Engineers, You Don’t Need a Special Resume for Every Job You Apply To
Intro
If you’ve been reading my articles on creating a sales and marketing mindset for going after jobs, which would include writing resumes and cover letters, you would know that the goal of making these documents is to use them as sales and marketing tools for the selling and marketing of multiple products. You would also know that the products you are selling, ultimately, represent your expertise, leadership/management abilities, experiences, etc. If you need to catch up on this philosophy, check out my articles on The Robert Kiyosaki, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” Sales and Marketing Mindset for Success and The Sales and Marketing Mindset to Job Hunting to get up to speed.
In my article on How to Create Marketable Content for Your Resume, I state that focusing on content creation to capture your audience’s attention is the most important, and easily the hardest, thing you can do in the game of creating a marketable resume designed for success. Once you’ve dedicated the time to generating marketable, attention grabbing content for your resume, you will have a lot more leeway in how you present it, and can really apply mythbusting and stereotype breaking techniques to creating it. Let’s see how you can apply stereotype breaking techniques to busting the myth of needing a special resume for every job application!
The Myth of Needing a Special Resume for Every Job You Apply To
Do you really need a separate resume for every job you apply to? If you are going to apply to be a waiter at a restaurant one day, and then apply to be an EE for an aerospace company the next day, then you may want to have two different resumes, as these are completely separate industries. Sure, I probably wouldn’t use the same resume for both places, but let’s be real here: we’re not talking about doing this. I bet that many of the people who are telling you that you need a separate resume for every job are also the same people telling you that landing a job is a numbers game. If you are in the job market, there is a high probability you are sending your resume to thousands of employers. Are you going to create a thousand or more different resumes, or modify one resume a thousand times or more? If it were truly a numbers game, wouldn’t it make sense to have an easily scalable product to send out in mass? With our sales and marketing mindset, we are seeking to control the outcome of the numbers game through focused content creation. Combine this with target marketing, and you are golden. Let’s go over some stereotype breaking tips.
In order to bust this myth, we should focus on creating one or two scalable products that can be handed out in many different situations; otherwise, you will be focusing your efforts on the wrong things. Remember, you should be focused on content creation for a target market. You really shouldn’t have to tailor your resume based on every word that a job description says. So many jobs have such a broad range of responsibilities that it’s almost impossible to tailor your resume to meet every single requirement. I personally don’t know anyone who has the time to do this, and I certainly don’t know anyone who would actually want to do this. Most people hate the idea of having to apply for jobs and hate writing about themselves. Why create even more work for yourself in this area? Also, as an engineer who has created job descriptions, and has been part of the interviewing and hiring process, when it comes to job descriptions, I know for a fact that hiring managers list as many responsibilities as possible, just to see what sticks in terms of the people applying to the job. Hiring managers will even cross reference responsibilities between different levels of positions as well. Most people have a wide range of skills, and most companies have a wide range of money that they can offer new employees.
All of the reasons above are why it’s so important to focus on content creation for your target market. My recommendations for busting this myth are as follows: focus on one or two easily scalable products, have a target market, and tailor your resume to focus on your product…YOU! Instead of designing a document that regurgitates the same words on a job description, create a showcase of you that represents a solid mixture of technical skills, leadership abilities, accomplishments, experiences, etc.
For more resume building tips and tricks, check out my articles in the Mythbusting Techniques for Creating and Using Engineering Resumes section of my website. Also, check out my very own engineering resumes that you can tailor, and start sending to employers immediately.
