes rather than include them.

So what’s the answer? If you’re looking at a few different opportunities, create different resumes. If they’re within the same industry, about 95% of the documents can stay the same; you’ll just change the title, summary, and keywords. If they’re vastly different focus areas, though, you’ll need a few different approaches.

Remember the adage, “You have to be specific to be terrific.” It’s definitely the best approach in a competitive job market, and it will land you more opportunities than having a one-size-fits-all resume. We women know those never fit right anyway.

Category: Resumes
Tags: Resumes