Create a Master Resume
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A master resume that is a document that describes every job, experience, project and hobby that might be relevant to a company you might apply for. Include as much description as you can think of.
Starting with this master listing, you will choose the items that will best show off exactly what you want to show your potential employer while only including enough text to fit on a single page.
Items of Interest
Items to include in the Master Resume includes the following:
- Work Experiences
- Education
- Volunteer Experiences
- Useful Skills
- Hobbies and Clubs
- Leadership Experiences
- Objective or Summary statements (optional)
- Special Projects
- Awards or Commendations
Details for each Item of Interest
Keep every detail for every item in the Master Resume. Here are some obvious items to keep.
- address or location (could be as simple as city and company name)
- period of employment (start and end date)
- text description of your responsibilities
In addition, consider items below
Immediate supervisor and peers
As stated in other places in this website, it’s often who you know that’s more important than what you know. Write down names and job titles of your supervisor, peers and anybody else you can remember. You might need this information for references or when you apply to a different job in this company.
If you have a good relationship with these potential references, ask them to write you a letter of recommendation. It’s important that you maintain a way to contact these people so they can verify that they wrote this letter of recommendation, since a potential employer might want to verify that the letter isn’t pure fiction.
Special Projects
Any projects beyond the scope of your typical job description would be important to describe.
- If you were a server at a restaurant but also designed and stocked the wine storage room
- If you were an Boy Scout and did an Eagle Service Project
- Any responsibility asked of you by your supervisor that wasn’t asked of your peers.
Skills Used and Learned
You might think that skills are obvious by your job title, but job descriptions vary greatly. Often overlooked skills include tricky negotiations (dealing with irate customers) and leadership (teaching younger students). One way to find these skills is by looking at your team - not everybody contributes equally within a team of peers. If other team members consistently leave tasks for you to do, this is worth mentioning.
Awards, Commendations or Letters of Recommendation
Awards of distinction might include
- Deans List at college
- Winning a contest of skill at a high level (e.g. winning a debate competition)
- Special recognition by outside groups (e.g. Best Paper at a professional conference, scholarships, etc.)
Many more awards and commendations could be relevant to employers, so keep up this list.