September is International Update Your Resume Month – Here’s What You Should be Doing Right Now

That perfect career opportunity can show up when you least expect it. With September being International Update Your Résumé Month, now is the best time to reflect on your career accomplishments over the past year (or longer if you haven’t updated your resume recently), and add them to ensure you won’t be overlooked when that dream career unexpectedly becomes available.

Update Your Résumé Month is a reminder to everyone to take inventory of successes achieved and add them to your résumé. Even if you’re not actively job searching. Remember to include quantifiable achievements, such as revenue generated, time saved, productivity increased, a new award, seminar attendance, or new certifications. Don’t forget any new skills learned this year, too.

Some great questions to ask yourself and points to consider as you set out to update your resume this month:

What have you done at your current job that helped your employer make money, save money, or become more efficient and productive? Include quantifiable numbers in either dollar signs or percentages.

• –  Did the company’s revenue increase this year? Did you help impact (directly or indirectly) that increase? How?
• –  Did you propose ways to cut expenses in your team, department, branch, or company? Did your suggestions result in a significant savings and if so, what percentage?

List conferences attended. Include workshop titles, dates, city, and name of sponsoring organization. Remember to save the certificates of attendance.

Did you earn any new awards or honors?

What new computer skills did you acquire this year? Don’t forget to include the names of any proprietary software used in your industry

How did your performance this year compare to last year?

Consider adding any major accounts you landed, customer service satisfaction ratings, mergers, acquisitions, capital improvement projects, positive publicity, promotions, or professional organizations joined.

Take the time to also clarify your brand, and clearly communicate how you add value—and remember to be specific when sharing your accomplishments. You want them to have meaning and impact. The more specific you are when using examples and metrics, the stronger and more memorable an impact your resume will make.

Need help updating your resume, refining your brand message, or creating a resume for that ideal opportunity that’s suddenly popped up?  Check out our 30 Days of Resume Tips on Twitter and LinkedIn for Update Your Resume Month. We’ll be sharing resume writing tips every day for the whole month of September. Also, for the month of September you can receive a free resume review. Contact Great Resumes Fast at 1.800.991.5187 or email your resume here with your resume review request.