<p>I’m re-entering the conventional job market, and have been agonizing over revamping my resume. I’ve actually found two very different but interesting jobs to apply for in the last week. One is with a non-profit, the other is legal. I’m wondering if anyone with hiring experience in either area would be willing to look at my resume and give me some feedback.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you, Consolation. If you were applying for a job in biotech or pharma, I could offer some tips, but I have no experience in the areas you are targeting. I’m bumping this up so someone experienced could help.</p>
<p>In general, if done properly, one resume should suffice. You vary the cover letter. The resume should emphasize your knowledge, skills, and abilities. It is skill focused, not job focused. You then take the cover letter, and discuss how your skills will make you a success at the job.</p>
<p>Exception would be if you are looking for widely different jobs (different major skill sets). If you like working with your hands and would make a great factory worker vs. office job where you can use your computer and people skills.</p>
<p>In this particular case, there are volunteer activities that I can describe to bolster my qualifications for job #1, but they involve a controversial issue, which–who knows-- may negatively impact my chances of getting job #2.</p>
<p>There are two jobs I held a long time ago that bolster my qualifications for job #2, but are irrelevant to job #1 and just make my already-long resume longer.</p>
<p>This is complicated by the fact that my most recent experience is all volunteer, unless I wish to launch into a description of my small business as a chocolatier, which is irrelevant to almost any job I might get.</p>
<p>^…but a great thing to talk about in the interview!</p>
<p>OperaDad, I respectfully disagree. Although most jobs I applied for were pretty similar, I still prepared multiple versions of my resume. When I had to go on a unplanned job hunt last year, I had to sit through some mandatory resume writing seminars at the local WorkSource office. I thought the seminars would be a total waste of my time; instead, I did learn something new. With the rise of electronic resume submissions, it is very important to tailor both your resume and the cover letter to a specific job ad. Quite often HR departments rely on “resume bots” that filter all incoming resumes based on the presence of the keywords mentioned in the ad. The lady who ran one of those resume-writing seminars even recommended copying the entire ad and pasting it in the header of the Word document, formatting it in as tiny as possible, white font 
I’ve never tried it.</p>
<p>^What? So that the resume bot would catch all the right words? Genius!!</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, this explains a cover letter I saw recently.</p>
<p>I am on a personnel committee that is engaged in hiring several people for a non-profit. One applicant basically reiterated our job posting verbatim, substituting the “I have” or “I can” construction where appropriate. </p>
<p>It was a major factor in our decision NOT to interview her.</p>
<p>Actually, having reviewed 60-70 submissions for one job, I am astonished at the inability of many people to put together even a basic resume and cover letter. Hint: a cover letter has to say more than “I saw your ad. Here’s my resume.”</p>
<p>The problem with multiple resumes is that you have to remember who has which version. Not a real problem if you only have a few, especially if they are for different type positions.</p>
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<p>That’s the purpose of the cover letter. Do a side-by-side comparison of “requirements” with specific examples of how you meet that requirement. For example, if they say “accounting experience” you put “accounting experience” on the left, and to the right you say “5 years lead accountant”. Then the reviewer can look on your resume to read about your lead accounting experience. If they say “bilingual - Spanish”, then just say “fluent in Spanish”.</p>
<p>Then, you have a purpose for filling the letter with the keywords they may be looking for.</p>
<p>OperaDad, I do not disagree - ideally, that’s how the system should work if your resume is going to be reviewed by a real person. Unfortunately, cover letters do not matter for some of the infamous resume bots (both the human and the computer kinds) that are set up to search resumes only. Some of these online resume submission systems do not even provide space for a cover letter! A friend was approached by a guy who perfectly fit the position that my friend was trying to fill; however, the guy’s resume never made it through the official channels. My friend did a bit of investigative work, and it turned out that the electronic resume submission system used by their HR filtered this guy’s resume into the “not qualified” pile based on the keyword match. If the job description calls for “flash chromatography” among the desired technical skills, “chromatographic purification of organic compounds” might not work. It is not just stupid, it is beyond ridiculous.
On the other hand, Consolation’s example shows that a human reviewer will be turned off by a cover letter and a resume that simply regurgitate what’s stated in the job description. I guess the take-home message is that it pays off to know whether your job application materials will be read by a real HR person or a search engine.</p>
<p>(There is a simple solution to the problem with multiple resumes that I found effective: the versions of my resume contain date, position applied for, and employer in the file names. They are stored in the appropriately labeled subfolders in the “Employment” folder on my computer. Of course, I also keep a “master” version.)</p>
<p>Consolation, I have a feeling that you are on the right track, and the right position will come your way. Good luck!</p>
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<p>I thought about this problem when editing resumes for various positions. Little tweaks here and there that fit the requirements for each, such as if it’s a business place, I didn’t include as many details about the dirty, sweaty farm job I had. If it was an application to a place the required lifting, moving, physical labor, I left out details like my typing skills and familiarity with computer software…because I’m pretty sure they didn’t care to know those details.</p>
<p>I saved each resume as “lastname-businessname-resume or cover letter”. But generally, they are all very similar.</p>
<p>Although I really wish I could get someone to look at MY resume…another tip when submitting your resume electronically is to entitle the file–if you are attaching it to an email-- by something that identifies you, such as Jane Doe resume.doc. It will save the recipient the trouble of changing the filename if they download and save it.</p>
<p>Also, if you don’t have a dignified-sounding email address, create one on something like Yahoo and use it. <a href="mailto:Powerninjakitty@hotmail.com">Powerninjakitty@hotmail.com</a> is not a persuasive address unless you are applying for a job as a pole dancer.</p>
<p>Consolation, I’m a headhunter for lawyers. I prepare and edit resumes every day. I’ll look at your resume - with the caveat that I deal pretty much exclusively with attorney resumes prepared for large law firms. Happy to give feedback though. PM me.</p>
<p>Not specific help for the kinds of background you have, but when I was hiring I always looked for accomplishments not just a list of activities. I wanted to see what you could contribute to the goals of the organization, not how you spend time. What were the results of all that activity?</p>