How to Rewrite Your Resumé in 2024
ALRIGHT! Let’s talk about how you’re going to revamp your resumé!
“Oooh, I’m so excited to go home and update my resume!” – said no one ever. Show of hands, has updating your resume ever stopped you from applying for a new job? Lot of hands. Trust me, you’re not alone. The vast majority of people do not enjoy updating their resume. And you know what, why would they?
Recently, I had a conversation with a client with an educational background in planning and the environment. She had one role in community outreach, followed by a more senior role at a different organization also in community outreach. Now ten years into her career, she didn’t want to do community outreach anymore. “But it’s what I’m qualified for?” she said.
True, she’s qualified for roles in community outreach, but she’s more than qualified for any number of other roles. And more than that, she knows enough about her approach to work, the environment she enjoys working in, the type of tasks, the level of interaction, collaboration, and autonomy she thrives in. She knows more now about herself than she did when she started out in community outreach. She’s also a different person with meaningful hobbies and a family she wants to spend time with. My client is in a different place in her life than she was when her resume was started – tacking on new bullets from her current job is not going to get her where she wants to go.
Why are resumes so hard to write?
Resumes are supposed to capture all the best, most impressive things about ourselves on one page, maybe two. Can you ever whittle down a person’s worth and potential to one measly page? No.
Resumes are also what we blame when we don’t get past the application stage. Have you fired off ten resumes and not received a single response? We blame it on the resume, which ultimately translates back to our self-worth and this is a FALLACY.
Resumes are so hard to write because we are trying to be objective about ourselves; we are trying to be factual, quantifying our worth, using industry keywords and attempting to predict what an algorithm wants to see.
What should your resume look like in 2024
Too often, resumes are:
A laundry list of everything we’ve ever done
Long-winded descriptions of tasks we don’t even like doing anymore
Cut and pasted bullets from our first resume done in the university career center
Instead, resumes should be:
A highlight reel of what makes you feel proud
Specific descriptions of the impacts you made or the results you delivered
A very clear picture of what you want to do more of
You are not updating your resume, you are building your career narrative
How to translate your skill set is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from mid-career professionals. What I try to get across is moving away from the tired activity of “updating your resume” and towards the exciting possibility of building your career narrative. And that’s a very different thing.
How to rewrite your resume in 4 steps
Step 1: Start with outcomes
What is the result you are looking for with this resume update? Whether you want to stay in your current industry and advance, or pivot to something new, your resume will feel like a jumble of bullet points unless you are clear about your anticipated outcome.
When I work with mid-career people – whether they have 10 or 25 years of experience – they have done many things. There would be no way to put this collection of tasks and deliverables onto one or two pages, and even if you could, it would be boring.
Tell me what you care about doing, what feels meaningful, what your ideal job would be. You may not get everything you want at this next job, but the process of clarifying your needs and aspirations will change your mindset – and change how you approach your job search.
In practice, this looks like having a summary statement at the top of your resume where you say what you excel at and love doing, and where you’re looking to grow and add value.
Step 2: Be honest with yourself
When you have had success in your career but know in your gut or heart that you need to be doing something different, the absolute hardest thing to do is not apply for the jobs you know you could do.
I left my job in public policy. I had done it for 10 years. I loved many aspects of it, but I knew it was not serving me and that I needed a change. When I saw job descriptions for policy roles, it was SO tempting to apply because I would be so darn qualified! My self-worth would likely get a nice bump from being invited to interview, but at a fundamental level – I had already done the job of a public policy analyst. There was nothing else I wanted to learn about it. It didn’t give me energy and wasn’t part of my career aspirations. So, I had to train myself not to fall back on what I’d already identified would not serve me.
Step 3: Break it into bite-sized chunks
No person ever sat down at their computer, after a full day of work, and updated their entire resume in one sitting. Creating a compelling story of what we’ve done, the impact we’ve had and our aspirations for the future requires time and space. It requires mental energy and emotional resilience.
Instead of “Tonight, I am GOING to update my resume!” – gritted teeth, self-discipline style – try, “I’m going to set a timer and spend 30 minutes thinking about the best parts of my current job, and put them down on paper.”
Step 4: Ask for help
We don’t go through life alone and the same holds for our careers. Ask for help when you need it. Whether it’s asking a friend to jump on a zoom with you while you spend 30 min on your resume for accountability or reaching out to your wider community for intel on an organization, most people are glad to help. I see that all the time as Reframe group coaching alums offer their time for informational interviews or make connections for one another.
What I’ve learned from working with super talented and passionate people is that it’s really hard to talk about ourselves the way a friend would, or how our colleague or mentor would. We may feel comfortable listing our degrees and specialized skills and including the key duties of our jobs, but actually expressing the impact of our work is a different skill.