Frequency

How often should you be updating your resume?

Frequently. Regardless of whether you're looking. In fact, update it especially when you're not looking.

Not because you need to be looking. Not because you should never not be looking. Not because the market changes rapidly. Not for any reason other than because it serves as a great reminder of who you are, where you are in your career, why you do what you do, how you have grown, where you are growing next. Your resume is your perspective.

Update it. Every 3 months. Every 3 months and, in between, whenever something significant happens. Whenever your perspective changes. Even slightly.

If in 3 months you haven't changed - if you can't update a single sentence, replace a single word with a better one, then challenge yourself by asking why. Why has your perspective not changed? 3 months is a long time to grow, even if in small ways.

And the power of a refreshed resume can be huge. It should remind you of your value, the impact you have had, how you started and how far you have come. It sharpens how you want to be perceived and how you perceive yourself.

How you perceive yourself. It needs to excite you. If it doesn't, if it doesn't energize you, if it doesn't validate your awesomeness, if it doesn't completely impress you, you're doing it wrong. If it didn't impress you, it won't ever impress anyone else.

Whether you're a seasoned professional, early in your career, or if you shifted career paths - your resume needs to be a celebration. A celebration of what you have not - never an apology for what you have yet to learn, experience, or accomplish.

If it doesn't have "enough", reflect on all the impact you have had and bring those to the surface. If you don't yet have much professional experience find the unique threads of awesomeness that make you who you are and stitch together the personal projects, school projects, community projects, whatever else you have been proud of. Maybe you were a problem solver, a rally-er, a data-gatherer, an experimenter, a leader, a supporter - whatever your story, bring that to the surface.

Having too much, having no narrative is just as problematic. Tighten up the resume so it's concise, clear, and impactful. It doesn't have to say everything to get the message across.

If, to you, your resume feels boring, dull, empty, confusing, directionless, then it will undoubtedly feel that way to anyone else. If you wouldn't want to hire yourself, no one else who are

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