When's the Best Time to Update Your Resume?

When's the Best Time to Update Your Resume?
You're in the middle of a job you like - or at least you
don't hate it. You don't have plans to jump ship anytime
soon, and there's no rumor around the company about layoffs
coming down the road.

Now's the perfect time to update your resume.

For those of you who might be shaking your heads in
disbelief, there are a number of great reasons to have your
resume in place before you ever need it.

* Clarity.

Have you ever written a resume after a number of years in a
job, only to struggle to remember your achievements?
Keeping your resume updated regularly guarantees that
you'll be able to put your most powerful achievements on
display.

But just because profit margins on Project A exceeded those
of Project B, don't delete the info on Project B forever -
keep a separate list of achievements to pull from, should
you need to tailor your resume for a specific position.
(Which you almost always will!)

* Negotiation.

It's performance review time. Are you required to start
with a self-assessment of your annual or semi-annual
contributions to your department or company? Good thing
you've been keeping up your resume. You've got a clean and
highly complimentary record of your performance at hand.

And if your review comes in an interview format, you've got
your talking points all mapped out, in a smoothly
summarized fashion. That's the evidence you need to secure
the highest possible raise - or to be ready to start
looking elsewhere if the review doesn't go the way you
expect it to.

* Timelines.

If you work on multiple longer-term projects (ones that
don't show meaningful results for six months or more)
incremental updates to your resume can help you track your
performance on those longer projects.

A 50% increase in revenue over six months is definitely
good - capture that on your resume update. You won't know
whether it'll be up to a 500% increase in a year, or a 500%
decrease - but at least you've captured the positive data
when it was available.

As for how often to update your resume, every three to six
months is a good yardstick, but why wait? If you've hit one
out of the park at work, celebrate with a concise bullet
point write-up in your resume. If not now, then soon, or
you'll be struggling to remember the details later.

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Allen Voivod is the Chief Blogger for ResumeMachine.com,
the leading resume distribution resource for managers,
executives, and professionals looking to accelerate their
job search results. Get the attention of thousands of
hiring agents with the largest and most frequently updated
recruiter database on the web, and dive into a wealth of
immediately useful career articles and blog posts - all at
http://www.ResumeMachine.com !