Resume Preparation

How Many Versions Do I Need?

Most job search questions seem to revolve around resume preparation. The most often asked question in hiring is “how many versions of my resume do I need?” The answer is as simple as it is complicated. If your experience is limited you might only need one or two.

Seasoned professionals might need to customize their resume to each position applied for. Typically the more experience you have the more selective you have to be in what to include due to space constraints. These are the people that will spend more time customizing the document to address the needs of the position.

Example: Let say you are a currently manage a team of 50 people and have Profit and Loss (P&L) responsibilities for a $25MM operating budget. You are interested in two opportunities; one requires a strong focus on management skills and the other needs extensive experience to manager the P&L for a $40MM product division budget.

Our manager is a top performer that is skilled and capable to do both jobs, however he will need two resumes in order to address the needs for each position. Obviously he will not falsify information; he will just use the limited space to address the priorities of the position.