Resume Question 👋😅📝
Resume question for all of you, also Hi!
For those of us with squiggly career paths and a ton of transferable skills, do you suggest having different versions of our resumes?
I know it’s ideal to write a tailored resume for a particular job description, but when it’s apply through LinkedIn or indeed where you store a standard resume it’s difficult to do so. How does a job seeker navigate that? If you are applying to generally the same types of roles, a solid base that is tweakable is fine. But if applying to different roles, I dont suggest one generalized resume i wonder how hard and time consuming it is to apply to different roles and tailor resumes accordingly 🙈 shouldn't be too hard if you are applying to similar roles, but it takes more time for sure.
I already struggle with a general resume as far as nuance, relevance etc (especially as a disabled nueodivergent person) and often just get stuck in tasking freeze mode as often I can see things cross applying but should I spend a paragraph on it? who knows not me
I was in a somewhat similar situation a couple of times, although for a different set of reasons. I used to work on highly sensitive programs and under sensitive organisations, sometimes front organisations, sometimes plausibly deniable ones, sometimes deep national centres that didn't exist on a map. Add to this secrecy of delicacy of work, plus work that involved Russian and American sides, plus Middle East sometimes, plus commie world...
Bottom line in my case: my work wasn't a topic for conversations.
So once I got clearances and left for the wide world (of work and otherwise), the issue was how to present my past work while being restricted in what and how to present.
This is what I think might assist you and many in situations similar to yours.
I arrived at a two-pronged approach:
1. Keep many of your engagements as contractual arrangements (if it suits better under the circumstances). Instead of saying/writing you worked for Company X or Department X or Agency X, doing Y, you simply say "Project Z for a client under contract" ... or something like that.
This also allows you to tailor names of projects Z to match the requirements of the job you're applying for, for as long as the substance is there (i.e. without lying). This is because project names can be, and many times are, a placeholder name that realistically could have been named differently in the first place. For as long you can justify variation Z(n) in the name you chose for your project which was named Z in reality - you should be fine
2. Get ahold of the book titled "2-hour job search", by Steve Dalton. (And, also, Steve Dalton's "The job closer" if you can.) The book is a quick no BS guide. It will help you do exactly what you need to do and will explain why not to do BS that many (most?) of us tend to do.
These two books, each approximately $15-20 (or free from a library or .pdf online) can help save you hours or day or months wasted on wrong and terrible "preparation". The value of the advice from these two books is in sharing templates what you should be doing, in which order, and how succinctly, and in encouraging you to not do anything unnecessary or hard.
....
Bottom line for you is that a resume is an entry ticket to interview. Remember that.
Most times, your resume will play about 10% of the role and time at the interview, or less. Unless you're applying for scientific academic, or very regulated jobs and fields.
The purpose of your resume is to help open doors for interviews and conversations, and to prepare those conversations for the direction that suits you.
Resume is like a date: offer hints, but don't tell everything; because if you do tell everything, there'd be not much to talk on the date, or there wouldn't be any date in the first place, or there could be some waaaay too targeted and deep questions during the date - none of which is a good outcome for most of the hopeful ones.
A corollary of this is: make sure you know what role your LinkedIn profile serves.
In other words, your LinkedIn should not equal your full work-related biography. Think of LinkedIn as a teaser, especially of you plan on applying for multiple jobs. This should solve or at least ease the issue you mentioned with applying via LinkedIn.
...
Last piece of wisdom: it seems that various research has confirmed that most jobs are won via networks (in the Western capitalist world at least). A corollary is that it's much better that you make a list of people you know, or those who may know someone in organisations you're interested in, and chase those contacts, than to spend crazy amount of time on polishing your introductory paper - a.k.a. your resume.
Think of it this way: if, say, 80% of jobs are offered through recommendations and networks (a manager asks if anyone knows of anyone fit for the role), and only 20% is publicly advertised, then you're much better off having a great ambassador in that company (a friend of a friend of a friend, willing to hop on a chat and hopefully recommend you) than tailoring "perfect resumes".
Oh, and there is literally no consensus on what makes a "perfect resume".
So chillax, send a brief interesting enough for them to think you're not a lose cannon and to want to hear more, and prepare well for interviews.
You're resume is nothing more but an invitation to talk about what's behind those hints you have them.
Good luck, mate, and keep us posted of your upcoming success! 🤞