The Career Portfolio Workbook

If you save this master resume in your computer as a template,

you will have the ability to quickly create a shorter, targeted resume

without danger of losing the original. To create a targeted resume, you

would simply make a copy of your master resume, delete the items you

don’t want to use, and then edit the rest.

Use the P.E.A.K.S. categories for your master resume.The creation

of a targeted portfolio will go a lot faster if the things you want to use

from your master resume are already in a P.E.A.K.S. format. Filing the

items in your master resume according to the P.E.A.K.S. they exempli-

fy also makes it easier to quickly identify the best things to use for a

targeted resume.

In early drafts of your master resume, stress length, not strength.It

doesn’t matter if you include marginal things in your master resume

that ultimately prove to be weak items. This isn’t a resume you will

show to anybody; it’s just a file that itemizes things you might conceiv-

ably use. Your goal should be to make your master resume as complete

as possible, so that when it comes time to pick and choose items for a

targeted resume, you will know that you have considered everything

that might work.

Use the items in your Master Portfolio collection for inspiration.

The items that you have collected for your Master Portfolio will remind

you of things you have done that should be included in your master re-

sume. If you have already categorized these items according to the

P.E.A.K.S. they best exemplify, that too will be helpful, as it will suggest

which of the P.E.A.K.S. subheadings the activities associated with

these documents should be listed under.

SUGGESTED CONTENT FOR YOUR P.E.A.K.S. MASTER RESUME

A good way to begin putting together your master resume is to keep it

simple and use the following basic categories that are found in most re-

sumes:

Name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address

Overview

Work experience

Education

Additional information

References

You can change these categories any time you want, but you’ve got to

start somewhere.

When creating a rough first draft, do not be concerned with tidi-

ness and getting everything just right. The important thing is to get

something down on paper that you can develop and change as more

ideas occur to you.

Please note, too, that if you are in a field that uses a curriculum

vitae format for resumes, you will be expected to provide a complete

66 Part I: Building, Using, and Maintaining Your Career Portfolio