Defining Your Resumes
JobTabs has succeeded in eliminating the vast majority of the administrative functions of your job search. However, there is one administrative function that only you can do. Of paramount importance is the organization of your resumes. Whether you have many resumes or only a few, organizing them properly will greatly simplify your job search. Done right it will actually make the job search fun and engaging. We have guidelines to assist you, but first a little terminology.
Primaries - Your primary resume is a top level resume. It is not a child of any other resume. Primary resumes tend to be broad, all encompassing resumes which should qualify you in some capacity. A primary resume is a resume you would put up on a web site or submit to an employer without knowing exactly what skills that employer is looking for. Primary resumes are characterized by
- Disqualify Not - You shouldn't put anything on a primary resume that would disqualify you from consideration.
- Keywords - A characteristic of a primary resume is to have lots of keywords that an employer or recruiter would use to find you. Keywords are key words a key word searcher would type into a keyword box; tactful repetition is a good thing.
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You can list the keywords at the bottom of each project you undertook to 'summarize' the working environment. You could also use keywords to describe what tools you used on each project. |
- Shorter - Primary resumes are shorter than other resumes. If your present resume is three pages, you should generalize it, cut it down to two pages and make it a primary resume. Two pages? Cut it down to one. Wait until you know more about a particular opportunity before you provide the key details which will make you an ideal candidate.
The purpose of a primary resume is two fold.
- You want an employer or a recruiter to call you for details.
- Primaries act as templates for secondary resumes.
Secondaries - Your secondary resume is a child of your primary resume and the first resume to have real detail. It in and of itself should qualify you in some capacity - outside of any specifics of any job requisition. Secondary resumes are created from primary resumes.
Tertiaries - [TER-shee-air-ees] Tertiary resumes are children of secondary resumes and other tertiary resumes. You should expect to have lots of these. As prospective opportunities arise, there may be some particular nuance of the requisition to which you need to qualify yourself in order to be the ideal candidate.
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What will most likely land you the job you are looking for is a tertiary resume. Not because it is insignificant - but because it is so specific. Take effort in tailoring each and every resume. As you need to qualify yourself for this job requirement or that job requirement, create another tertiary resume and modify it. Soon, having a resume that presents you as a top notch candidate will take no effort at all. In part because you have gotten good at qualifying yourself, and in part because it is now so easy to do so.