How to Format a Master Resume

If you’re thinking about creating a master resume, you’re on the right path to writing amazing resumes when you apply for specific jobs.  Master resumes allow you to have one place to store all of the details of your career so that you can easily find specific details to add to submission resumes.

Though the master resume is one you won’t submit, to help keep your information organized, it’s a good idea to format it.  Here are some formatting ideas to consider as you create your own:

Create Sections That Correlate With Submission Resumes

A great way to keep your master resume organized is to create the same sections that you would use in the resumes you will eventually submit.  Depending on the types of resumes you send out (i.e., functional vs. chronological), you may need different sections.  In this case, you could either add all of the unique sections to your master resume, copying some information to both sections, or simply create a functional master resume and chronological master resume.

Don’t Stick to a Specific Length

There’s no doubt that length is important when writing a standard resume, but any rules for length go out the window concerning the master resume because it won’t be submitted to anyone—it’s just for your organizational purposes.

Depending on the amount of job-related history you’ve racked up over the years, your master resume could stretch out to as many as 20 pages.  Don’t worry about the length; just keep adding information in order to make sure you have plenty available to glean from when the time comes to create a resume you’ll submit.

Worry More about Quantity Rather Than Quality

You probably never hear that quantity is better than quality.  But in the case of the master resume, your goal is to add as much information as possible so that you can have it to extract from later.  Of course, you don’t want to create a sloppy mess of a document that’s hard to sift through; just try not to worry so much about making it perfect that you forget you don’t actually have to submit it.

Working on a master resume offers an amazing opportunity to create thorough submission resumes in the future.  So keep these formatting tips in mind as you develop your own masterful document.

An exceptional resume authority, Jessica Hernandez and her team of credentialed writers partner with professional- and executive-level candidates to open doors to jobs at prestigious corporations, achieving over a 99% interview-winning success rate.  For examples of branded resumes and Great Resumes Fast’s blog on resume writing tips, visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com.