Your resume is your first impression. It’s a reflection of your skills, experience, and even style, so it’s important to keep it fresh and top of mind for any future employers or opportunities within your current organization!
In her article, 5 Secrets to Guarantee a Stand Out Professional Resume, our Human Resources Specialist, Nicole, states that a stand out resume must always be recent, relevant, and reliable. Keeping your resume current allows you stay focused on your career goals and prepared in case of a change in circumstances.
To ensure your resume is always ready for the next opportunity, focus on the following:
Accuracy and Relevance
1. Information must be accurate.
When working on your resume, it is so important to ensure the information presented is correct. You don’t want to guess the start and end dates of a previous job only for that employer to let the interviewer know you were completely off on your dates. The same goes for contact information. You’d better triple check that phone number so you don’t miss a single opportunity! Since it can be difficult to remember specific details about education, jobs, and achievements that happened months or years prior, a best practice is to update your resume as these accomplishments occur.
2. The world of training is constantly evolving.
Because the learning and development industry is everchanging, it is crucial that you keep your resume up to date as well. We recommend these six tactics to ensure you are staying on the cutting edge of innovation. Skills, tools, and even words and phrases in the industry are continually changing; they often become obsolete just as quickly as they appeared. So it’s helpful to keep yourself abreast with the latest learning jargon. Not only that, but many skills that used to be considered an added bonus are now expected and can be left out entirely (for example: experience with Microsoft Word). Having out-of-date terms and skills on your resume might make your experience seem antiquated.
3. Resume trends are always changing.
Just as training evolves with the times, so do resumes! And you must keep up with trends if you want to outshine the competition. For example, a personal section used to be very popular. Nowadays, this section is not necessary or recommended. Modern resumes no longer have all the “fluff” they used to. These days, it’s best to keep your resume straightforward and to the point.
Career Goals and Accomplishments
1. Your resume exposes areas where your experience might be lacking.
Routinely checking your resume could help you notice when there’s something missing — such as a skill you’ve been meaning to work on, a goal you’d like to achieve, or a certification you want to obtain. These gaps will motivate you to grow personally and professionally. When you fill in these missing pieces of experience, your resume becomes more well-rounded, leading to increased consideration for recruitment and internal promotions, as well as a true sense of accomplishment.
2. Resumes are an overview of your progress throughout the years.
Reviewing your resume on a regular basis helps you examine your career trajectory. Personal growth and successes are what will push you to keep growing and learning, so it’s important to take a step back and acknowledge your achievements from time to time. This can be a powerful and positive source of motivation.
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Details and Organization
1. Attention to detail will get their attention.
Quality assurance is essential in the workplace. By showing that same laser focus on details in your resume, you are providing employers valuable insight on how you work. Examples include using spellcheck, editing for grammar and consistency, tailoring the content to the audience, and so on. Paying attention to the details not only helps prevent mistakes — it shows your potential for quality and dedication in the workplace.
2. Revising your resume displays organization.
This is so important, both when you have a job and when you are unemployed. When it comes to internal promotions, an individual with an up-to-date resume can submit it immediately for consideration with confidence. But someone with an outdated resume may not be considered for the promotion because they did not display the same level of accuracy, organization, or relevant experience. A recently revised resume will almost always beat out one that hasn’t been touched in years.
As you can see, it is critical to keep your resume fresh. Revisiting your resume often helps you better understand how far you have progressed professionally while simultaneously allowing you to set career goals for the future. You will now be prepared for whatever opportunities or adversities may come!
