Good advice: Keeping your resume up-to-date

Earlier today, I saw a post on Threads about a woman who was afraid she was about to be laid off at a meeting tomorrow. Everyone commenting on her post encouraged her to quickly gather anything on her computer that she would need for future interviews. It reminded me of some of the best advice I’ve been given. When I was a undergrad, one of my PR professors told us to “Always keep your resume and portfolio up to date.”1 Her rationale:

  1. You never know when you will get an opportunity for an interview. Sometimes, even when you are not looking for a job, an unexpected opportunity might present itself. Be ready.
  2. You never know when you will get laid off. PR firms and ad agencies have a tendency to reduce staff when they lose clients. Be prepared.
  3. You will forget important details. Will you remember what projects you worked on? Volunteer work that you did? Don’t trust your memory.
  4. It’s incredibly awkward to reach out to an old job to get samples for your portfolio. And if you didn’t leave on good terms, it may be impossible to get samples. Think ahead.

This advice has stuck with me for decades. When I was a designer and creative director, I updated my InDesign resume document, physical portfolio and online portfolio frequently, even though I changed jobs rarely. I was always ready, just in case the right opportunity came along.

Now that I’m mostly an academic, I keep my Curriculum Vitae (CV) up to date here on my personal website. In fact, I updated it last week after I presented at an academic conference. I like having my CV2 on my personal website. It’s basically the master document summarizing my career and experience, and it is easy for me to share a link with people immediately. I also try to keep a subset of my experience updated on my LinkedIn profile, even though I don’t spend a lot of time over there.

Anyway, I think it’s good advice for anyone to keep a resume or CV up-to-date, preferably on your own website. You just never know when you will need it. And I hope that women on Threads doesn’t get laid off.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

  1. I swear I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find it anywhere. ↩︎

  2. A resume tends to be a short 1-2 page summary of work experience, while a CV includes pretty much everything and can be as long as it needs to be. My CV is a hybrid of a traditional CV and a resume. ↩︎

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