One master profile, many CVs: write your facts once
How to build a master profile that does the work for you: skills with aliases and evidence, engagements, translations and per-country rules.
Most people keep one CV file and edit it for every posting. The file becomes a record of the last application, not of your career. A master profile reverses that: you keep all your facts, once, in a structure, and CVs are generated from it.
Here is how to build one that pays off.
Start from your best existing CV#
Import it, or start fresh if it is a mess. The goal at this stage is to get everything in, not to make it short. Short is for the CV. The profile is allowed to be long.
Give every skill evidence#
A skill list that says "TypeScript" tells a reader nothing. A skill with evidence says "TypeScript: three roles, six years". In the profile, attach each skill to the roles and projects where you used it. Two benefits:
- The match can say "covered" and show why.
- You notice the skills you list but cannot back. Remove them or find the evidence.
Add aliases#
Postings say Postgres, PostgreSQL, psql. They say React, React.js, ReactJS. Add the aliases to the skill once and every future posting finds it. This is the cheapest improvement you can make to a profile.
Describe roles as engagements#
A freelancer's career is not a list of jobs, it is a list of engagements with clients. Record each one: the client, the project, your part, the technology, the result. Each line you write gets its own id, which is how a line on a CV can always be traced back.
Write results with numbers where you have them, and only where you have them. "Support tickets about bookings fell by a third" is useful. A number you are not sure about is not.
Keep variants of the headline and summary#
You are a "Freelance Full-Stack Engineer" for one posting and a "TypeScript Specialist" for another. Keep both as variants. The tailoring picks the one that fits.
Translate your own lines#
If you apply in Germany, write German versions of the lines you will use. The CV for a German client is then built from your German, not from a machine translation. Lines you have not translated stay in the base language, and the page tells you how many are missing.
Set rules per country#
A profile can say what goes on the CV for a client in each country: which city to list, how to describe your registration, and which language the documents use. For example, a Dutch ZZP with a KvK number can have a rule for Dutch clients and a different one for German clients. Set only what is true for you.
Review it once, like a witness#
Read the whole profile as if someone will ask you about every line, because someone will. Fix anything you would not defend. Everything the CV says will come from here.
Then let go of the CV file#
When the profile is right, the CV is a rendering. Pick a design, a length and a density, and download a PDF. The next posting is a new rendering, not a new edit.