Quarterly Self-Reflection: Add to Your Resume / LinkedIn

Listen, I get it. We all have busy lives, and the last thing we want to do is make time to add to our resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Reviewing your work quarterly and adding to your resume can be a daunting task, but it's important to do it regularly to ensure that your resume is up-to-date and reflects your skills and experience accurately. It is actually best to do this while you’re still in the job. Better memory, less anxiety. Hooray!

Here are some tips on how to review your work and add to your resume:

1. Start by collecting your work samples. This could include anything from presentations and reports to code and creative work. Remember that PAR method?

2. Review your work samples for accomplishments. What were your biggest successes? What challenges did you overcome? What impact did your work have?

3. Use strong action verbs and specific examples to describe your accomplishments. For example, instead of saying "I managed a team of 10 people," say "I managed a team of 10 software engineers and delivered a new product on time and within budget."

4. Quantify your results whenever possible. This will help employers see the impact of your work. For example, instead of saying "Increased sales," say "Increased sales by 15% in one year." Again, PAR Method.

5. Highlight your skills and experience. What are your strengths? What skills do you have that would be valuable to employers? Did you pick up any new skills?

Once you have reviewed your work and identified your accomplishments, you can start to add to your resume. Be sure to tailor your resume to each job you apply for. Highlight the skills and experience that are most relevant to the position. (Be sure to add these to your LinkedIn, too!)

Here are some additional tips for adding to your resume:

• Use keywords throughout your resume. This will help your resume get noticed by applicant tracking systems (ATS).

• Be concise and to the point. Employers don't have a lot of time to read your resume, so make sure your resume is easy to read and scannable.

• Proofread your resume carefully. Typos and grammatical errors will make you look unprofessional.

By following these tips, you can review your work and add to your resume effectively.

Here are some specific examples of how to review your work and add to your resume:

• If you are a software engineer, you could review your code and identify any particularly complex or challenging problems that you solved. You could then add these accomplishments to your resume, using strong action verbs and specific examples. For example, you could say "Developed a new algorithm that improved the performance of our search engine by 20%" or "Refactored our code base to improve maintainability and scalability."

• If you are a marketing manager, you could review your marketing campaigns and identify any campaigns that were particularly successful. You could then add these accomplishments to your resume, using strong action verbs and specific examples. For example, you could say "Increased website traffic by 15% through a targeted social media campaign" or "Launched a new product that generated $1 million in revenue in its first year."

• If you are a sales representative, you could review your sales performance and identify any sales goals that you exceeded. You could then add these accomplishments to your resume, using strong action verbs and specific examples. For example, you could say "Closed $10 million in new business in one year" or "Exceeded my sales goals by 20% every quarter for the past two years."

By reviewing your work quarterly, you’ll be ready to attack whenever an opportunity arises. Adding these updates to your resume and LinkedIn profile in a specific and targeted way will also reduce your long-term stress/anxiety with remember what all you have done. Document your work, superstar!