Ready to Spring Clean Your Resume?

If your job search hasn't been moving at the pace you'd like and you're not getting the interviews you want, it may be time to spring clean your resume. Sometimes a few tweaks can help you turn your "blah" resume into one that could have been written by a certified resume writer.

So what do you need to do to spring clean your resume? Here are a few tips to consider ...

Make Sure You're Fulfilling Your Career Passion

The first thing you want to consider when cleaning up your resume is whether it truly expresses your desire and passion to pursue the position you're applying for. Believe it or not, employers can often tell by your words whether you've written a resume based on a template (fill-in-the-blank) or you've written from a state of passion.

If you didn't feel passion as you wrote the resume you're looking at, it's time to revamp it while thinking about how much you want the job. It could make a huge difference how your message is conveyed in the resume and could actually make a difference in whether you get the job.

Update Your Keywords

As time evolves, so do keywords and terms that are relevant for your industry. So as you're looking through your resume for items that you need to spring clean, it's good to make sure that you have an adequate number of relevant keywords to help define how much you know in your industry - as well as enough that could be picked up in scanning software.

If you're not sure where to find keywords then you could look through the job posting to see what types of industry-defining keywords were important to the employer. Also, you could look for similar job postings on boards like Monster or CareerBuilder.

Include New Information

If you have gained new experience or skills, possibly through volunteering for an organization or taking a new class while out of work, it's good to add this information to your resume. Also, if you've started a professional blog, or have even created a professional profile via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, it's good to add these items to your resume so that you can offer more ways for an employer to find you. However, keep in mind that it's good to add just one (LinkedIn, blog, your professional domain) then have that one link connect the reader to your other sites.

Make Sure to Re-Edit

You may feel comfortable with the amount of editing you accomplished the last time you looked at your resume, but you might be surprised by the mistakes you could miss - not to mention how much your perspective could change in just a few months. So in addition to editing for the changes you've made, it's also good to edit what you didn't change to make sure you're still happy with what you've written.

Spring cleaning your resume can often be as cumbersome as spring cleaning your home, but it is truly worth it if you take your time and take it seriously. The more time you take to ensure you have a quality resume, the more you can increase your chances of being taken seriously enough to be hired for the job you want.