Resume 101 - Revision

By now you have been through the entire resume creation process once and have an excellent resume, or at least you did some time ago. Some time has passed, you have gained new skills, and now you need to add those skills to your resume. Because you continue to gain new experience and skills throughout your life, it becomes necessary to regularly update your resume.

The easiest way to do this is to go through a similar process to which you created your resume. In general, you will brainstorm for your new skills, evaluate if your resume needs any big changes, write out these new skills in detail, and then integrate those skills into your resume. This is an excellent chance to replace current skills with new, more important, and more relevant skills. This entire revision process, from personal experience, usually takes an hour or two if you are updating your resume monthly.

Your resume could take longer to revise if you decide to switch which resume format you are using or if you find a position you want to apply for which is different from which your resume is currently aimed at. Depending on how drastic the change you make, the resume revision process may feel more like when your resume was first created. However, if you have saved all of your old brainstorming ideas or kept an in-depth master resume, making large changes can happen quickly.

After you think you are done revising, there are a few details that should get a final look. Go over your entire resume making sure items like your address, phone number, and email address are all up to date. All dates on your resume should be double checked to make sure they are still accurate, and also check the older bullet points for jobs you still have since something may have changed. Last, proofread thoroughly. Nothing is worse than introducing grammatical errors into an otherwise perfect resume. After the final proofread, you are done with this revision and are one step closer to landing an interview.

And if you are ever unsure of your current revision, the UIS Career Development Center is available for advice and assistance. The UIS Career Development Center is located in SAB 50 or you can contact us at 206-6508 or careerservices@uis.edu.