September is Update Your Resume Month, sponsored by Career Directors International and published in Chases’ Calendar of Events. There are several really good reasons to have an updated resume at hand all the time.
If you’re going to update your resume on your own, Career Directors International offers a worksheet to download.
In addition, here are some essential tips for approaching the task:
Start at the end. This is how professional resume writers work. Compile your details and put them in place. When you are done with them, you will be ready to write the summary at the top.
Move the references. If you have references on your resume, move them to a separate document. It is appropriate to submit references only when requested. If you have “References provided upon request” at the bottom of your resume, remove that, too. Employers know that.
Education and Certifications: Have you taken any courses, attended any conferences, or added certifications since your last resume update?
Affiliations and Volunteer Work: Have you joined any new organizations, taken any new offices, or provided any significant assistance to the organizations of which you are a member?
Professional Experience: Even if you haven’t changed positions or titles since you last looked at your resume, your duties have probably changed. Be sure to include new initiatives, leadership roles, accomplishments, awards, creations, and projects you managed or contributed to.
Qualifications: Do any of the changes you have made to your resume so far need to be summarized in the Qualifications section? Are there any new qualifications?
Summary: If you were to start a job search today, is your target the same as it was the last time you updated your resume? In other words, if you had to use your resume today, would it be ready? Does the summary need to be updated with any new qualifications?
Personal Information: Update your contact information if you have moved. If you have two phone numbers listed, remove one, leaving preferably your cell number. If your email contains a nickname or anything that could be construed as unprofessional, change it. Tuffy27@hotmail.com is not a professional email address. If you have not added your LinkedIn address to your resume, do so.
There you have it. Your updated resume.
If that sounds like more work than you want to tackle this week (or this month!), contact me at Jeri@WorkwriteResumes.com to talk about how I can write your update for you. To get in on the last of the 2014 prices before the October increase, email me today. I have a two-week waiting list right now and will honor those prices on any project scheduled and paid for in September 2014.
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