Do I need 2-3 versions of my resume? Why the experts say that’s a bad idea.

February 1st, 2022BlogNo Comments »

 

I was asked this question 5 different times last week by clients. We all want to make sure our resume get noticed quickly by recruiters and employers. And, if you’re like most of my clients, you have a diverse background of roles, experiences, and value you bring a company.

You might have started off in one position and made your way to other areas of the business as you progressed. Ten or fifteen years into your career and you can end up in very different roles, and if you’re open to pursuing all, or some, of them in the future, I can see why you would wonder if you need several different versions of your resume to convey your broad experience.

 

Here’s why I say don’t.

 

If you had asked me eight or ten years ago, I would have said yes . We could have started worked together on how to best highlight the value of your sales experience for product marketing, or vice versa. But now,

 

 

“LinkedIn has dramatically changed the vetting process for recruiters, employers — and you.” 

 

“A a survey of HR professionals found that nearly 95% of employers use LinkedIn to make hiring decisions” (Karl & Peluchette, 2013). LinkedIn has dominated professional networking, job hunting, and pre-vetting processes for everyone. Where you use to be able to control what companies and recruiters saw about you in a resume, now you have one profile for everyone.

Personally, I think LinkedIn did everyone a huge favor. Your value is made up from all of your experiences, past decisions, successes, and failures. Providing a holistic, 360-degree view of who you are and what you bring to an organization should have been the goal from the beginning. Siloing out your skills and experiences in little pieces to companies was never a great strategy.

 

“The story you create is more important than an individual role.”

 

Another thing to consider when deciding whether you need multiple versions of your resume, is what message are you sending to recruiters and employers if you leave off your sales experience. Before they might never have known until a background check, but now, they would definitely wonder why it wasn’t included on your resume when they see it on your LinkedIn profile. You can guarantee that will be a question they ask. As a professional resume writer, branding strategist, and career expert, my job is to eliminate as many questions a company might have by strategically including information across your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Even if you haven’t done sales in 15 years, a company might really respond to the fact that you understand what it’s like to be a single contributor and know how to best support and motivate someone who’s in that role now. The story you create should weave all of your roles together to create a holistic view of your skills and the value you bring to an organization is the best strategy to position yourself in 2022.

 

SJ Side Note: People have noted the issues with having LinkedIn be a part of the way we hire for a number of ethical issues around equal opportunity, bias, discrimination, etc. Some companies are trying to mask a candidate’s gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neuro status, weight, income-level, or family status, and, alternatively, a lot of DE&I experts point out that being transparent about your diversity goals and communicating the benefits to your company does.

A lot of people have misconceptions about diversity in hiring. What’s the biggest misconception you’ve seen? Comment below. If you are interested in a more in depth article, leave a comment, or you can find me on LinkedIn: resumepro, Instagram @rpexecutiveresume, or my website, https://resume-professionals.com.

 

Katie Stewart is a highly sought-after Executive Branding Strategist, and the Founder of RP, with 12+ years’ experience creating powerful and impactful Resumes, CVs, LinkedIn Profiles, and Bios for Fortune 500 Executives, Board Members, and Senior Leaders across industries. Website: https://resume-professionals.com Email info@resume-professionals.com.

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