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6 Things You Need To Update On Your Resume

This article is more than 3 years old.

When you’re job searching, a resume serves as the first impression you make on a company. Your resume needs to highlight your skills and talents and also showcase how you’re different from other candidates. Ensure it does all of that by following these six tips.

Update your job information and descriptions

If it’s been a while since you last updated your resume, make sure that any changes to your job responsibilities and achievements are reflected. Pay attention to anywhere you have written things in terms of length of time. As the calendar changes from 2019 to 2020, your two years of experience become three, so make sure to update those figures accordingly.

Get rid of anything no longer relevant

Look through your job descriptions, skills, and education fields to see if there are any points you can remove. As you build more work experience, you can start to remove things from early on in your career, such as extracurricular activities or part time jobs that are no longer relevant to your current career.  

You should also remove graduation years or any other dates that could indicate your age. The only years that need to be listed on your resume are your employment dates. If you’ve gotten a specialized certification within the last three years, you can list the year if having a current certification will boost your chances of getting hired.

Update your skills and certifications

Add any new certifications and relevant skills to your updated resume. Be sure that everything you list in the skills section is directly related to the job or job field you’re applying to. Listing overly general skills that most people also have only takes up space and does nothing to add value.

Update the formatting

Format your resume to ensure it can easily be read by both humans and AI. The first look at your resume will likely be done by AI via an applicant tracking system (ATS), but after it passes through that phase, it will be reviewed by a person. Keep things clean and simple, and ensure that your formatting is consistent throughout the entire resume.

Change paragraphs or long blocks of text to bullet points and use an easy to read font like Arial at size 10 or 11. Put headings, jobs titles, and section descriptions in bold so they stand out during skimming. Change written numbers to numerals, as a number stands out more than a word does.

Save the file with an easy to find file name

Keep the file name simple, following this format - First Name Last Name Resume Year. This ensures that you’ll always upload the correct resume to your applications, and you can easily find it at a later date.

The file should either be a Word doc (.docx) or a PDF. Word docs are easier for an ATS to read, so when in doubt stick with that format. The advantage of a PDF is that the formatting stays consistent regardless of how it’s opened, so if you’re sending it directly to a hiring manager, a PDF is the better option. Always double check the instructions, as some systems list the file type that needs to be submitted.

Remove ‘references available upon request’

This phrase is dated, and if it’s still on your resume, it can make you look dated as well. If the hiring manager wants references, they’ll ask for them, so save this space on your resume for something that’s important.

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