Your resume shouldn’t be static. At least once a year even happily employed professionals should take the opportunity to update their resume.
1. Interview Yourself
What kind of jobs are you most interested in? What’s your current career path? What’s your five-year plan? Ask yourself these questions, and write down the answers before you open up your resume and begin editing it. Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can know what you need to write.
2. Pull the Weeds
When you look at your resume, consider anything that needs to be deleted – this includes jobs that are no longer relevant to your ideal career, or bullet points that don’t reflect key skills.
3. Tell Your Story
Look back at the notes you made during your personal reflection/self interview – does your pared down resume convey that? What do you need to add so it does?
4. Reconnect with Your References
Good for your resume, and good for your career. It’s a good idea to make sure you’re keeping up with your professional references annually. As a bonus, you may consider asking these individuals if they’d be willing to proofread your resume for you.
5. Consider changes to format or content
The last step is to update with your most recent accomplishments that tie in with your new professional goals, and help convey your story. Your resume should be more than a list of data points. It should celebrate your career accomplishments, and also communicate what your next career step should be. Research latest trends in formatting and structure. Is now the time to add a list of core competencies to the top of your resume? Should you delete the links to your social media profiles? See what works for your industry and career path, and make the changes.
