Samantha Pearce is the owner of Words Worth Reading an online editorial service for Job Seekers, Students, Writers and Businesses. Words Worth Reading offer individually-tailored, comprehensive resume and application form writing and editing services. Sam is also CaribbeanJobs.com’s resume expert. She believes that writing your resume can be simple if you have some resume discipline.
Making sure that your resume is up to date doesn’t have to be the long and arduous task that it often turns out to be whenever you have to start looking for another job or have to start applying to courses. The start of the recruitment process is stressful enough without having the added pressure of trying to remember the achievements you made 5 years ago or the exact date you started your last job.
This is where resume discipline is key to ensuring that your resume is accurate, current and relevant.
The art of resume discipline is to ensure that you regularly update your resume with significant changes or events within your career or academic life. These could include increases in responsibility, major achievements or successes within your career or any additional qualifications that you have earned or training courses that you have attended. It is far easier to write these points down as and when they happen rather than looking at them retrospectively and trying to recall exact information such as who was running the course and the exact dates and course title.
Recording achievements within a resume is the first chance you will have to show a potential employer how you have demonstrated the skills that you claim to possess. If these achievements are included as last minute afterthoughts just to pad out your resume then they certainly won’t have the same impact as achievements recorded immediately as they occur, where you will be able to remember every detail that made your success so impressive.
To have good resume discipline means that regularly updating and checking your resume should become a habit.
Whenever you are praised by a senior member of staff for successfully managing a project, or for meeting a strict deadline, or for working to budget you should automatically record your success within your resume.
Whenever you start a new job, record your start date within your resume and in the same way, whenever you leave a job, record your end date within your resume there and then.
It is small points such as inconsistencies or vagueness with employment start and end dates that employers do not look favourably upon and these points could cost you a job
To ensure good resume discipline you should use the following 5 steps
1. Record employment start and end dates as and when they happen
2. Record training courses or qualifications as and when they are achieved
3. Record career successes as and when they happen
4. Record new skills that you have developed as and when they occur
5. Regularly review your resume to ensure that it still reflects who you are, what you have achieved and the things that you can do.
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Sam is CaribbeanJobs.com’s resume expert. If you have a question for her please click here
Sam’s company Words Worth Reading offer individually-tailored, comprehensive CV and application form writing and editing services at fantastic prices, with quick turnaround times.
For more information visit www.wordsworthreading.co.uk
You can contact the team on sam@wordsworthreading.co.uk
Call them on 00 44 1277 824640.
Samantha Pearce
