A master resume is a document that houses every single job, skill, responsibility and qualification you have ever held in your life. Each time you start a new role, you populate this document with your experience and basically end up with one really, really long document that keeps everything in the one place.

Most importantly though, your master resume is never, ever to be submitted. Here’s where the target resume steps in…

When it comes time to apply for a new role, open up your master resume and start hitting delete! Your goal is to take out anything that is irrelevant to the role you are applying for. This doesn’t mean you should start deleting entire roles from your resume – this will create gaps on your resume which isn’t a good look. But what you should do is cut the bullet points under each job down by at least half (assuming you have generously populated your master resume). The end result is a resume that lists only the duties, skills and achievements relevant to the role you are applying for. Just be sure to duplicate your master resume before you start tapping those keys!

• Cut down application time – Take the burden out of resume writing by quite literally brain dumping every single thing you do in your job into your master resume as you go along. When you no longer have to stop and ask “Is it worth writing about xyz? Is this relevant?” you’ll find that application preparation is so much quicker.
• Quick and easy progression check – A master resume is a great way to take a big picture look at your career. Ask yourself: “Am I heading in the right direction?” You’ll find it’s so much easier to answer this question is you can easily track your movement.
• Great point of reference for interview prep – When you’ve finally landed an interview, you’re going to want start revising your past experience in order to answer the behavioural/competency questions that are bound to come your way. Keeping all your experience in one place is by far the easiest way to jog your memory.