Ready for a Resume Refresh?
January is often a time of reflection — when we assess what’s working and what needs tweaking. Often the focus is on physical and mental wellness, but the start of the new year is also an opportune time evaluate our professional status. Step 1: Dust off your resume and determine if it’s time for a refresh.
Stop Procrastinating
We all have good intentions, but it’s easy to push resume maintenance to the backburner. Instead of viewing it strictly as a tool for job application, consider your resume a living document that you update regularly. It’s important to highlight new skills, experience, and recent accomplishments to help stand out among other candidates. Consider if you earned any certificates or degrees, held a new role, expanded your responsibilities, or even have new career goals since you last updated your resume. If the answer is yes to any of those, it’s time to get to work.
Update to a Modern Look
While the words on your resume are important, so too is the design. It needs to be organized and easy to read, while giving a modern, in-the-know vibe. Use a professional sans-serif font, such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Cambria, or Georgia. Pay attention to details like consistent spacing, margins, and font size. Rather than overload the document with less impressive entries, embrace some white space. A clean-looking resume will not only be appreciated by the hiring manager, but also will allow for more comprehensive scanning by AI tools utilized by most human resources departments.
