It doesn’t exist. Sorry for the tease, I know how you feel. I’ve been on a quest for it myself. How many versions of your resume do you have? I’m getting close to a dozen. That can’t be right! First you start out trying to describe your past and fit it all onto two pages. Then you realize that your resume might need to get past a search algorithm first so you try to fit in every necessary buzz word to make sure that you get considered for the right roles. Then you need to make it look pretty. Large enough font, enough white space (dang three pages) now reduce. Then you realize that recruiters are giving each resume approximately 14 secconds of scan time which means the first 1/3 of the first page is all that human eyes will look at before you even make a cut. Even for a person like me who enjoys simplyfying things to their core this is a really painful process. How do I explain what value I can bring to a company in 1/3 of a page? Thank goodness for networking and informational interviewing so I can meet with many people and get great ideas and opinions. The only downside is that each person has a different approach and perspective on what the resume should do and how. How do I distill all these very valid ideas into one cohesive piece?
For today I’ve settled on a format which meets as much of the above mentioned critera as possible that I can use as a template and swap around bullet points depending on the audience. It just isn’t possible for a person with broad experience to sell their value with one resume. This is why 80% of jobs are secured through networking, even employers are frustrated with resumes. I’m sure that tomorrow will bring a new set of ideas and a new template for I think for tonight I will pretend I’ve solved the problem so I can move on to world peace.
