In my view customized resume gives you an edge in a very competitive job market where prospective employers have a wide range of candidates. Your main resume highlights your most marketable skills. However there are times where you might want to make a few changes.
1. Read job ad carefully
Suppose your resume mentions knowledge of MS Office, but job ad concentrates on Excel and you happen to be very proficient in this spreadsheet software. In such case it certainly makes sense to alter your resume in order to highlight how used Excel in at least one project and include it into your skill set.
2. Create few versions of your resume
This advice is especially true for professionals who specialize in more than one field. Let’s say that an accountant has experience in both, tax and audit or a person can teach math and physics. If the job description states that an accountant or teacher needed, a general resume would serve the purpose. However most job ads mention specific skills required for position.
Therefore, if you are proficient in more than one field of your profession or you are one of many people with multi-occupation experience, it is important to have versions of your resume that underline certain skills.
3. Customization mistakes
Some job seekers go too far in their efforts to stand out from other candidates. For example there are people who experiment too much in terms of colors and fonts. Black, regular font text (Times New Roman or Arial) printed on white background is probably the best solution for one simple reason – it’s readable. The last thing you need is your resume being dismissed because it’s hard on prospective employer’s eyes.
Also you don’t want to add text for the sake of adding text. In other words, you shouldn’t beef up your resume with irrelevant staff. You have to include only the information that matters.
A person reading your resume wants to know one thing only – how your skills and experiences correspond to a given job. I suppose that he would appreciate resume with focus on relevant facts.
I am sure that even after reading this article some of you might be thinking that general resume is good enough. I suggest that you reconsider unless you worked in a specific field for your entire career.
Keep in mind that if you aren’t willing to customize your resume when needed, some of your competitors are. Needless to say they stand a far better chance to be invited for an interview.
