3 Reasons Resumes Matter Even When You Don’t Need a Job
I wasn’t sure what my other piece of writing would be for this week until I was going through AngelList and realized that my resume hadn’t been updated in a little over a year.
A LOT has happened since then, including as of tonight — the completion of my MBA.
I update my resume quite a bit.
I save old copies of pdf versions of my resumes and have done so since one of the very first ones I created. My first resume was created in fall of 2015 shortly after I started my undergraduate studies in West Palm Beach, Florida but I didn’t save any for a year.
The earliest resume that I have is from fall of 2016 (which makes sense, up until then I didn’t have much relevant business experience).
If you know people but they don’t know who you are? Why does that matter?medium.com
So here’s what that equates to:
17 resumes in just about 3 and a half years. That comes out to nearly a major resume update each quarter.
At first, when I started off in college I wasn’t really sure what I was doing or why I needed a resume or any of that. But now, I see the value in so many different areas.
3 Reasons Resumes Matter Even When You Don’t Need a Job
1. It’s an easy way to review your accomplishments
2. You stay aware of your professional journey
3. A connection may want to introduce you to someone
1. It’s an easy way to review your accomplishments
We all have incredible accomplishments but often we don’t see them in the moment, why?
Maybe we aren’t getting that promotion that we expected. But the truth is, you are doing more than what you were hired to do (I hope you are).
We are reaching higher and becoming better. Striving for greatness and exuding confidence.
By reviewing your resume and continually updating it, you are forced to analyze what you are doing professionally and you are able to identify what you are doing within each position.
Especially if you use the “show, don’t tell” method of bullet point writing, you will be led to expand upon what you are doing professionally at a deeper level.
2. You stay aware of your professional journey
We all started somewhere.
But that’s it.
After we start, we go somewhere — we all do.
Where you have been and where are you still going? That’s a good question and one that you should keep in mind as you review your resume.
When you were working that job at a company you didn’t like 5 years ago, where did you think that your professional journey would take you? How is where you are now different from that?
As people, we change dramatically year after year and it’s essential that we are able to notice more and more how we are changing before our changes actually take full form.
Day by day, job by job, and company by company, we are changing and so is our skillset. It’s imperative that we are cognizant of those changes.
3. A connection may want to introduce you to someone
Have you ever met someone and thought that one of your connections or colleagues just had to meet this individual? Probably.
And if you have, then let’s assume that other people have felt the same way about you.
With that in mind, it’s so much better to be prepared BEFORE someone is looking to introduce you rather than scrambling in the moment.
Besides, we are called to do all things with excellence — that includes resumes.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived the greatest street sweeper.’” — Martin Luther King Jr.
1. It’s an easy way to review your accomplishments
2. You stay aware of your professional journey
3. A connection may want to introduce you to someone
“Remember, if there isn’t a purpose bigger than the business, the business won’t get any bigger. The larger you can draw your circle of influence, the wider your potential impact spreads.” — Jeff Henderson
Keep driving and keep pursuing more. But don’t stop there. Go get it.