Have you updated your resume lately? If you’re in a job search, this is a must, but it’s a great idea even if you aren’t actively looking. You never know when circumstances may require you to have an updated resume (which could be everything from an unexpected layoff to a dream job opportunity). A fresh resume means you are ready for anything.
Add Continuing Education
Have you taken any classes, seminars, workshops or trainings in the last year or two? Have you received any new certifications? Add these to your resume’s education section. Employers like to see people who keep learning new things and stay current.
Decide If It’s Time to Delete Your First Job From Your Job History
This tip is especially relevant for job seekers with more than 20 years of experience. It’s important that you keep your resume to 2 pages or less. All that’s required on a good resume is the last 10-15 years of job experience. Jobs earlier than that probably aren’t that relevant to what you’re doing now.
Add What You’ve Done Lately
Make sure to add your accomplishments and projects from your current job. This can easily slip by you, because you’re so busy working–but it’s worth it to take the time. You can easily forget something amazing (that would get you hired for a new job) if you don’t write it down.
Quantify Your Accomplishments
Quantifying your accomplishments is the #1 thing you can do to improve your resume. Quantifying means describing your accomplishments in terms of numbers, dollars and percentages. Think of activities you’ve done that involved revenue, rankings, production, accuracy, budgets, projects, schedules, turnover rate, procedures, etc.
See more about how to quantify your resume here: Write a Resume That POPS! Redo It With Numbers That Quantify Your Experience
Save Your Resume With a Professionally-Appropriate File Name
When you save your resume, save it as ‘FirstName-LastName-Resume’, or some version of this. When you send your resume to a recruiter or hiring manager, you want to make it easy for them to save your resume to their own files and find you again.
As a side note, you may want to save your resume as a PDF and send that so you make sure it ends up in their hands in the same format you sent it in. If you save in Word, send it to yourself first to make sure it turns out the way it should.