4 Good Reasons to Always Keep Your Resume Updated

Remember those days right after college where you were rushing to fill up your resumes with every single piece of work experience, overseas and local volunteer projects you took over a couple of summers?

Ah, the good old days as a fledgling jobseeker. Where every section of your CV had to impress. Even a single line about how you helped out with managing the till at your aunt Susan’s community fundraiser counted as relevant “financial experience”.

Well, that’s not you – at least, not anymore. Happily employed, cushy benefits, great colleagues to have after-work virtual drinks with and annual company retreats. There’s no better feeling than that of job security, and when you’re planning on staying put at your job, there is no use for a resume! It just gets chucked right at the bottom of the desk drawer, or sitting on a USB drive gathering dust until the next time.

When that next time does come around – boy do you have some work cut out for you. In this day and age, a successful career means much more than just staying at one job for your entire working life, and your digital presence (think LinkedIn) is worth just as much as your qualifications on paper. No doubt, having a resume that is both dynamic and up-to-date is one of the most valuable tools to have on hand as you climb up your career ladder.

Read on below for our 4 good reasons to always keep your resume updated

1. When you’re being promoted

You are putting in hard work, and you are getting things done. Your colleagues see it, and your manager sees it too. The day a position opens up that they think you would be suitable for, they recommend you for a promotion.

Whether it is your WorkDay account or you have to submit a CV, its always good for the higher-ups to see who you are. There’s one way they can get all the information they need in the quickest time possible: your resume.

With a CV that categorically lists all the great things you’ve done over the past years for the company and in your professional capacity, there is solid proof that your appraisal is worth much more than just the recommendation of your supervisor(s). So go on, get your LinkedIn profile updated with all the fantastic things you’ve done so far and polish up your resume at the same time – your career deserves it.

2. When you’re in demand

Corporate headhunters are always on the lookout for exceptional individuals who fit the specific requirements that a particular company is looking for to help it grow. You may not be looking for a new job at this point. Still, with all that valuable experience you’ve been getting at work, there’s sure to be recruiters out there looking for somebody just like you to join their team either for a particular project or for a full-time position in another company.

Often these recruiters offer seriously attractive offers that are hard to turn down. Here’s the catch; however – in most cases, whenever you get a call from the recruiters, the first thing they’ll probably ask for is a copy of your resume. If you’ve got a resume that hasn’t been touched in 2 years, you’re going to need to take time to get it updated.

Keep both your physical and digital credentials fresh and up-to-date, so these recruiters will have an easier time deciding if you’re the right fit.

3. When you’re looking for a side gig

Throughout your career, you may be looking to pick up some more work on the side or even pick up some personal projects that are beneficial to your professional experience. Freelance work is becoming the norm, and there are millions of full-time workers all over the world looking for collaborative partners. They can help them make things happen – anything from creative skills like photo editing and music production, to corporate tech skills like excel wizardry and presentation building.

Knowledge, in almost any subject, is made readily available thanks to the internet, and for those of you who took the opportunity to upskill, be sure to add your new-found course to your resume. You never know what potentially life-changing networking opportunity you might miss out on when you don’t continue to educate.

4. When the worst happens to you

Let’s face the hard truth. There might come a day where the company decides to part ways with you, or you decide to quit – whether it is due to the company restructuring its workforce or for personal factors. When that happens, dusting off that old resume and updating it is probably the last thing on your mind, especially if you’ve done so many things that you’ve forgotten which ones are worth mentioning!

Having an up-to-date resume serves as a timeline of your achievements as well as being a backup plan for when things go south. With all your accomplishments noted down as gospel truth, you’ll have an easier time picking out the ones that suit the next job you’re applying for. You can spend more time looking for that right job rather than wasting all that time and effort trying to figure out a way to piece together a polished resume.

As the great Roman emperor Julius Caesar once said in a letter to the senate proclaiming his absolute victory at the Battle of Zela when he was still an army general in 47 BC – “Veni, Vidi, Vici” meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Without keeping a timely record of his achievements, we would probably have never seen him rise the ranks to become the ruler of Rome we all know today.

The same principle can be applied to your resume – keeping it up to date with all your current achievements requires just a few hours or so of writing and reviewing every end of the month. And with that little extra effort you put in each month, the results will certainly go a long way for your career and your future.