By Chelsea Babin

Waiting until you’re ready to look for a new job to update your resume is fine, but it makes the process far more complicated than it needs to be. If you always want to have a killer resume on hand, use these 5 tips to make updating your resume a breeze!

1. Update Your Contact Info as Soon as it Changes: One of the areas that a lot of people forget to update on their resume before applying, especially if they are applying to jobs passively as they find interesting positions, is their contact information. When you change your phone number, immediately change it on your resume. When you move, immediately change your address. The same goes for your email or social media handles if you include that information as well. Do this right when your contact info changes and you won’t have to think about it later when you apply for a job.

2. Copy the Job Description When You Land a Job: Sometimes it can be hard to articulate your exact responsibilities at work, but these details provide so much insight and value to potential employers when they’re included on your resume. An easy way to get a list of your responsibilities that you can easily reword or adjust as needed is to copy the job description as soon as you land a job. Then, you’ll have a point of reference and you won’t be starting from scratch when including this information on your resume.

3. Add Accomplishments and Awards As You Go: Once you have a base description of your responsibilities and the requirements of your current position, you can simply add major accomplishments, project successes, and awards as you go. Continuously updating your resume as things occur may seem time consuming, but it’s actually a lot easier to remember in the moment rather than years after the moment has passed. You can always edit down this section when the time comes to include the most important and most valuable information.

4. Save a Base Version You Can Change By Industry or Type of Position: If you’ve always wanted to be one of those people who sends a customized resume for each position they apply to, tailoring the order of your skillset and the specifics of your responsibility to perfectly match up with the job description you read for each position, there’s an easy way to do it. Don’t create a new resume for every separate industry, type of position, or specific job you apply to. Instead, create a simplified base resume and make those adjustments from the uniformly formatted base resume. This will save you time in the long run and allow you to have the tailored, customized resume you’ve always wanted.

5. Edit Every Time You Add: If you want to avoid spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors on your resume (and why wouldn’t you?), take a few minutes to edit your resume every time you add new information to it. This will keep the pre-job search editing process shorter and make sure your resume always looks professional and ready to go!

Updating your resume is a chore but it could feel like a breeze if you implemented these 5 tips. Try them out and see if they work well for you!