If you’re thinking of breaking into a new career or changing jobs, updating your resume should be one of the first things to do.
The resume you prepared when you graduated might have been useful the first time around but now is definitely the time to update it.
In updating your resume, here are a few things to consider:
Update your resume frequently
Regardless if you’re content at your current job or are currently looking for new opportunities, updating your resume frequently (perhaps once a year) is always a good idea.
Throughout your career, your responsibilities may have changed and so your resume should reflect these changes as well.
Remove information that’s outdated
When applying for a position at a new company, make sure to remove any irrelevant information.
You may have previously included things such as a list of part time jobs during university just to pad your resume but now this list might be irrelevant for your potential employers.
So, if you think that some of the skills listed in your resume does not relate to the new job you’re applying for, maybe you should leave it out. However, you should retain the items in your list if those experiences and skills are useful for the position you’re looking at.
Highlight the skills you’ve acquired
After a few years of working, no doubt you would have acquired more experience and skills.
So, apart from removing outdated information contained in your earlier resume, your priority now would be to make these new experiences and skills stand out.
This would probably require you to think about all the projects you’ve worked on and how the experience has helped you to grow professionally in your job.
For some of you, this exercise may not be as easy as you think as you really have to consider how your work has translated into useful experience and training.
Give your resume a makeover
Although substance will always be more important than style, it doesn’t hurt to make your resume more attractive or at the very least make it easier for potential employers to read.
Your resume should not be messy, rather it should stay simple and clean.
An easy tip is to choose an appropriate font. The “best” fonts will look good both on paper and on the screen, so make sure to try out several fonts and print out before actually sending your resume.
This is a weekly column by SarawakYES! – an initiative driven by Faradale Media-M Sdn Bhd and supported by Angkatan Zaman Mansang (AZAM) Sarawak – to provide advice and stories on the topics of education and careers to support Sarawakians seeking to achieve their dreams. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
This article first appeared on The Borneo Post, published in the print version on Saturday, November 3, 2018.
Photo by Lukas from Pexels.
