Deep Dive on Updating your Resume

Hi read,

Last week, we talked about making small steps toward big, scary goals that may live outside of your comfort zone. In the example we used, the goal was to find a new job. One of the small steps was "update your resume."

When I started thinking about that, I realized that this is not an easy step for everyone! If you have been at the same company for a long time, you might not have updated your resume in years.

To help with this step, I have broken down the 9 steps I advise others to use when they're updating a resume.

By the way, if you're not looking for a new job, you may be thinking this doesn't apply to you. Think again! It's great to have an updated resume if you're contacted by a recruiter or apply for an internal promo/transfer. Plus, it's much easier to keep your resume up to date regularly than to revisit it every 10 years. :)

These steps will help you break it down into manageable chunks.

1) Find the most recent version of your resume. This can be a decade old. It's fine.

2) Pull up your LinkedIn profile. Some people are better at updating these and maybe you are one of them.

3) Choose a format. You can hire a professional resume writer, find a free layout, buy a template, or ask a few colleagues for examples. After using a professional resume writer for a somewhat fancy layout, I reverted back to a much simpler template based on my colleague's advice.

4) Type or write down your roles and accomplishments for each role since your last resume update.

5) Type or write down any new degrees, certifications, awards, or other accomplishments you've attained since your last resume update. Note: You might want to consider joining some professional groups related to your field if you are not already a member.

6) Think about what kind of job you might be interested in. This can be totally abstract. Don't let it stop you! This is just to give you a frame of reference when you are writing the resume.

7) Update your resume with the new information. Feel free to keep the old content as-is if that's easier. My rule of thumb is a one page resume if you have less than 5 years of experience. After that, 2 pages are OK. Of course, this doesn't apply to specialized resumes like Academic CVs.

8) Seek feedback. This is the hard part but it is worth it. My resume got 1000 times better when I asked for feedback from a former colleague.

There you go! This process isn't necessarily easy but it will feel SO good when you're done. You'll have a resume you'll be proud to share with anyone who asks for it. And maybe some who don't ask for it. ;)

When did you last update your resume? I would love to know! If you are doing this now, please let me know what your struggles are.

Best,

Beth

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