If you’re looking for a new job, it may be time to update your resume. This is the first impression any new employer is going to see. It should reflect your most recent experiences, relevant qualities and valuable skills. Before you get ready to send it out, it’s important to review it for outdated information and update each section as necessary. In fact, if you haven’t put together a resume in several years, you may also want to change the formatting. Overtime, you have acquired new skills and potentially earned a new certificate or license. While it may feel daunting and time-consuming to do a total overhaul to your resume, it’s likely making a few tweaks will be exactly what’s needed.
If you’re a new graduate, you probably listed your education first, as that was your main experience. However, if you’re several years out of school, a potential employer will be more interested in your most recent experience.
Although there is some wiggle room for how you order the resume sections, adhere to standard headers such as education, experience and summary as these are terms an automated applicant tracking system will be looking for. It’s easy to flex the structure by copying and pasting to move things around without going through a complete rewrite.
Replace an objective with a professional summary
Do not take up valuable space rehashing your career path or sharing your talents. Your objective is clear. Instead, use the space to offer a high-level overview of your skill set and pinpoint qualifications that make you different from others.
Identify keywords
Many companies now use an automated applicant tracking system to filter through incoming resumes. They are coded with keywords to help the system identify resumes from the best candidates. You’ll find these are the words repeated in a job listing or maybe found in descriptions of the company’s focus.
Education
This section should be updated with your most recent and relevant education you completed. However, if you graduated more than 15 years ago, don’t include your graduation date as this may trigger age discrimination.
Professional history
This section should be updated each time you begin working with a new employer, get a promotion or take on new responsibilities. Since your resume has a limited amount of space, include only the strongest and most relevant information, as this is the information the hiring manager needs for a complete picture of who you are. Remove any outdated jobs that are no longer relevant to your career path.
Limited space
Your resume is often just one page, which means every word should have a purpose and support your experience and skill set as the best candidate for the position. It’s human nature for people to pay more attention to the top of the document than the bottom, so be sure the top half of your resume reflects the best and most relevant information for the position you’re applying for. This may mean moving sections around for different job applications.
Proofread
This is one of the most important tasks you’ll do when you update your resume. Give your resume several proofreads and ask a friend to do it as well. Do it during the process of tweaking the information and several times at the end. Read it out loud to catch grammatical mistakes and spelling errors.
Are You Satisfied With Your Position?
Updating your resume is an important step toward finding a job that will propel you along your career path. Our professional recruiters at Anodyne are ready and willing to help you tweak your resume, focusing your skills and information directly toward the job you want to have. Contact us today and let’s get started!
