Are you in the process of getting your life in order before springtime comes around? Have you cleaned out a few clothes closets, or gotten rid of those ancient paper bank statements you were keeping in your (equally ancient) filing cabinet in the garage? (Oops—maybe I was too specific with those “hypothetical” examples, because I did exactly those two things last weekend!)
Well, as long as you’re on a roll…if you can’t remember the last time you looked at your resume, it’s probably time to update it.
Even if you’re not actively looking for a job, updating your resume accomplishes several things:
First, it gives you a chance to review all your amazing skills, talents, and abilities; and while you’re at it, you can do a simultaneous update by adding any recent accomplishments, awards, degrees, licenses, or certificates. Moreover, reviewing your resume helps you see your strengths (hurray for strengths!), as well as any weaknesses you might want to shore up while you have a chance.
Perhaps more importantly, and this is coming from a true optimist (me!), it’s never a bad idea to have an updated resume that you can whip out at a moment’s notice, because when it comes to your life and career, things can change quickly. Opportunities (or bumps in the road) could suddenly present themselves. Best to be ready.
Read on for my quick tips:
1. Before you make any updates, and at the risk of sounding like your eighth grade English teacher, take the time to make sure your resume is completely free from all errors—not just spelling or grammar errors, but formatting errors, syntax errors, and of course, factual errors. If you’re not sure, ask a trusted friend (or career counselor) to proofread your resume. It’s my sincere hope that you won’t find any glaring blunders, but it won’t hurt to look. (You’d be surprised how many mistakes I find in people’s resumes on an almost-daily basis.) And guess what? Just one error on a resume is one too many. Given today’s fierce competition, you need to strive for perfection.
2. Pretend you’re viewing your resume for the first time. To begin with, is it easily readable? It’s important to choose a simple font, plain white paper (if you’re presenting a printed copy), black lettering, 10-to-12-point font size, and a format that’s immediately intelligible and understandable to the reader. Resume readers will toss your resume almost instantly if they can’t quickly navigate their way through it. In fact, pretend like you’re merely scanning your resume. (Trust me, resume readers do a lot of preliminary scanning.) Does the most pertinent information stand out? And will a quick scan make you want to place your resume on the top of the “contender” pile? That’s what you’re going for.
Next, is your resume modern and fresh looking, or does it look like you designed it back in the former century? But before we proceed with a fix, here’s what not to do: Don’t be tempted to convert your resume to a purportedly “contemporary” font, like Lombok or chiseled sans serif, cool and edgy as they may be—even if you’re the hippest graphic artist in Brooklyn. (You need to get hired first, and then you can deploy all the marginally readable fonts you wish.)
So how do you make your resume look up to date without submitting to a wacky font? Instead, stick with one of the gold standards of legibility, like Georgia (if you like serif), or Helvetica (if you prefer sans-serif). And just so you know, sans serif is seen as more contemporary these days. Use a clean, uncomplicated template, keep your margins at around .7 inches minimum, and avoid any cute “decorations” such as squiggles or curlicues—or, God forbid, emojis or punctuation “winks.” Keep it clean, crisp, professional, and short—one page only, unless you’ve recently received the Nobel Prize for Physics. (Then and only then, you will probably need two pages.)
3. This should go without saying, but be sure to update your contact information, if need be, and while you’re at it, make sure it’s accurate and easily findable—you want to make it simple for the hiring managers and recruiters to call you for that interview. Put all your pertinent personal information right at the top of the resume, in what I might call “letterhead” fashion.
4. If you’re a 50+ person, don’t turn your resume into a laundry list of all the jobs you’ve held for the last 35 years. Keep the spotlight on your last 10 years of relevant experience and drop off all the old stuff. Also, be sure to add any recent training you’ve had, especially if it’s in the technology arena. Like it or not, age bias is a very real thing, and possessing great technological skills is the #1 way to combat it.
Conversely, if you’re fresh out of college and just entering the career market, don’t pad your resume with unimportant, extraneous jobs you’ve held, like walking dogs or delivering pizzas. Resume readers already understand that you might be a little light in the experience department, and there’s no need to irritate them by attempting to look more worldly than you are. You’re not going to fool them.
5. Keep in mind that resume readers are going to be reading your resume in print form, on their desktop PCs, and even on their itsy-bitsy mobile phone screens, so make sure your resume looks fabulous in all three viewing formats. How? By checking for yourself. If your resume looks too cluttered or jumbled when viewed from your phone screen, change it. You don’t want to run the risk of being eliminated simply because the recruiter was doing her preliminary resume scanning on her iPhone while commuting home from work.
6. And finally, this is something many resume-writing articles fail to mention: let’s talk about how you name your file. First, recruiters don’t need to know that this is “version 7” of your resume, so don’t include it in the file name. Remember, recruiters are receiving, opening, forwarding, filing, and retrieving lots of resumes all day long, so your resume file name should include only these two essentials: your name, plus the word “resume.” Like this: Marissa Matthews Resume. That way, you’re less likely to get lost in the shuffle.
That’s it for today! Hope this info is helpful. See you next time, and please remember to send me your feedback, your suggestions for future topics, and—always my favorites—your friendly hellos! I always appreciate hearing from you.
