Bite of Advice: Update your resume regularly
The Suggestion Kitty says . . . Keep your resume up-to-date . . . even if you aren’t actively looking for a job.
Treat your resume as a “living document.” If you are in school, update it once a semester or quarter. If you are in the workforce, update it every 3-4 months. By doing this, you can easily remember and note the new responsibilities and skills you’ve acquired. And when you are ready to submit a resume (for a new job with a new company, for a new job within your current company, to demonstrate your experience to a new manager or mentor . . . the reasons vary), you wont have to spend hours recalling your last few years of experience. Just a few edits and quick clean-ups, and your resume should be ready to go.
Meow!
gretchen
5 Comments
Alfred Thompson said:
I've made a practice of updating my resume any time I do anything that makes a resume look better. Resumes get used for more than just new jobs. They can be good for putting together a short bio to go along with presentations, writing projects or other activities where you just have to introduce yourself to a new group of people.
JobsBlog said:
Yep. Totally. I've submitted my resume a lot for things that had nothing to do with a new job. Some people just prefer to learn about your experience through resume form. Someone also told me today that he was going to use his up-to-date resume as a starting doc for his review form.
Jason Young said:
Amen to that. I just did mine after 5 years for a new opportunity that came up on our campus. That was quite a challenge in iteself.
Jason said:
Great advice - so hard to remember to do though. Does anyone have any tips on ways for a professional to be reminded that it's time to update the resume?
JobsBlog said:
You could update it everytime you write a performance evaluation for your job. Or you could just set a recurring reminder on your calendar to revisit it. It only takes about 5 minutes to update. (You don't have to spend the time wordsmithing ... just jot notes on the document so you don't forget the areas you want to highlight.)
Gretchen