Update your résumé, broken into 6 small steps
Updating a résumé means looking back at your career and putting it into a few lines, which is easy to put off for years.
You don't need a brand-new résumé. You need your latest job added and a few lines tightened.
Start here · under 2 minutes
Open your current résumé and save a copy with today's date.
Under two minutes. The old version is safe.
The rest of the steps
- Step 2:
Add your latest role: title, company, dates.
Just the header for now.
- Step 3:
Write three bullets about what you did.
Start each one with a verb. Add a number if you have one.
- Step 4:
Cut the oldest or least relevant items.
One or two pages total is plenty.
- Step 5:
Update skills and contact details.
Check your email, phone and any profile links.
- Step 6:
Export a PDF and send it to one person to read.
A fresh pair of eyes catches typos in seconds.
Why this one stalls
It feels like you're being judged by a page, and it's hard to describe your own work without feeling awkward.
If you get stuck
Struggling to describe your work? Look at your old emails, performance reviews or messages from coworkers. You've already described it many times.
What “done” looks like
An updated PDF résumé saved with a clear file name.
These steps follow the same rules as the method in our task breakdown guide: the first step is physical and takes under two minutes, and every step after it is something you can see yourself doing. Got a head full of other things too? Start with a brain dump.