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Your Resume is a Living and Breathing Document

Question for you: When do you typically update your resume?

If you’re like most people, your answer was something along the lines of “Whenever I’m applying for a new job.”

While you definitely want to fine-tune your resume before applying for a new position, it’s actually beneficial to update your resume on a continual basis – whether you’re looking for a new job or not.

In this article, we’ll explain exactly why that is.


Why Should You Update Your Resume Regularly?

Maintaining Accuracy

You’ve undoubtedly accomplished a lot since the last time you updated your resume. Do you really think you can remember everything you’ve done – and are able to report your accomplishments with 100% accuracy?

As we spoke about in our previous article on best practices when creating a resume, you want to be able to point back to specific achievements and accomplishments in your professional life – and you also want to avoid making undocumented claims, as well.  By updating your resume as you accomplish these goals, you won’t have to worry about digging back months (and even years) into your history to recall certain events correctly.

Staying Organized and Prepared

In addition to that last point, keeping your resume up to date allows you to focus more on the organization of the document itself – rather than the contents therein.

While you don’t necessarily need to make your resume completely presentable every single time you update it, you want to be sure to input specific information in the appropriate section. This way, when the time does come for you to send in your resume to a prospective employer, you’ll have all your information right in front of you and will simply need to focus on organizing it properly.

Another thing to consider, here, is that you never really do know when you’ll next need your resume. If worse comes to worst and you find yourself in immediate need of a new job, you’ll at least be leaps and bounds ahead of where you would have been had you not kept your resume current. On the other side of things, if your resume isn’t up to date, it’ll be one more hurdle you’ll have to jump over during an already difficult time in your life.

Knowing When to Move On

As we mentioned earlier, most people typically begin updating their resume after they realize they’re ready to move on to a different position.

However, if you make it a habit to continually update your resume from time to time – regardless of the need for a change – this might actually help you realize you’re ready for a change in the first place.

Too often, we don’t realize how much we’ve accomplished – and how much we’re capable of – until we truly take the time to analyze our lives. Unfortunately, this can cause us to hold ourselves back from attaining our true potential. By committing to updating your resume on a more frequent basis, you’ll give yourself more time to think about everything you’ve done in life – and realize how much more you can achieve.

And, by keeping your publicly-visible online resume up to date, you increase the chances of your getting noticed by other potential employers who could open up whole new worlds of opportunity for you.


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