Getting personal for a moment.
Here is my fall checklist.
- Watch a lot of football.
- Win my fantasy football league.
- Try something pumpkin flavored.
- Go to the Austin City Limits Festival.
- Update my resume and LinkedIn profile.
You read that right. A resume writer, updating their resume. No worries, I’m not changing careers. My services are still available and top-rated.
But I firmly believe everyone needs to recognize a resume and LinkedIn profile are dynamic documents and need updating regularly.
Why Should I Update My Resume?
Outdated resumes and online profiles will cause you to miss opportunities. Recruiters are leveraging many resources to find the best candidates nowadays and it’s a good idea to work with one. If you’d like to know why, and how, to work with a recruiter, check out this post.
Performance reviews are coming, time to ask for that raise! Your resume is the place to keep track of all your great achievements during your career. Bring your updated resume to your review to SHOW how great you’ve been doing and how you’re an invaluable asset to your company.
Keep track of it all. 5 years go by so much faster than you think. A Zippia study conducted in 2018 showed 51% of American workers change jobs every 1 to 5 years. And that study was almost 5 years ago! We all know how much the labor force landscape has changed since then. Keeping your newly gained certificates, training attended, skills learned, and work wins logged somewhere is very important and makes updating your resume on a regular basis a breeze.
What Do I Update on My Resume?
Start with the easy stuff. Are your name and contact information the same? Is it time to update your email address? (Please get rid of 1hotlady@example.com or vodkalyfe@example.com)
Next, check out your skills list. Are they still relevant? Or are you naming skills that do not align with what you do as your career has changed?
The big part is content in experience. Are you showing what you’ve accomplished in your time at your current position or are you only listing your job duties?
Moving on to education. Is your graduation date older than 5 years? Then it’s time to take it off.
There is a lot of little housekeeping you can do, but most importantly is keeping your LinkedIn as up-to-date as possible in all sections so recruiters know what you’re up to and that you’re an active participant in your field.
When Is a Good Time to Update My Resume?
It might seem like an annual resume overhaul is a good idea. But, it’s not.
A good guideline is to perform a resume clean-up every quarter, so every 3 months, and with each performance review.
The other good time is about 1 month before you really dig into actively finding a new job.
Get your resume and LinkedIn profile in tip-top shape after deciding on AT LEAST 2 positions you are extremely interested in. The reasoning behind this is your personal branding documents need to be as narrowly tailored to positions you are considering as possible. This will definitely give you a leg up on the competition as the hiring managers will know you are serious about them, not just spamming resumes hoping for a bite.
Who Should Update My Resume?
If you’re adding in something really amazing your supervisor mentioned in your performance review or removing graduation dates, that’s an easy DIY.
When it comes time to start applying for positions and you’ve kept your resume current, but you have no idea what the new standards are, a little research will take you a long way. But that is time-consuming and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. A professional with extensive experience is not a bad idea in this scenario.
If you’re reading this and it’s been a while since you even looked at your resume or LinkedIn Profile, I highly recommend a professional. The right writer will get you interviews, and you’ll have everything shiny new, motivating you to add “resume updating” to your to-do list.
Here are some more reasons why you’d want to consider hiring a resume writer.
Resume Assassin is a top-rated executive resume writing service with years of experience helping executives (through the C-Level) break into startups through Fortune 500 organizations.
Reach out today: www.resumeassassin.com or mary@resumeassassin.com
Connect on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-southern
Schedule a 15 Minute Call: https://calendly.com/resumeassassin/meet