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Everyone has a different career history, which is immutable, as well as future goals that have yet to be realized. It is realistic to believe that at some point your career history and your future goals will diverge and a significant revision of your resume will be necessary. In fact, there are already such inflection points built into the system that everyone will face, such as landing your first job after college or graduate school.
However, your resume should already be an ever-evolving document to which you are making periodic updates as well as surgical revisions when you are actively applying for jobs and want to align your experience with a job posting’s requirements in order to get noticed.
But do you really need to have multiple, entirely different versions of your resume? These are important practices, but still do not rise to the level of multiple versions. To make that determination, consider the following scenarios:
Are you applying to jobs similar in scope to your current position? The resume you have should suffice as long as it’s up to date, even if you are switching fields (and, once again, it’s always recommended to tweak your resume for each job posting if possible). For example, let’s say you are a Human Resources Director for a small company that makes and distributes imported floor tiles. You decide to switch lanes and seek out HR positions in the technology sector. Even though your background is commodities, which is fixed, and your future goal is to move into tech, it’s still Human Resources and your core skill sets are applicable. This isn’t a divergence that requires a new version of your resume.
Are you applying to jobs that are substantially different in role and responsibility than you have traditionally performed in the past? You may need a new version of your resume. If employers are searching for candidates with a specific background and your resume is in a completely unrelated field, they aren’t going to find you to be a fit – such as an automotive mechanic looking to transition into becoming a computer programmer; these are different disciplines, requiring different approaches.
Are you applying to jobs that are similar to ones you’ve done in the past, but are different than the position you currently have? Let’s say you worked as a water engineer for a private company but were forced to pivot to teaching due to a global financial downturn several years back when your job was eliminated; now, you want to return to the field, but you’ve been out of that discipline long enough to be behind the curve. You’ll be better served by finding a way to bridge your past experience to your future goals, effectively “leap-frogging” over your current position to get to the meat of your relevant expertise. Either way, a different approach is called for.
Here are some additional tips and considerations as you think about whether to build a second version of your resume:
Figure out where you fit. Do you truly need multiple versions?
If you determine you do not need a major rewrite, remember each job to which you apply is unique and you should always try and tweak your resume to align it with the posting. With that said, “tweak” does not mean embellish. Everything on your resume should be truthful.
Know when to let go of experiences that do not apply to or support your future goals. Sometimes it is easy to become attached to a certain job or achievement from the past that consumes valuable real estate on your resume but detracts from what you want to achieve in the present. Cut it.
Keep accomplishments/skills on your resume that are transferrable between companies and fields. The physical or technical skills may change, but soft skills are useful everywhere.
Bear in mind your audience not only includes recruiters and hiring managers, but also applicant tracking system (HR system) algorithms. Update the skills section of your resume and keywords throughout specific to the job types you pursue.
Philip Roufail contributed to this article.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
