During the last few months at my old job things were a little shaky. Nothing abnormal, just regular business challenges (its a very, very long story with lots of juicy details (sound familiar?)). Anyway, I remember some phone meetings I had with a board member and former mentor (and friend) where I would say “Do I need to get my resume ready?” His response was the typical corporate-speak that you would expect to hear, “I can’t answer that,” or “That’s not my decision,” or “you’ll have to talk to so-and-so about that.”
I’ve had a year to think about it and I dearly wish that this leader, who had been a very dear friend to me, would have had the wisdom to say “Jason, you should always have a resume ready.”
So please let me answer this for you – whether you have asked the question or not – you should always have your resume ready.
For now don’t worry about creating different resumes (for me it would be a general one, a product manager resume and a project manager resume) – just create one big master resume with everything on it. And go put it into the document manager in JibberJobber so that when you need it, you will have it ready. Having had a current resume ready to go would have saved me one full week in my job search.
Jason – another good reason to keep your resume current is your SAR (Situation – Action – Results) statements. It is much easier to write these down as they occur while they are fresh in your mind and you still have access to the supporting data. If you should happen to suddenly find yourself in the job market it is more difficult to remember all the SAR activity and even tougher to come up with actual numbers when you no longer have access to the data. Numbers are very important. It is much better to say increased sales 130% than made a dramatic increase in sales.
Excellent point – as I recall the last positions I’ve had, I’m sure I did great SAR things but it would take me a while to come up with anything – would have been much better if I had a running list.
This reminds me, I was so “not in the mode” when I had to get my resume together that I had to call my university and ask exactly what my degree was (so I didn’t get it wrong), and the month/year I graduated! Sounds crazy, but hey, that’s just me 🙂
Great post Jason. In general I always recommend to my clients that they keep a job diary at home. Record both large and small wins so that when you update your resume you won’t have trouble remembering your accomplishments. Keep track of what is going in the company as well. Hopefully you will never experience sexual harassment or discrimination on the job but if you do, a diary like the one I am suggesting you keep, will be a useful tool for your attorney.
When you update your resume you should focus on accomplishments rather than just your job description. Many successful people make the mistake of just listing the things they were responsible for rather than talking about their accomplishments in the role. So remember that your resume is a great chance to show the world how fabulous you are!
Liz Handlin
https://ultimate-resumes.blogspot.com
And not even a single shout out to Emurse.com — shame on you, jason 😉
Emurse.com is an excellent free website to create a website and have it spit it back out in various formats, including .doc, .pdf, .txt, .html… and more.
Very cool – I highly recommend it. (I’ve even done it!)
😉
Jason – excellent food for thought. If someone is building their personal brand on line, it is easier and more compelling to keep your resume up to date. Well, at least it is to me. 😉