Do I Need Multiple Versions Of My Resume?

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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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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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.

I Submitted My Application to the Company and Never Heard Back – Should I Be Offended?

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When you contact someone it’s human nature to expect a response – any response – and that extends into our professional lives. It’s bad for business to leave colleagues and clients hanging in silence.

To go a step further, when you spend a great deal of time creating accounts, filling out multiple online forms, uploading documents, and any other job application requirements, it feels that common human decency would dictate the expected response in this situation more than any other. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

Should you be offended? Probably. The process is broken. And while this is not an apology for employers who don’t get back to you, it’s fair to offer an explanation for what may be going on behind the curtain. Let’s agree on this – the process is not great, but to understand why involves basic math. 

Corporate recruiters get that they have extremely limited time and resources to fill a job with a good candidate – and are under intense pressure to do so. 

An in-house corporate recruiter at a mid-sized company may have 20-50 jobs to fill at once, so for the math let’s say 35. The same technology that allows you to submit a job application online allows thousands of other people to do the same thing at the exact same time and suddenly there are 5,000 applications per job. 35 x 5,000 = 175,000 applications and resumes to wade through. That’s inhumane to the recruiter and the candidate, and simultaneously results in nearly impossible odds of being found.

Additionally, companies measure the performance of their recruiters by several metrics, which can often be at odds. These include “Days to Fill” (emphasizing speed), “Quality of Hire” (emphasizing candidate credentials), and “Cost per Hire” (emphasizing filling jobs without outside help from agency recruiters or expensive sourcing tools). What you end up with is a frazzled recruiter who is frequently under-resourced and saddled with unrealistic expectations.

Therefore, rather than spend time lovingly going through all the resumes received to find the ideal candidate, the focus is on letting their computer systems rank the candidates based upon the match to the job description, and to as quickly as possible gather a stack of five to ten resumes of qualified candidates to present to the hiring manager.

Make no mistake, the process is broken from the applicant side, too – follow-up, responses, or other communications are rare – but this is the reality.

If you submitted an application and feel slighted you haven’t received a response, consider the following recommendations:

• Be focused with your follow-up. Find the right person, and send them a note just once.

• Research and find the name of  the hiring manager. If you are able to follow-up directly with the hiring manager you will ease pressure off the recruiter.

• Be respectful and empathetic in all of your interactions with whoever is involved, from the recruiter to the receptionist.

• Be prompt and be prepared. Do not spend considerable time and effort breaking down the door and then fumble around for something to say.

•  Know when to move on to pursuing the next job opportunity. It’s not a great idea to put all your hope into one posting with one company; apply to jobs at other employers, too, since there’s a possibility this one could fall through.

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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.

Should I Follow-Up With The Company After I Send Then My Resume?

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It’s a story that is all too common. After weeks of searching online for job openings, you believe you’ve finally stumbled on the perfect position and enthusiastically grind through the laborious job application process. You’ve submitted your resume! Then you sit back and wait for your Destiny with a big “D” to call. And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Did you do something wrong? Did you click all the right buttons? You haven’t heard back from anyone, you have no idea if an actual person has seen your resume, and you feel as if your entire candidacy has disappeared into an electronic black hole. Is it okay to call the company and check on your status?

It’s natural to panic when you think you’re not getting a fair shot, and a little bit of follow-up is appropriate. But before you start wearing out your phone, please note that the most important phrase is, “a little bit”. You want to follow up and the good news is that you can, but it’s a delicate play that can work against you if you take it too far.

Remember that everyone who makes up the hiring chain are busy – hiring authorities, recruiters, and HR representatives are juggling many things at once and have limited time. So, what is appropriate? What can you do while maintaining sensitivity to work realities and keep in the good graces of all involved?

• Be judicious with your contacts. That means a single follow up with one person is appropriate. You do not contact multiple people and you should probably not contact anyone more than once, unless you’re actively engaged in a conversation about your candidacy. Fair or not, to follow up a second time may accomplish the opposite of your goal – getting a new job – as enthusiasm for your candidacy, and as a possible co-worker, will wane with each extra call or email.

• Be judicious who you contact. If you interviewed for a job that involved multiple people (e.g. hiring managers and recruiters), give some thought to who is the best person with whom to follow up. Will you get more mileage out of the recruiter, who most likely is working on many job openings at once, or with the hiring authority, who is a manager with an even more hectic schedule? Ideally, you want to reach the person with the most influence over the decision to hire you. 

• Be concise. Be strategic in your email or voicemail. Here’s how the formula “Be concise” breaks down into three sentences – Sentence # 1: Who you are and the position for which you applied. Sentence #2: Reason you are following up. So, for example, “I understand you have a busy schedule so I appreciate any status update you may be able to provide me.” Sentence #3: Use your big finish as an opportunity to reiterate your qualifications for the role and the added value you will bring to the company. Then say thank you. Always be polite. That goes a long way.

• Know when to walk away. There are a lot of companies out there that do not place a priority on contacting candidates during the job hiring process, or they’re just plain bad at it. After you play your follow-up card, if you don’t hear back  within a reasonable time frame, cut your losses and move on. Don’t look back. You will quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. Time spent chasing updates would be better spent focusing on other job opportunities.

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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.