Hi Samuel thanks for your comments.
If you are totally satisfied with the results of your current strategy, that’s great! Don’t change a thing. It’s important to follow what works for you.
I've been using a catch all for the past 6 years as a contractor and I've never been out of work more than a couple of weeks. I'm currently on contract number 9 and will be looking for my 10th soon.
The contractor and permanent markets are indeed different to one another and do warrant adjustments to a job hunting strategy to reflect this.
Instead of paring the resume down to what the job is asking for, I've trimmed it down to what I want to do. Relevancy isn't just for the employer!
That’s a good mindset sir. Ideally of course, what you want to do and what the employer is asking for should be one and the same.
The IT job market, especially in the UK, is heavily controlled by the agencies. Having a universal CV/Resume means that when an agent calls me with a potential contract and I want to be put forward, as long as the agent has a recent copy in front of him I don't need to do anything. Alternatively if time is short and I need to get a CV to an agent by a set time then I don't have to think about it. I can spend 2 minutes firing an email off and then get back to whatever I was doing before.
Very true, the agencies are a key factor in the UK market. They can spot a great candidate a mile off because their CV stands out (for all the right reasons) amongst a pile of catch all resumes.
Contrary to your own apparent success, perhaps consider why play a numbers game, taking the unnecessary risk of being overlooked, when a targeted resume will consistently come out on top.
In my own experience, both as a candidate and a hiring manager, I have found that the additional effort spent on a resume is always a worthwhile investment.
Great comments! Thanks for sharing.