5 Awesome Reasons to Always Keep Your Resume Up To Date.

If you’ve been happily employed at the same job for several years, there’s a good chance that your resume is not updated. You are definitely not alone in this category a number of employees who find themselves in fantastic jobs are content to leave their resume as it is because they are happy and content with their current jobs and have no plans of changing roles anytime soon.?

For a fact there was a time in my career when my resume too was gathering virtual dust because I didn’t update it with anything I’ve done for the past year and a half or so on that role.

I hate to burst your bubble , you should not be in that category! Having a polished resume (and LinkedIn profile!) can be almost as valuable to you now (that you are content in your job) as they are when you’re in the middle of a job search.

Keep reading for five good reasons to keep your resume updated—always.

Reason #1 You Might Have Online Secret Admirers

So you are not looking for a new job (I get it ) but this does not mean that someone out there (a recruiter, a company , a project team, a start-up) isn’t looking for someone with your exact skills sets!! Someone like you!!!.?

Recruiters or people looking to collaborate on projects are often actively on the look out?for the perfect fit (8 out of 10 times perfect fits are never actively searching for opportunities). If a recruiter / potential partner calls you up asking for your resume—or perhaps comes across your two year-old LinkedIn profile—they are most likely going to be unimpressed - why? You have not updated your profile and resume with all of the awesome stuff you have been achieving in the last two years that’s why!

But just imagine while searching online, they come across an up-to-date document or profile detailing all of the impressive things you have been up to? They would more likely engage you and start the conversation towards an offer that would make you rethink your current engagement!!! Does that not just sound great !!! Even if the offer does not go through, here is what you would have achieved :

You will have attracted the attention of the kind of people who value your skill set .

You will be more knowledgeable about the current market value of your skills and experience.?

And lastly (among many other points) you will get a huge confidence boost!!

Reason #2 You Might Be Interested In A Side Gig

I know you are not looking for a new full-time job (at the moment) yea you said so! but you may decide that you are interested in a side gig, some freelance work or collaboration with someone on a side project. Should such an opportunity arrive without prior notice as they often do - you’ll be much more confident if you are not scrambling to get your resume up dated.

A couple of months ago, a friend was passively considering picking up some freelance work and then what seemed like the perfect opportunity presented itself. You know how these side gigs go , once someone refers you, you need to send your details ASAP - that is exactly what happened to my friend he needed to get his name and expertise in the hiring manager’s inbox ASAP—when he realized that not only did he not have an updated resume, he didn’t even have a copy of one accessible on his computer! Definitely a rookie move.

Do your best not to be caught in a situation like my friend. Keep an updated copy of your resume somewhere it’s easy to find like your phone, send it to yourself or a close friend via email so they can be your back up should you not be able to access your friend the copy in your phone or email ( crazy stuff happens all the time!). Also have handy a detailed document containing all the experience that you have gathered and the results you have achieved over your career (I will share more on this in another blog post), this document should not be a one-pager, this should be your total experience /achievement information bank. You will appreciate this information bank in the instance you need to tailor your experience and particularly highlight a specific skill set needed for the role / side-gig you are positioning for at that time.

Reason #3 Someone Might Want to Nominate You for Something

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was told he had been nominated for an award, but when he was asked for an updated resume to send to the committee, he realized he hadn’t updated his resume in the last couple of years!!!

Of course instead of feeling totally excited for the recognition, he was scrambling around to fix up his resume, and ultimately he was able to send in a document that didn’t fully represent his accomplishments as well as a carefully curated and updated one would have.

Moral of the story : By having your LinkedIn profile and resume no more than a month old, you avoid selling yourself short at any point in time .?

Reason #4 You Might Want to Present Yourself as an Expert

There will be opportunities to speak at conferences , write as a contributor to newspaper publications, or giving quotes to the media as an expert in your field. These are all excellent ways to grow yourself professionally without leaving your current role or organization. But when you pitch yourself to the media or conference organizers, you’re going to have to be able to adequately show what you have done - this is where an updated resume is required.?

When you keep your resume and LinkedIn profile updated, you can send them off without blinking an eye or delaying, and guess what you must do after you have delivered an amazing presentation or had your article published? You should update your resume immediately. Easy Peasy right!!!

Reason #5 Your worst case scenario happens - you suddenly find yourself out of job?

Sadly, no matter how much you love and have passion for and you seem to be a great fit for your job or how outstanding your current performance is, a situation may arise where you suddenly find yourself out of job (this has happened to even top performers in cases where the job loss is not performance related ) sadly, when this does happen it would affect your morale and that is perfectly normal and you might not be in the best frame of mind to put your resume together.

Do yourself a huge favor and regularly update your resume even when you’re not actively looking for a job. By keeping your resume current and updated, you’re just a cover letter away from bouncing back into the job search marker should your worst case scenario happens.?

Do you know what the best part of all the above is? The actual task of keeping your resume updated doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time from your already busy schedule, especially if you have been setting aside time to update it regularly.?

A simple and uncomplicated approach would be to allocate?a 30 minutes review and update window once every quarter.?

The time frame is short enough for you to recall all of the achievements you have made at work (if you are having a hard time finding achievements to record - that could mean either of two things :

You have not set clear goals for yourself at work.

Or?

You set goals but you haven’t achieved them?

Or?

You set and achieve goals but you are poor at keeping records (then I wonder what your appraisal conversations sound like (just kidding but seriously ??)?

Or?

Worse you have not been really achieving significant things at work (I hope and pray this is not so) I will provide more details?on how to fix any of the above scenarios in subsequent posts.??

The fact is just making out the suggested time in your schedule once a quarter can be enough to keep your resume updated and in top form to market your skills at every point in time.