Staying on top of updating your Resume can feel like a chore, but it’s never a good idea to leave it until you have a dozen things to change all at once!
With this helpful guide, we will walk you through each section of your Resume, when you should update it, and why.
If you haven’t created a Resume yet, check out our How to Write a Resume Guide first!
Ok, this one is easy but important. If you have a new phone number, email, or address, make sure you update it right away on your Resume! There is nothing worse than having an amazing Resume, only to never hear back from an employer because your contact info is outdated.
The education history should be short but detailed. Summaries of your most recent and relevant qualifications should be listed in reverse chronological order (i.e. your most recent education goes at the top).
If you have a long list of accreditations, fantastic! But just use the most relevant 2-4 to the job you’re applying for in this section (don’t worry, you can show off the rest of your qualifications in dot points in a qualifications section at the end of your Resume)
If you are currently studying, put it on your Resume! When detailing the dates of your study you can simply state “undertaking” or give an estimated date of completion.
If you need to fill your education history up, we can help! Check out our accredited and non-accredited training courses to find something that is right for you!
Your employment history should stay relevant. If you’re in your 40s and you worked at a fast-food restaurant when you were 16, this probably isn’t going to be very relevant to your potential employers, so remove it.
To help you keep on top of your work history, it is important to keep quality over quantity in mind. If you’ve worked at 10 different jobs over the last 15 years, you may just want to take your most recent 2-3, and then 1-2 more that are specifically relevant to the jobs you are applying for. Again, this should be done in reverse chronological order.
If you are looking for your dream job, and you haven’t worked before or have only had a few jobs and are struggling to fill in your employment history, we can help through our range of work experience programs.
Your referees are fairly straightforward to update. A manager or supervisor from your most recent/current employer should always be included first here. After that, you should have one or two more referees, and they should be from other employers that are listed within your employment history.
This is the space where you can dot point your best assets.
When you first created your resume, you may not have had a lot of experience so you would include vague ‘skills’ like: “Teamwork” or “Computer literate”. These buzzwords are generally fine for people entering the workforce for the first time, but if these kinds of words are still on your Resume, it is time for an update.
You want this section to be highly specific to your strengths, instead of “Computer literate” replace it with the specific program experience you have, like “Extensive experience using Excel”.
You should aim to have 10 – 15 points in this section, and it should be updated for the specific jobs or industry you are applying for. For example, if you’re transitioning from a warehouse role to an office support role, your forklift experience shouldn’t be included here.
If your education history is extensive, or you have smaller qualifications or certificates that wouldn’t be included within education (Such as an RSA, RCG, or a working with children check) this is where they should go.
You should have no more than 10 points in this section, once you hit that cap, remove the less relevant qualifications for the jobs you are applying for.
Lastly, let’s talk about how you should change up the layout and look of your Resume.
You should think about what your biggest strengths are for the jobs you’re applying for when thinking about layout. You want your biggest strength front and centre, so if you’ve just completed a brand new course that is specific to the jobs you’re applying for, but you have your skills or work history above your education history, then your biggest strength is being lost.
Many people tend to use Resume templates, and this is completely fine. Templates are a great way of making your resume look professional if you don’t have experience with design elements.
What you should not do, is just paste your information over the template content and leave everything as is. This is where your strengths can be lost, a template may put your education on the second page when that could be your best asset!
Take the sections of the template, and move them around to best suit your strengths.
You’re in luck! Here at ETC, our vision is to make a positive impact on people’s lives, through the range of employment and training services.
Call our friendly team on 1800 007 400 or fill out the Enquire Now form on this page to learn more about the services ETC provides for Job Seekers.
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