If you were to come across a great job opening right at this moment, how soon can you apply for it? 10 minutes? 30 minutes? 1 hour? 1 day? 1 week?
If you think you are going to take of lot of time to update your resume and are actually patting yourself on the back for being the tortoise of “the hare and the tortoise story”, you are in for a rude shock. When it comes to replying to a job vacancy, those who respond promptly are more likely to be called for a job interview and as such are more likely to win the job. To put in two words, Speed Matters.
But you don’t have to feel bad. There is also some good news for you. You, too, can respond to job opportunities at the drop of a hat if you develop the habit of keeping your resume up to date all the time.
This brings us to the titled question above—when is the best time to update your resume?
Is it when you are actively seeking a job?
After you have been in the same role for 3 years? 5 years? 8 years?
When you come across an advertisement for a great job?
When hushed voices start to arise in cubicles, waiting areas, and cafeteria about possible restructuring in the company?
When work blues that begins on the morning of every Monday last until you leave the office for the weekend?
The answer, actually, is you should update your resume all the time and right now is as good as a time as any.
You should update your resume the moment you have something noteworthy to add in it.
For instance, if you receive an award for outstanding performance, update your resume right away and don’t wait until you come across a great job opportunity. At that time you should just be polishing your resume, customizing it for the job you are applying, rather than making it up to date.
What will you gain by regularly updating your resume?
If you update your resume regularly, you can quickly apply for an internal job posting or for a job in another company. This pro-active behavior negates the need to rummage files or emails to learn the dates and details of your latest projects, achievements, and accomplishments.
All these details will be already there in your resume. At the time of applying you will only have to take care of minor issues such as formatting the resume, tweaking it according the job requirements of the new job, and deciding upon which achievements to highlight to increase your chances of success.
So, the biggest benefit of regularly updating your resume is that it saves you time when you apply for a new job. The second benefit is that it ensures that you do not miss any important detail.
You might stay in your current job for another five years or may start looking for a new job in a few months from now. In either situation, you stand to benefit a lot from being ‘resume ready’.
Get started…now.