Why Updating Your Resume Stinks Just As Much As Doing Taxes and How to Change This
You SURVIVED another dreaded tax deadline (YAY)!!!
I don’t know about you, but even when I’m getting money back from the government, I’m still in total dismay over the whole “doing taxes” thing. Let’s face it, doing taxes stinks.
I can’t help but compare it to another procrastination-worthy, painfully irritating, time-consuming task that is less than enjoyable: updating your resume.
I may be in the business of helping people with their resumes, but let’s be honest here, updating resumes also stinks.
There’s nothing fun about it when it’s your own, and I will be the first to admit this.
Now, being that I am on a quest to help make the job seeker’s life as painless and carefree as possible, by eliminating job search excess, I have pondered the whole resume procrastination issue. I have cracked the age-old mystery of why resumes are as dreadful as taxes. There are five reasons.
Updating your resume produces anxiety similar to that produced by taxes because it requires you to:
1. Set aside time.
2. Take a mental jog back to [INSERT last time you updated your resume].
3. Take a super-human mental lap or even a mental marathon over your resume if it has been more than a year since it was updated.
4. Write about yourself or attempt to craft hyper-professional jargony speak (which most people dread in any capacity).
5. Be forced into this life certainty against your own will (just like death and taxes).
Fortunately, there are some ways around this painstaking ritual. Two incredibly simple actions have made my life easier and will help you as well:
1. Save your job descriptions in an email folder each time you get hired for a new role or when your current position is updated. Your saved job descriptions will not only eliminate the memory jog, but they will also do most of the writing for you because if your job description was accurate, you are doing what it states on paper! (Not to mention it will probably use some strong industry keywords you’ll want to have on your resume anyway).
2. Take 20 minutes, once a per year (during tax season perhaps), to update any changes to your resume. Setting aside a few minutes to make ongoing updates annually will keep you on top of your career and drastically reduce the amount of time spent updating your resume. If it was a pretty average year at the office, then this should take no time at all. If you experienced a lot of changes in your career, then it will benefit you, even more, to capture everything in writing sooner rather than later. Mostly you will be laying the groundwork for a resume-ready year ahead!
So as you wait for your (hopefully humongous) tax return to roll in, take a moment to consider getting the other necessary annual evil out of the way. You’ll be glad you did!
