Now’s the time to make sure you have a refreshed, new resume ready to help you reach your career goals in 2017. This is the perfect time to reflect on past years’ accomplishments and consider next steps in your career. Whether you’re looking for a promotion internally at your current organization or realize it’s time to start your career search externally, you need to be armed with your new resume.
Many people just continually add content to their existing resume — the one they started years ago — without taking that crucial step to look back at the whole picture and determine whether their resume content could benefit from a complete overhaul.
Does your career narrative accurately reflect where you are today and, more importantly, where you want to be in the future? Here are 3 ways to determine if you need a new resume:
1-You still have resume detail dating back to 1995. Focus your content on the last 7-10 years of work experience. That’s what hiring managers will focus on. Don’t waste valuable resume real estate highlighting things that happened 20 years ago or that aren’t relevant to the role you’re seeking.
2-You open your resume with an objective statement. The objective statement is a thing of the past and will undoubtedly make you appear outdated. It’s not about what YOU want; it’s about what you can do for employers and how you can add value. An effective resume will present a powerful 3-5 sentence opening summary that provides a succinct snapshot of who you are and what you’ve done.
3-Your resume focuses on what you are responsible for. Focus on your accomplishments and not what you’re ‘responsible for.’ As an example, you can convey your value in your resume when you state, ‘Increased sales revenue from $15M to $30M in less than 2 years, outpacing industry growth by 2X,’ compared to writing ‘Responsible for increasing sales year over year.’ A hiring manager knows what you should be doing in your role. What they don’t know is what you accomplished in each role you’ve held. Be sure your resume presents high-level, quantifiable detail that will get you noticed.
Contact San Francisco-based, top professional resume writer, Robin Kelley, if you’d like to partner to develop your new resume.