Struggling With Narrowing Down Your Resume?

If you are struggling with narrowing down your resume, you are not alone.

Many people, when faced with unemployment and the immediate requirement of producing a resume, tend to write down their entire work history dating back a number of years.

And for those who have never written a resume, it makes sense to document their skills in their entirety. So, when they are faced with tailoring their master resume, they may struggle against it, even refuse to do it stating that all their skills and past employment positions are important.

But, for the employer it is not necessary to read about everything the applicant has done in their working life-time. In fact, the employer requires specifics related to the position being offered and may brush over, delete or disregard resumes which are 'overwhelming' and provide too much information not relevant to the job opening.

The main objective of the resume is to land you the interview and if your resume is not narrowed down and tailored for specific job postings, there is a high likelihood that your resume will not be put into the interview pile.

But for some who struggle with narrowing down and/or removing information from their resumes, the notion of tailoring may represent a dismantling of their capabilities and minimization of their purpose and existence. They may feel as if their skills are being minimized or not recognized if eliminated or not included in their resume. For some, the resume writing process of tailoring may prove to be very stressful and emotional.

So, if you find you're battling yourself, resisting changing or narrowing down your resume, step back and put yourself in the employer's shoes; imagine 100, 200 even 500 resumes.  Would you bother reading the ones that appear as essays or date back 20 years or more?

Examine your reaction to removing information. Where is this feeling coming from? What is stopping you from narrowing your resume down? Talk to a friend, family member or counsellor about your struggle. Ask for opinions from professionals such as employment counsellors.

And remember, all of your skills are within you and to remove or not include some of them on your resume doesn't mean you are taking away a part of yourself or that your skills are being minimized.

Your master resume will continue to exist (when tailoring a resume, one can re-save the new version under a new filename). Your master or general resume is a reflection of all your skills and employment history.

A resume is a work in progress and is versatile, meaning that many versions may be produced and tailored for various job postings. And all of these versions represent you!

                                                                                   -Sunny + Sassy