After you’ve applied for and landed the job of your dreams, perhaps, now, you may be thinking that you can already tuck your resume away, forget about it, and never update it anymore. You’re happy where you are, and you know that you’re going to last many years in the company, satisfied with the growth of your career. Wrong. Even when you’re not going to use your resume anytime soon, there are many excellent reasons for you to keep it up-to-date. Some of these include:
It Keeps You Reminded Of Your Achievements
As you go about your career, you’ll encounter a lot of learning opportunities for growth. You can get promoted. You may be sent to attend seminars and other lectures. Who knows? Perhaps, you may even be invited as a guest speaker for an event.
These are achievements that you should always be proud of. But, if you don’t list them down or take note of them right away, you may run the risk of forgetting about all of these. Adding them to your resume as soon as they happen can help you maintain the accuracy of the document.
Remember that a resume is more than just a list of all the job titles that you’ve previously held and how long you’ve stayed in them. Above anything else, it’s a record of all that you have achieved in your lifetime.
A bonus in this regard is that if you happen to be having a bad day at work or if you doubt your capacity to do well at work, you can go back to your resume and look at everything that you’ve accomplished so far. Doing so can increase your morale, which will, then, positively impact your job performance.
It Enables You To Understand Your Objectives
If you take the time to browse through various formats of excellent resumes, you’ll find out that they don’t just contain a list of achievements. A resume should also contain your career goals, as well as your expectations every time you apply for a job. You can check several online sources online like Standard Resume, for you to know how to create a standard resume, compare options, and use ones that suit your career objectives.
Revisiting your resume from time to time and updating it can help you refocus and understand the goals that you’ve set for yourself. Also, going through that portion can help you better understand what it is that’s most important for you.
Even more importantly, as you update your resume, you’ll also be able to evaluate yourself and see which areas in your career you need to work on or improve. Perhaps, there may be some gaps in your current expertise that you’ll have to fulfill for you to move up the career ladder. This gives you that added dose of inspiration, helping you improve and master your craft.
It Helps You Understand Yourself As A Professional
As you get entangled in the complexities of daily work life, getting lost along the way is easy. You may have already forgotten who you are as a professional, or what you originally had in mind when you applied for the job. Often, you can lose track of your personal goals simply because you’ve grown accustomed to regularly doing routine tasks for your boss.
By updating your resume, you’re also enabling yourself to have that new and more profound understanding of who you are as a professional. Remember that every role that you undertake in your life is always a reflection of who you are at that point. It shows what your preferences and passions are.
With all these pieces of information right in front of you, you get to better understand yourself as a professional.
It Allows You To Practice Your Resume Writing Skills
Resume writing is no easy feat. You can take inspiration from all the examples that are available online, but you’ve also got to do your part in making it one that’s uniquely yours. Don’t just copy in toto what’s written by others.
Remember that HR managers scrutinize resumes almost every single day; they know how to distinguish a great one from a bad one. Going even deeper into quality, it’s not just the format that matters, but the content and writing style as well. You want to stand out and be original. Even more importantly, you’d want to incorporate that written style that’s uniquely yours for your resume to stand out.
Here are some of the ways you can make your resume stand out from the pack:
- Include a feature that highlights why you’ve got excellent communication skills. Employers are consistently looking for employees who have the ability to communicate well, both in speech and in writing. Early on in your resume, you have to show that you’ve got the said quality.
- Always keep your resume looking professional. This fact is precisely the reason why you need to consistently practice and hasten your resume writing skills. Never submit one that’s haphazardly made or, worse, an old copy. Remember that even before meeting the HR officer personally, they’ve already seen your resume. Hence, your resume has to look sharp, else, you might lose your hiring capability.
- Speak about your openness to adapt and to learn. Even when you’re going to apply in the same industry you previously worked for, this doesn’t mean that things are going to be exactly the same. No two businesses are alike, so you need to show a willingness to adapt to change. This level of openness is something that employers are also consistently looking for, and it may be a crucial determinant for hiring.
Takeaway
The factors enumerated above are only some of the very basic reasons why you must always keep your resume up-to-date. If yours hasn’t been updated yet, then, it’s about time to give it a well-deserved makeover for it to continue to stand out in a sea of competitive resumes. Yes, it’s going to require extra effort on your part, but the results are going to be worth it. Start by checking if there’s any new achievement that you’ve missed to include, then, review the format, and make sure that it looks and feels professional.
