This informal CPD article on The Importance of Regularly Reappraising Your CV was provided by Alison, Free Online Learning Provider.
Everyone remembers being a teenager and putting together their first CV. Trading design layouts with friends, seeking references, wracking your brains for any experience you ever had that might be relevant to the job you were trying to secure. While we might remember the excitement of the experience, perhaps we might forget the care and attention we paid to those early resumes.
As careers develop, experience and networks can often supplant the CV in importance, particularly for those whose career path consists of climbing the ranks within the one company. However, whether it comes in the form of an unexpected urge to switch careers or as a result of economic necessity, anyone can find themselves needing to turn back to their CV to pursue a new job. And even for those who are certain of their career path, it remains an important and valuable task to regularly reappraise your CV and keep it up to date.
Acknowledge your progress
Your CV is an outline of your skills, capabilities, experience and achievements. It should be a source of pride in what you’ve accomplished and a source of support that you’re qualified to tackle any task your work throws at you. Whether you’ve completed a course through work or have gained proficiency in a new language in your own spare time, it’s vital to record any and all recent upskilling on your CV. Even if you plan on staying put and not showing it to prospective new employers, it’s important for your sense of self-worth to mark your own progress and acknowledge that you’re developing professionally.
Update to Self-motivate
Your CV is a balance sheet of your personal and professional assets. An improved CV means a better you. If you regularly return to your CV and find it’s the same as last time you went to update it, something is wrong. A CV should never be static because individuals should never stop developing. You should want to see it growing! Use your CV as a means of motivating yourself to develop new skills and acquire new competencies.
Know Your Worth
If you’re upskilling outside of work, it’s important that your employer is aware that you’re not the same person they hired. If your skillset is increasing, then your earning potential is going up. It doesn’t hurt for management to be made aware that your CV now marks you out as potentially being over skilled for the job you’re doing, or underpaid!
Look to the future
If you’re considering a promotion within your company that requires you to take on a wider set of responsibilities, or even change department, then the CV that got you your current position will need tweaking. It’s key that your CV reflects where you want to go, rather than how you got where you are. Certain experiences that you haven’t previously emphasised might now need to come to the fore, while other skills that might have been central to your CV in the past, might now be less relevant to the new position you’re pursuing. A CV is first and foremost about getting you the next job and should always be moulded to whatever position you have your sights set on. A CV is not written in stone!
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