Did you know that a new job applicant will update his resume a few times in a week?
This is undertaken so that it catches the attention of the recruiters or get noticed by them , who look for fresh new resumes every day.
Therefore if you have applied for a plum job and have yet not heard from your recruitment agency, there is a chance that your CV has been rejected as it is an old CV.
Here you can learn from the experience and update your resume regularly at least once a week and give your competition a tough fight.
Update Your Resume – Experts Advice:
What do the HR experts have to say on this?
Lisa Dickter one of the associate directors of Career Consultants Carnegie Mellon’s Career and Professional Development Center explains a simple fact that, the moment you have completed an accomplishment in your work, immediately update your CV.
The main reason here being that all the details of the achievements are still fresh in your mind and updating a resume with it will be very easy.
Also Lisa Dickter mentions that you can explain minute specifics like what are the procedures that you undertook and achieved this major accomplishment.
What do the recruiters have to say here?
Recruiters are of the opinion that keeping the slow economies in mind, most working professionals are looking for better job opportunities in every domain. There are around hundreds of resumes being updated every week.
Here most recruiters look into relevant CV’s which is not more than six weeks old in any job portal.
If the CV is older than six weeks and has not been updated, there is a high chance that the applicant has got his new job or is not looking for change.
Since time is important, most recruiter’s first find resumes and fresh CV’s when they are short listing for a premium job. Lisa Dickter advices job applicants here that once he is out of job for more than 3 months, he should freelance or undertake a part time job.
This would ensure that once he updates his CV, he might get a job for a temporary assignment with a company, who is not hiring permanent staff.
How would you enjoy the benefits?
Have you ever volunteered to dig a ditch during summer season?
The answer would be no for most people, as it is very stressful.
Therefore when your job is in trouble you are in a similar situation and do not have the right frame of mind to write your resume for job. You have to accept that you are in a state of panic and disturbed.
However you can enjoy the benefits if you have been updating your resumes regularly once you have achieved your accomplishments. Let us now take a closer look as to how you can be benefited.
You are prepared when an opportunity knocks out of the blue:
Your best friend has just landed in a dream job. When you speak to him over the phone congratulating him, he mentions casually if you are looking for a change.
Now in this scenario if you have updated your CV, all that you need to do is mail the CV to him and check out the opportunity available.
However if you are sitting on your old CV, the golden opportunity would be harvested by somebody else. Thus always be prepared to harvest an opportunity and keep your nice resume crisp and updated.
Be ready when you are given the pink slip:
Even if you are a consistent performer in your company you might be handed the dreaded pink slip.
For a few days you would be distraught and it would take time to create an updated CV from your end.
However you are in a much better position and can start your job hunt immediately, if you have your updated resume near you. You do not waste your precious time and use it effectively to network and get a good job immediately.
Groom yourself to be an expert:
Once you have spent a few years in your profession, you can become an expert in your domain.
You can participate in various seminars, write publications and online blogs. All these activities would help you to enjoy the extra edge that you need over your peers.
However this is only possible if you have updated your resume with all your achievements and send it to the concerned personnel when the need arises. Nowadays most people keep their resumes updated in their LinkedIn account.
Once they see any opportunity which could brighten their future, the CV present is immediately used.
When you are nominated for awards:
Corporate life has undergone a major makeover nowadays. There are so many sponsored award presentations to recognize talented experts in various domains.
If you have been nominated by a well wisher for a covered award, you have to send your updated resume.
However you would face tremendous embarrassment if you do not have an updated resume and this would also indicate that you are not proud of your accomplishments. Therefore to be on the safe side always keep updated CV.
Exploring the consulting area:
You are happy with your current job and not looking for a change.
What about consulting in your special domain?
If you want to undertake consulting work since you have some time over the weekends. An updated resume would be great for you and you can mail it immediately to the concerned people.
But if you have not updated your CV immediately, then all your dreams of consulting would take a backstage for the time being. You might lose out on a major breakthrough in your career too.
When you get a surprise promotion at work:
People are moving in and out of large companies quickly nowadays. If you have had your superior changing jobs suddenly, there is a high chance that you might be up for promotion.
Here if you have been updating your CV regularly, you can in a few minutes share the CV with your management and HR when the need arises.
But it would create a bad impression and you might lose a promotion if you get back to the concerned superiors and HR mentioning that you would share your updated CV next day.
It is thus very essential that you always update your CV and keep it at a location where it can be accessed easily.
To Wrap Up:
In the end, it takes a few minutes to update your resume only and the benefits you enjoy are high. Here it also needs to be mentioned that the domain where you work also plays an important part in how often you update your CV.
A senior professional in the IT domain would update his CV more actively than people in other domain like manufacturing. Therefore update your CV and make success your careers best friend in the next few weeks.
