How do you retain focus in your CV/Resume with a broad experience level?

Barry asks: How do you retain focus in you CV/Resume with a broad experience level? Does demonstrating experience in other realms provide an accelerated path for promotion? How often should you tailor your CV/Resume - per position or per company? How important is it to take risks to stand out from the crowd, i.e., even stooping to what seem like obvious, gimmicky advertising ploys?

In answer:
Demonstrating that you do things well is always a positive on a CV/Resume. The final answer is in this case is always post specific, and would depend on the job position.

Most of the time varied experience would be beneficial, but having a lack of direction can backfire, even for the most qualified candidates. This problem is most often faced in career change candidates. I have hence counselled clients to downplay or exclude certain accomplishments from a CV/Resume, when their inclusion may cause an employer to doubt your focus or commitment.

In terms of tailoring a CV/Resume to a particular position, the answer is yes. If done correctly, reiterating key words from a job posting or perhaps rearranging your accomplishment-based bullets so they tie back to requirements listed for a position is just one more thing that you can do to try to get your resume into the 'call' pile.

And one last point: forget the gimmicks! Just apply the age of old lesson of matching the job specification with the words in your CV/Resume. Stand out for the right reasons, not ones which could easily backfire on you: would you employ a joker who didn't know when to be an adult?

Good Luck!