so many resumes?

Question

I am trying to applying for an IT job, here is my situation --

1. I have a pdf resume (latex --> pdf) format is here: http://www.latextemplates.com/template/two-column-one-page-cv
2. I have a linkedin profile
3. I have a text resume (generated from the pdf)
4. I have a monster account (another version of resume that fits to their form)
5. I have a glassdoor account (another version of resume that fits to their form)
6. I have a dice account (another version of resume that fits to their form)
7. and so on ... actually the list is ever expanding.

the problem is that now I am trying to apply to another place where they have couple of options --

1. write your resume from scratch (they have a sort of online wizard to do this)
2. upload a pdf and they will parse it into their forms (which eventually destroys/garbles most of my information)
3. upload a text resume, where their system tries to parse it again and I need to fix them later manually.

The problem is that whenever you try to apply to another place, you need to redo the whole process recurrently (although couple of places have a nice option where they can nicely parse the information from the linkedin url, again some other place accepts just a plain pdf and you are done).

My question is that all these craps kills a lot of time and completely distract me from the actual work.

How do people manage ?

Answer 1

Well, do you want a job or don't you? If you want a job, then you do what you have to do and you allocate the time to do it. It's either you do it or you don't - Nobody is putting a gun to your head and telling you to do it.

If I were looking for a job, I usually find that uploading resumes is the least of my problems. Cooking up targeted, relevant cover letters is definitely more time consuming to me - it takes me half an hour to an hour to do one. And of course, filling up online applications takes the cake - I have yet to do one of these in less than three hours.

If you are looking for a job, the Golden Rule applies - They who have the gold make the rules. If they want you to jump, you ask "how high" If I have to do something that's a necessary evil to get what I want, then I stop thinking of it as evil and I think of it as necessary. If thinking of something that's necessary and evil as evil got me anywhere and changed anything for the better, I have no problem with thinking of it as evil :)

If you have only so much time available, then you should adjust your search to the most promising and most interesting prospects. A large part of being successful in life is knowing your limitations and working optimally with them :)

Answer 2

I agree with other commenters that this is, simply, part of the job hunt. However, I completely get how frustrating it is to write a CV just to have a website garble it up, and I think this is a concern lots of people share, so I wanted to provide a more detailed answer. I think there are a few things you can do to make things easier for yourself.

I'd make sure you have a plain text copy of your CV available that is formatted as you want it (the line breaks are where they're supposed to be, there's no strange occurences). That way it's ready to go if you need to shove it into a box and you don't have to fiddle over it again.

As well as your resumes and cover letters, create a few other documents that you can refer to at any time. Rather than viewing your CV as a fixed item, create a separate version (probably plain text) that you can treat as modular. This means that you can rearrange it, cut, copy, paste, into whatever text boxes you need depending on the application form's questions.

For example, I have a full, nicely formatted PDF CV as well as a LinkedIn profile, but I also have the following "snippets" kept in a plain Word Doc ready for use:

• An introduction or "about me" summary that would be at the top of my CV, explaining my interests and key strengths
• A snippet for each role I've performed. You can even have several versions of these - I've applied for different kind of jobs, so for any given role I could have a snippet that emphasises my marketing skills, and another my technical skills for example, for use in different applications
• Various paragraphs that focus on different interests or skills, ready to go in a cover letter (so a cover letter for a software job might include one paragraph about your teamwork and collaboration skills, and another about your technical know-how). Obviously, you may need to tweak these when you do each letter, and add details specific to the company you're applying to, but boy it simplifies things.

Once you've applied to a bunch of different positions, you start to get a feel for the kind of text boxes usually available on a CV, so you can figure out which ones you need to work on and keep for next time. (I've laboured over text box applications for hours, sent it off, and then realised I should have saved the text I worked on for use next time!)

You will need to customise all of these for every application - like reading your cover letter through to make sure it still looks coherent after your modular approach - but knowing you have many of the tools and text you need on hand does help a lot.

Answer 3

How do people manage ?

If you are motivated to get a job with a particular company, you decide that it's worthwhile to extend yourself a bit when required.

If it's potentially a good job, you fill in all the forms that are asked of you to the best of your abilities. That's how I manage. It isn't always easy, it isn't always fun - but a good job is worth some of my effort.

If you don't feel that the time required to complete the application forms is worthwhile, that may say something about your motivation toward this particular job.