The Overlooked Benefits Of Refreshing Your Resume

Personal resumes, or Curriculum Vitae (CVs) are such a vital commodity in today’s busy business world. They are essentially the main selling device for you to provide to an organisation which are potentially seeking to pay you to lend them your skills in amongst a crowd of other applicants.

In a world that is so rapidly changing and experiencing such volatile economic landscapes, people underestimate the importance of regularly keeping their resumes up-to-date so that, should something occur, your back-up plan is ready to go without too much of a shocking lapse to your life. Regular updating of your resume is more important than most people probably place value in, and will unfortunately only realise when it is too late. This article is to bring to light and motivate everyone to place more importance on this by showing you the benefits.

The Importance Of Keeping Your Resume Up To Date

Not to put a depressing rationale behind this article, but as mentioned, with the ever changing and rapidly shifting state of all industries in every country throughout the world, there is a direct flow-on effect which impacts heavily on the employment market in every country.

How often do we all see in the newspaper “4000 jobs downsized and cut by Organisation XYZ to improve profitability and create a leaner structure going forward”? Unfortunately more often than we, as employees, would like. An organisation is a business that functions to achieve its goals, and an inevitable reality is that they must act in such a way to remain solvent and competitive in an increasingly saturated and competitive market. Therefore, in the event that something should happen suddenly to your employment, having your resume ready to go simply makes perfect sense. It takes very little time to update and (more importantly) improve it every couple of months, and the benefits, even on a personal pride level, far outweigh the costs. It is baffling how complacent people can become in this regard, especially when they have been employed comfortably for quite a few years, completely underestimating how rapidly things can change and the impact it can have on their life.

Preparing For The Unexpected

Constant and stable employment is a key staple in most people’s lives. Their pay cheque rolls in at the same time every month and it’s used to maintain their standard of living, paying the bills, supporting their families, pursuing their interests and so on. Do people often consider the major impact to this routine if suddenly, they were found to be unemployed? Having your resume ready can mean that you are able to react quickly to minimise such a disturbance. Unfortunately, it is often a very stressful and emotional time when losing your job, and having this resume step already done can truly remove that quintessential hurdle on the road to recovery.  Acting on your terms is always better than acting on someone else’s – by this, I mean, editing your resume when you’re in a safe position is always far better than updating it in a rush to desperately find a new job.

There Are Other Advantages Too!

Of course, it’s not all bad. Having an up-to-date resume allows you to be able to quickly react to amazing new opportunities which may present themselves even while you are happily employed. LinkedIn as a platform itself specialises in the recruitment prospects of "passive searchers" who become tempted by job ads when not actively searching.

Being able to apply quickly with your impressive resume motivates you to be able to take the next step when you feel you are ready to stretch yourself in a role that will probably get snapped up quickly by thousands of others thinking the same. Be proud of your resume, and ensure to include all recent achievements and key steps which potential near-future employees will value highly.

What Do I Need To Update?

Updating your resume doesn’t only revolve around putting your current employment details on it. It includes ensuring that:
- the design and fonts are consistent and modern
- you have informed your Referees that you have put their name down again for reference checks
- the contact and address details are current and conveniently located
- all recent education and relevant extra-curricular information is up-to-date
- all ‘roles and responsibilities’ and promotions are noted, current and relevant   

Use It To Check Your Career Goals

Additionally, updating your resume can also be a great ‘goal check’ for you. A resume is essentially a checklist of your past and current career achievements. After you update it, you’re able to personally judge your current position and open yourself up to possible areas of self-improvement that you never would have considered before. You’re able to ask yourself questions like:

- Are you happy with your current position?
- Do you wish to go back and study further?
- Is there another field or industry niche you would like to try?
- What is missing from your resume that you need for the dream job?
- What remuneration package are you aiming for?
- What next steps do I need to take to achieve these goals?

All in all, whatever your motivation is for keeping your resume up-to-date, the benefits of doing so are numerous and, for the little time it takes, these benefits are all yours for the taking.

Goodluck! 
Christopher Melotti
​www.melottimedia.com.au 

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