Have you ever stumbled upon an opportunity too great to pass up, only to find out that you needed to apply for it yesterday? I often have clients scrambling to get their resume done within extremely short timelines due to this exact situation. It isn’t too much of a problem if you simply need to add a few skills and a bit of work experience, but when a resume is completely outdated, miracles need to happen. I just can’t stress the importance of continually updating your resume enough.
A good rule of thumb is to add a new job to your resume right as you start. Chances are you will have a job description given to you by HR, which will make it easy, and will help you out immensely in the long run. Same thing with new responsibilities and skills; adding them into your document as they come along ensures that you won’t forget about them later. You can always edit your resume down, but finding material, descriptions, and project info from a while back is much harder.
It seems as though there is a stigma that you must be unhappy where you are if you are working on your resume, however this is absolutely not the case. It’s possible to love your job but have a better offer come up, causing you to leave a job that you love for one that you’re sure to love even more. Being proactive about your resume will only benefit you by preparing you for the unknown, and giving you a leg up when the time does come for a new opportunity. Please, do yourself a favor and at least gather information which needs to be added to your resume. Even if that’s the farthest step you take, your future self (and/or resume writer) will thank you.