Giving Your Resume A Tune Up

Giving your resume a tune up:

Just like cars need to go to the mechanic for annual maintenance, your resume will need maintenance a couple of times of year. Industry trends change, your job duties and responsibilities change, and you earn certifications and education as you grow as a corporate professional. In the case of your resume, your oil change will be routine resume maintenance, your tire rotation will be prioritizing your skills to match the industry’s needs, and replacing your spark plugs will be updating your contact information and making sure that your references are still up to date.

·         Your Oil Change: Happens once about every three months or every three thousand miles. This is checking your resume about once a quarter to make sure that your information is relevant for the industry you are in, or trying to enter. If you have your resume on a searchable site such as LinkedIn or monster, then industry professionals can easily find you. Ensure that your resume’s oil is changed by going back to those older jobs and replacing some of those out of date terms with the newest industry terms.

·         Your Tire Rotation: Making sure that all your tires have the same amount of wear on them. This is ensuring that all your jobs are tailored toward the industry you are trying to get into. You don’t want a job description for one of your previous jobs to be a contradiction of the role you are currently in. An example of this would be highlighting your accomplishments as a business analyst in your current role, but highlighting your mechanical skills in your previous role. Do these skills accomplishments say the same thing? Do your tires (in this case your different roles) have the same amount of wear on them? Will they take your car (your resume) to its destination of a new career?

·         Replacing your spark plugs: Maintenance that you do not really think about for your vehicle. This would be those small things on your resume like updating your email address, and making sure that you have the correct phone number on your resume. One of the biggest “small” things you can do for your resume is check the contact information for your references. You may be proud of your references, but make sure that the phone number and email you have for them is up to date.