Resume Spring Cleaning

This is the time of year when many of us clean out our garages, venture down to the basement to do a bit of reorganizing, and in general tidy up our living spaces.  Your resume deserves the same type of treatment from time to time, even if you are completely happy with your current job status.

The font that you used back in 2004 probably does not look trendy enough right now, and the job duties that you listed when you first started your position may no longer be accurate.  Job seekers usually know that they need to constantly try to improve their resume, but all of us should spend a few minutes examining our resume.

A dust pan

Here is a quick resume spring cleaning checklist for you:

1)Is your resume truly up to date?  Have you a received a promotion and earned additional responsibilities since you last updated the resume?  Did you recently finish a degree or a training course?  Have you improved your software skills or your typing speed?

2)Does your resume look outdated?  Is the font no longer fashionable?  Is there too much white space between sections?  Did you overdo it with bold type or italics?  Did you include too many clichés and buzzy keywords?

3)Does the resume reflect your current ambitions?  When you last updated it, you might have been looking for an entirely different type of position.  Make sure that the resume you are using matches up well with your career goals.

4)Would it make sense to have an alternate version of your resume?  Many job seekers are open to different types of positions, but the resume that you send out for an administrative position should be very different than the one that you send out for a sales role.  Consider your audience, consider the industry and the job title, and then consider tweaking your resume for each type of role or putting together a second or even third type of resume so that you are putting your best foot forward.

If you take the time to update your resume this spring, then you will feel much better about your current situation, and you will be ready for whatever happens next.  Please add ‘sprucing up the resume’ to your list of cleaning chores this spring.

Contact a resume specialist button

Peter Jenkins is the Office Coordinator at Drake & Company Staffing Solutions, a staffing firm based in Madison, Wisconsin. Drake & Company’s focus is on direct hire, temp-to-hire, and temporary placements in the administrative, clerical and legal fields. In addition to being Drake’s Office Coordinator, Peter is also the principal writer for Drake & Company’s resume service. To send Peter an email, click .