Your resume is a work in progress. It needs to be continually updated throughout your career to stay as fresh and relevant as possible.
It might be that, like so many, you only refresh your resume when you’re looking for a new job, but there are lots of circumstances that can leave your resume outdated – not just a new position.
Given that this is such an important document, it’s best not to let it sit for years and go stale. Keeping on top of your resume means you’ll be ready for any great opportunities that present themselves, and you won’t have as much work to do next time you’re on the job hunt.
But how do you know if your resume needs to be updated?
Here are five sure-fire signs it needs some TLC.
1. Your resume no longer reflects you
Throughout your career, you will grow and change, and you need to make sure that your resume reflects the current you, not the one from three years ago, as these will be two very different people.
Even if you’re working in the same company and even the same position, there are so many other aspects about you that will have changed. You will have learned new skills, you will have new ambitions, and you’ll have grown as a person.
More than this, your knowledge of the industry, your achievements, and even your tone of voice will have changed. So even if the content remains similar, just refreshing the language to be more persuasive and confident can make all the difference.
So, if you’ve found yourself reading through your resume and thinking, this doesn’t even sound like me; this is a major sign that it needs some updating.
2. Your current job title is incorrect
Although you typically update your resume each time you’re on the job search, there are plenty of occasions where you may have landed a new job without submitting a formal resume.
For example, you might have switched departments in your current company, gotten a promotion, or secured an interview through your connections.
In these instances, you might look back at your current resume and realize that it doesn’t even have your most recent job title, let alone any of the other important details. This is a big issue, but one that is simple to rectify.
Be sure to update your summary and employment history to reflect your most recent job role.
Keeping on top of your resume means you’ll be ready for any great opportunities that present … [+]
3. Your skill set has grown
As you grow within your company, you’ll gain so many new skills along the way. These can be both hard and soft skills, you might have learned to use a new tool, or you may have strengthened your leadership skills by increasing the size of your team.
Whatever the case may be, your resume needs to reflect your impressive skill set.
If you look back over your current document and notice that you’ve not included anything new that you’ve learned over the last year, two years, or perhaps even further back, then you need to fix this right away.
The quickest way to do this is to update (or add if you don’t already have one) the key skills section. It’s best to highlight at least 10 of the key skills you deem to be most important and relevant to your current position and industry.
You can also pepper your key skills throughout your summary and employment history too.
4. Your responsibilities and achievements are all wrong
If you’re skimming back through your resume and notice that the responsibilities listed no longer reflect what you do on a daily basis, this must be changed immediately.
You should start by going through your employment history and updating the responsibilities listed under your current position. If you haven’t added your current position, now is the time to do so.
At this stage, it’s also a good idea to determine if you’ve got too many outdated roles in your employment history or if you’ve included too many details on these old jobs.
Take this chance to cut down your employment section so it includes only the most recent and relevant positions and only really focuses on the key responsibilities and achievements in your current role. Unless that is, you believe your previous position is relevant and holds a lot of merit.
But essentially, you need to make sure your key responsibilities and achievements are as up-to-date as possible.
5. You start with a resume objective
Finally, there are several reasons you might have included a resume objective in the earlier stages of your career, but this is no longer necessary. The recruiter understands the goal of your resume; it’s to land the job. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have applied.
So if your current resume kicks off with an objective, then it’s time to refresh your top quarter. Instead, start with a short but powerful summary of who you are, your key qualifications or achievements, and what makes you ideal for the position.
This will be a much stronger start to your application and is more likely to secure you an interview at this stage in your career.
So, if you notice any of these red flags, it’s a sign that it’s time to update your resume.
