People Don’t Update Their Resumes Enough.
If you’re looking for a job, chances are you’ve updated your resume. But even if you don’t look, you should still do an annual overhaul. So says William Vanderbloemen, author of Be a Unicorn , who has conducted more than 30,000 interviews. He founded one of the world’s largest executive search firms and knows a thing or two about what makes a great resume and how creating one can help you.
Practical reasons to update your resume every year
Vanderbloemen puts it simply, explaining the practical value of updating your resume every year: “You never know when you’ll be looking for a job, given the instability that’s going on right now. Who knows when you will be replaced and when you will want to take advantage of a new opportunity?”
Layoffs and restructurings can leave you without a job. Your personal desire to change gigs can come out of nowhere. Having an up-to-date resume gives you an edge and takes a lot of the stress out of the early days of your job search.
Vanderbloemen recommends sitting down once a year, usually in January, to review what your current resume says about you. Add things you’ve accomplished in the past year. Remember: accomplishments and actions are more important than a laundry list of where you worked and went to school. If something from 10 years ago is outdated or no longer relevant to your career, cut it out and add something fresher and more useful. Keep your resume as current as possible in case of an emergency. It is so simple.
Personal reasons to update your resume every year
This doesn’t mean you should always be in a state of panic about being fired or suddenly wanting to give up your current position. Having an updated resume on hand in case you need it is great, but just updating it has benefits for your current job.
“It forces you to take a long, hard look in the mirror,” Vanderbloemen says. “Some years you can look in the mirror and say, ‘I haven’t done anything.’ I was just pushing the paper apart. Other years you say, “No, I did this, this and this.” It’s almost like a self-assessment… Updating your resume isn’t so much because you’re going to look for a job. This is an underrated practice of self-reflection.”
If you’re finishing up your annual report and realizing that you’ve really had one of those years where you were “just moving paper”, it may make you work harder next year to get some action on the board, so your next update is a clean one. fire. Vanderbloemen suggests asking yourself questions during an upgrade, such as: “Am I adding value? Have I done anything, have I achieved any achievements? This tends to encourage people to be creative when planning what they want to do in the next 12 months, making them more efficient workers overall, he said.
If you’ve done a lot, this is also a great way to find motivation. You should always keep detailed records of your accomplishments at work so that you can see your own growth and make a compelling case during performance reviews or meetings with your superiors. Transferring them from your achievement log to your actual resume will highlight how significant these achievements are and what they can actually get you, such as a new job or promotion. Even if you never send this resume anywhere during the year it is active, just having it there will give you a boost.
After interviewing 30,000 candidates, Vanderbleemen and his team identified 12 habits that distinguish the most qualified workers. One of them is self-awareness. It’s difficult to share all your accomplishments in a pinch when you’re rushing to apply in a time of need, but doing it annually when there’s no pressure will give you time to introspect and become more aware of your strengths. and weaknesses that will help you in your daily work as well as when you’re ready for the next one.