Is It Proper to Have Multiple Resumes?
Have you noticed that more people are gravitating towards having more than one resume? It seems like foul play when a professional holds more than one resume and now you are perhaps wondering if it is proper to have multiple resumes. The answer is not far-fetched.
Legally, it is not a criminal or punishable offense to have more than one resume at a time. Likewise, in terms of ethics, there is nothing wrong with writing multiple resumes as long as the details are accurate and up to date.
Writing more than one resume during your career is advisable. Those who do not have separate resumes are making a big mistake. Indeed, one of the reasons for not securing a job is tied to the blend of unrelated information and the cluttered resume job seekers present even though they are qualified for the job.
Would you like to see all the valid reasons why you must have another resume right this minute? You will discover them all in this article including the stages of your career where you should consider having another resume.
When you can have multiple resumes
There is no one-size-fits-all period when all professionals should start looking at writing additional resumes. However, there are telling instances where every ambitious individual must start making their next resume.
Let’s look at these instances.
You are considering freelancing.
Freelancing is a completely different ball game that is becoming the primary source of income for many professionals today. Thus, when you are looking to make money remotely, you have a good cause to create another resume.
You are thinking of switching careers.
When it comes to changing careers, you know you have a big decision to make. Proper planning must come in and making a new resume is one of the necessary steps to take. Since you will be entering a new territory, only a few experiences and achievements in your previous profession will be relevant. As a result, you would need to prepare another resume.
You are beginning to acquire more skills
The moment you begin to work towards acquiring new skills, relevant qualifications, and work experience, your resume will begin to take a new shape. Before you know it, you have enough knowledge and skills relevant to your new work environment for a new resume. With this new resume, you can go further in your new career pursuits.
Why you should have more than one resume
Having multiple resumes is not a crime. In fact, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t have a cause to make more than one. There is a lot of reasons that prove why you must have multiple resumes.
New industry
Changes are bound to happen during a person’s career, especially a lengthy one. Although some are significant, not all are major changes. Without any form of haughtiness, there are truly some professionals who have seen it all and done it all in their fields. When you find out that you no longer find the industry challenging, a change is never off the table.
With a change of industries comes the need for an additional resume. To get a good opportunity in a different industry, you should use a resume that is relevant to the current position in the industry you are aiming at. Also, be mindful of the resume types that are well-received in the new industry and tailor yours after it.
You have gathered various soft skills.
The competition for jobs is so fierce that job seekers are going over and beyond to have an edge over their peers. Gathering soft skills is not just a means to improve professionally, it is highly sought-after by recruiters and employers. As soon as your soft skills begin to increase, you should start considering having at least an extra resume.
It is advised to never turn down an opportunity to learn a soft skill. Industry and organizational requirements change and career choices change as well. As a result, some of the soft skills you have gained might not be a good fit for your current resume. You might need to create another resume with related soft skills in separate places to be more relevant to what you are looking to achieve. Adding an endless list of soft skills to one resume might lead to overstuffing it with too much information. Consequently, it makes more sense to have another resume.
Different roles
As an individual spends years working and gaining experience, he or she goes through processes where they take on different roles. Starting from a lower level, based on experience and qualification, the work description varies and responsibilities are usually few. Sometimes, a professional has to function in a role that is not entirely related to their area of expertise. However, this broadens their horizons and makes them capable of operating well in different roles.
In some cases, people become very good at these interim roles they fill so much that could easily pass as a professional in the field. Looking for job opportunities in these positions is not off-topic. Hence, such an individual must have a separate resume dedicated to these roles. When opportunities present themselves, they would be able to grab them with both hands. Having such a resume for a different role helps you to maintain your focus when you want to. This also makes it easy to use any resume you want without confusion.
You have experience and skills across different professional levels.
Having just one resume is an injustice of a high order when you have a wealth of experience in different levels of your profession. Some professionals are so versatile and good at their jobs that they excel at every level they find themselves in. Versatility is the key to having an endless list of opportunities in the labor market.
There are various roles with distinct responsibilities as a group and as an individual within an organization. Some people have bigger responsibilities in managerial positions, while others form part of a unit where they work. If you have worked and gained experience in a managerial role or otherwise, you should consider making a separate resume for both levels of professionalism.
The reason is quite simple. It would help you arrange your resume according to your expertise levels with the qualifications and experience gathered. This way, if you can aim for different positions in an organization. Also, you will send separate resumes that are relevant to the position and expertise level required.
For example, if you were going for a managerial position in a multinational company and there is no open position for such a role, you could aim for another role easily. Also, if you do get the job and a managerial position opens, you can as well hand in a relevant resume with ease.
Freelance specific resumes
The 21st century has introduced the world to a variety of possibilities and countless opportunities thanks to technology. One of the greatest inventions, the internet, has played a major role in providing opportunities for professionals to apply their skills remotely through freelancing. Even though a freelancer does virtually the same job as any other professional, their resumes differ.
Freelancers operate in roughly every industry but their means of operation are not the same. If you are a freelancer, you should not expect to write a traditional resume. There are resume formats specifically made to suit a freelancer’s professional endeavors and bring out the best in them.
The average resume for freelancers includes more options and features that enable you to show more than your professional attributes. As a freelancer, you need to show more capabilities that are not required for traditional job openings. For instance, a freelancer must prove that they can manage time well, meet deadlines, have good research skills, and work well without supervision. Freelancing resumes make it easy for you to highlight all these secondary qualities that are vital to the industry.
One of the best things about being a freelancer is that it doesn’t stop you from having a day job. Likewise, you can have a business and still be a freelancer. Thus, making a resume for freelancing does not mean you have to throw away your primary resume. It only further explains the reasons why you should have more than one resume.
Different resume styles
Resumes have evolved throughout the years in quality and overall appearance. Trendy formatting styles are on the increase and more organizations are beginning to lean more towards specific resume styles than others. Likewise, resume styles are beginning to differ across various industries and regions. Thus, what some might see as ideal or their standard for resume writing will likely not be appreciated or received well by others.
Opting for the traditional resume format will not always be received well either. Therefore, you must consider writing resumes in different styles that your next employers can relate to. The quality of the content and arrangement of information according to their relevance to a new role is why it is advised to write separate resumes in most cases. However, the relevance of the information or quality is not the focus in this case.
To excel in this process, you must first do some research on where you are looking to get a job. Since streamlining your research to the organization’s preferences is a long shot, finding out what the industry as a whole is acceptable. Upon discovering what is mostly accepted in the industry, make a fresh resume in that format. Pay attention to the color, font sizes, and every important detail before sending out your resume.
To be more organized
There’s a thin line between having an impressive resume filled with a wealth of qualities and experience and having a grossly cluttered resume. Indeed, every professional has the right to include all the relevant details of their professional journey in a resume. Yet, when there is so much information across diverse related fields and industries, the resume becomes overwhelmingly muddled.
For the most part, the average professional gathers knowledge, experience, qualifications, and skills across various organizations and has taken on different roles. To avoid cluttering your resume, you should have a few others. This is not to say that you have to throw your current resume out the window. Rather, you should use it as your guide in making new ones.
Break the current resume down (the one with a combination of experiences) into several others. Doing this would make your resume clutter-free and more organized. If there is still a debate on whether a two-page resume is a page too much, how much more controversial would having a resume with multiple pages be especially if there is a better way to go about it? Creating more resumes out of your current one is a brilliant way to foster a concise and impactful resume.
Conclusion
Having more than one resume used to be a foreign concept but not anymore in today’s highly competitive labor market. It is completely legal and ethical to have multiple resumes as long as you have genuine information in them.
Indeed, there is no stipulated period in your career when you should consider having an additional resume. The moment you begin to grow professionally and start acquiring skills, get prepared to write another resume.
If you have multiple resumes already, tell us how that has helped you professionally in the comments section below. Also, don’t forget to share this article on social media.
