Years ago it was standard practice to write your own resume and hand it over to a printer to be typeset. A week later you picked up a lifetime supply of beautifully produced documents on ivory 20# bond paper and perhaps matching envelopes.
If you wanted to add or delete or even highlight any of the items on your resume to better accentuate your credentials, it was impossible. You would need to cover these areas in your cover letter.
Thank goodness those days are long gone! With the ground breaking advances in technology over the past decade it is now even possible to store, edit, and send your resume from a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device as you are out and about during the day.
With all this technology at your fingertips there is no reason not to be able to customize each resume you submit so that each hiring manager will be able to immediately find the keywords he is looking for in order to determine your suitability for his particular opening.
The beauty of having your resume at your disposal, as opposed to having professionally printed copies that you couldn't change, is that you can edit each document before sending it off. But should you even bother? Of course you should!
Here are a few ideal examples of when to edit and highlight areas of your resume:
Paul is an electrical engineer. After years of studying he finally passed his PE exam and is now allowed to use PE, Professional Engineer, as part of his title. He is submitting his resume to an engineering company that is specifically looking for a PE for a project. Paul simply highlighted this new accomplishment on his resume and sent it in.
Sharon was applying for a secretarial position. The company was looking for someone with experience in sales and marketing programs, which she had. She edited her resume to not only highlight the jobs where she had the title of Sales and Marketing Secretary, she added more details regarding the marketing programs she worked on.
Jack was an accountant who was applying for a position where one of the requirements stated the job called for many hours of overtime at the end of each month. He decided to add this information in bold right at the top of his resume in his objective statement: "Willing to work unlimited overtime as needed to meet cyclical demands."
What other information should be added, highlighted, elaborated on, or even deleted for specific jobs? Here's a simple rule of thumb: if they're looking for it, and you can do it, then let them know! It's that simple.
Some companies ask for your HSC/Year 12 from high school. This isn't normally on your resume unless you just graduated.
Sometimes a company will write a job posting that states "…10 years experience". You should add the exact same phrase on your resume – don't make them do the calculations by adding up your length of tenure with each employer.
You should add any specific software or hardware experience you have that a specific job requires if it's not detailed already on your regular resume. Claiming you are "computer literate" is sometimes not enough. Frequently a job demands unique talents such as knowing how to develop flash presentations. If you are applying for a position where this is a critical talent which you have experience in, and it's not on the resume, add it now!
After editing your resume, however, don't forget to keep a copy of the exact resume you sent in to each company. This is very important for tracking and record keeping. Don't simply make changes and forget about what edits you made.
Keep in mind, however, that if you are going to make unique edits for one particular job, do not lose the original intent of your resume. I've seen some of my clients over the years make so many changes on a resume that it lost its purpose. Your original, or master, resume is the real document. It should be "perfect" on its own. Your sole purpose in doing any editing at all is to add value, not to decrease its viability as a job hunting tool. If you are so intent on providing information for one specific job, you could easily delete or reword information that is vital to its original purpose.
