The AI filters used to screen job applications are evolving every day, so should your resume.
And not just the filters - how recruiters are looking at your resume isn’t the same as it was in 2024. They’re no longer just paying attention to what you’ve done in the past, but also how in touch you are with the latest tools, trends, and ways of working in your field.
That’s why, ideally, you should be updating your resume every 3 months, or at the very least, every 6. Because who knows when the perfect opportunity strikes, and when it does, you’ll want to be ready to hit send without scrambling.
So when you sit down to give it a makeover, what are the main parts to focus on? And do you frame your recent experiences and learnings in a way that makes the most impact? Let’s get into that.
Best Practices for Updating Work Experience
Start by checking your timeline.
Go back and make sure all your employment dates are accurate and consistent. For instance, if one job says you worked there from March 2021 to January 2023, and the next one also starts in January 2023 but is listed as full-time, it might raise a question mark. Were you working both jobs at once? Did you leave one mid-month and start the next immediately?
It’s a small thing, but you don’t want to leave any room for confusion, especially when a recruiter or hiring manager is reviewing your history at a glance.
Highlight all the ways you made an impact.
Next, when adding a new role or updating an existing one, focus on how your work moved the needle. It’s easy to list out everything you were responsible for, but what really makes an impression is showing what came out of it. So, think about results, improvements, and growth in anything you helped build or improve. It doesn’t have to be a massive achievement - every small win counts.
For example, when you say “Implemented a new CRM that cut lead response time by 40%,” it shows the impact you made compared to “Responsible for managing CRM software,” which simply states a task you did.
Remove anything that’s not recent and relevant
As you update your recent roles, it’s also a good time to quietly trim the older stuff. If a role is from years ago and doesn’t speak to where you’re headed, try summarizing it in a single line or removing it altogether.
For example, if you’re now aiming for a mid-level marketing strategist role, you don’t have to include the early job where you worked as a social media intern scheduling posts and making Canva graphics. Yes, that was part of your journey. But it’s no longer relevant.
Match the new job’s lingo
And finally, don’t forget to speak the same language as the job you want next.
Skim through a few current job descriptions that align with your goals and take note of the keywords or tools that keep showing up. Then, see where it makes sense to naturally weave those into your own experience, without overdoing it or forcing them in. The idea is to sound familiar to the systems scanning your resume and the people reading it.
Incorporating New Skills and Certifications
As you advance in your career, you should invest time and money in learning new things that complement your existing skill set. And we don’t say that’s just to make your resume shine with a bunch of new buzzwords, but for your ACTUAL professional growth.
Whether it’s a quick online course, a professional certification, or some other industry-relevant training, it all counts. It tells them that you’re not standing still. Even a short, self-paced course on something like AI tools or UX writing (depending on your field) sends the message that you’re updated with where things are going, not just coasting on what you already know.
And when you’re adding those certifications or new skills to your resume, and relate directly to the role(s) you’re applying for, place them front and centre.
Maybe include them in your summary, right under your most recent role, or in a dedicated "Certifications & Skills" section, depending on what makes the most sense structurally. That said, not every skill you’ve ever touched needs to be on your resume.
One thing that helps here is keeping a personal “skills inventory” in a separate document. It’s basically a brain dump of everything you’ve worked with. It could be software, methodologies, techniques, soft skills, you name it. That way, when you're tailoring your resume for a particular job, you can quickly pull the most relevant skills without second-guessing yourself or missing something important.
Lastly, don’t overlook the power of when you learned something. Seeing a course or certification from just a few months ago tells a recruiter that you are active and intentional about moving forward on your own. So, prioritize anything you’ve recently learned and move it up your certifications list so the recruiter catches it early and fast.
Customizing Your Resume for Targeted Applications
Hiring managers can almost always tell when a resume hasn’t been tailored to their role. It reads a little off, like you’re speaking in generalities instead of showing that you get what they’re really looking for.
That’s why it’s worth pausing before you hit send.
So, take a closer look at the job description. Pay attention to what they are repeating and what phrases seem to matter most to them. These words are your clues, and you should be weaving them into your own bullet points naturally, especially where they overlap with what you’ve already done.
For example, if a listing says they want someone who can “streamline workflows across cross-functional teams,” and you’ve done something similar, don’t leave that sitting under vague language like “worked with multiple departments.” Instead, pull their words in and mirror the language they use - but don’t overdo it, you still want to sound like you.
Now, this doesn’t mean you need to rewrite your entire resume each time. It's these small shifts like highlighting one project over another or adjusting the phrasing in a bullet point that can help you feel like a much closer match at just a glance. And that glance is often all the time you’ll get.
Quantifying Achievements Effectively
While everyone’s doing it the generic way, “Managed social media accounts” or “Worked on customer service issues” you should be saying, “Resolved 150+ customer tickets monthly, maintaining a 97% satisfaction rating,” because it paints a much clearer picture of what you actually brought to the table.
A simple way to get there is with this quick formula:
Action verb + what you did + measurable outcome.
So instead of saying:
- “Handled customer queries via email”
Try: “Responded to 50+ customer emails daily, consistently resolving issues within 24 hours and maintaining a 98% satisfaction score.” - “Managed company’s Instagram page”
Try: “Grew Instagram following by 40% in 6 months through weekly Reels and interactive Stories tailored to audience trends.”
Even for internal or non-customer-facing work, you can still find those moments that show real impact.
For example:
- “Redesigned monthly reporting template, cutting down time spent on data entry by 3 hours per week.”
- “Trained 3 junior team members, helping them reach full productivity two weeks ahead of schedule.
And no, the numbers don’t have to be massive to matter. What matters is showing that what you did made a difference. It could be you speeding something up, cleaning something up, or making someone else’s job easier.
Leveraging Modern Templates and AI Tools
Nothing’s more frustrating than staring at an old Word doc that feels like it belongs to a past life. But thankfully, the tools have come a long way and using them doesn’t make your resume any less personal. They just help us get to the good part faster.
For example, modern resume templates are built to play nicely with ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems)- those automated filters that companies use to sort resumes before a human even sees them. And if your formatting is off or your structure is messy, there’s a real chance your resume won’t make it through. So, using these clean, simple layouts is what will save you from getting lost just because of poor design choices from five years ago.
And then there’s the AI side of things.
You don’t need to rely on it to write everything for you, but using it as a guide can make a huge difference. Some tools will point out weak phrasing, suggest keywords based on the role you’re applying for, or help tighten up sections that feel too vague. Others can even analyze a job description and show you what to emphasize on your resume to match it more closely.
Our Resume builder can do all this heavy lifting for you, so take a look and try it out today for FREE. If you’re just looking for a professional opinion on your existing resume, we also offer an expert resume review service.
Choosing and Updating Resume Formats
The best format for you will depend on a bunch of things like what industry you’re in, what kind of role you’re applying for, and how you want to tell your story.
Let’s say you’re in a field like law, finance, or academia - you’ll want to lean into a clean, straightforward format. In fact, for research and legal roles, you might even be expected to use a formal CV instead of a resume, especially if publications or long-term academic experience are part of your background.
But if you're applying for something in tech, marketing, design, or any space that moves a little faster, your format can bemore flexible (still no wild fonts or bright colors, please).
The main thing to keep in mind is readability, both for a human and for the software (ATS) scanning it before a human even sees it.
You’ll find a lot of resume templates that will look great but won’t be ATS compliant in reality (see our testing tip to ensure ATS compatibility in the next section). That’s why simple, clean formatting almost always wins.
And if you’re using a resume builder like ours, you can fill in your details once and switch between multiple formats until you find one that presents your experience the best. Rest assured, they are all recruiter-vetted for ATS-friendliness.
Ensuring ATS Compatibility
You’re a great fit for the job, but ATS doesn’t know that unless your resume speaks its language. That means tweaking the wording on your resume to reflect what’s in the job description.
Then there’s formatting. The fancier the template, the more likely it is to confuse the system. Text inside columns, graphics, icons, and overly styled fonts might look impressive to you, but to the ATS they’re just noise.
Do this quick test: Open your final resume PDF and try to highlight the text. If you can’t copy-paste everything cleanly, neither can the ATS. And there you know if your resume is going to make it to the human recruiter or not.
For more information on this, check out our guide on how to create an ATS friendly resume. And of course, if you’re using our resume builder, we take care of the formatting side of this for you.
Proofreading and Polishing Your Resume
You could have the perfect experience for the job, but if your resume has a typo in the first sentence or your phone number is one digit off? That's a terrible first impression you’ll be leaving.
But that isn’t all that proofreading is about. You want to make sure everything flows and feels clean. That your bullet points are consistent, your verbs match in tense, and you haven’t accidentally bolded the wrong section or left in a half-written sentence from your last draft.
Do at least two rounds.
First, for the little things like grammar, punctuation, and formatting. Then come back later with fresh eyes and read it like a hiring manager would: Are your points clear? Does your voice sound confident? Is it easy to skim?
And don’t forget your contact details. You’d be surprised how many resumes get sent out with outdated phone numbers, old email addresses, or broken LinkedIn links.
Maintaining a Master Resume and LinkedIn Consistency
You don’t need to reinvent your resume from scratch every time. Just keep a “master” version - a single, all-inclusive document that holds EVERYTHING you’ve done, from internships to promotions to random side projects that taught you something valuable. This isn’t the one you send out. It’s just your behind-the-scenes archive that makes tailoring quick and easy.
And when a new opportunity comes up, you pull from your master resume and shape a version that fits that specific role. This way, you’re not starting fresh or relying on memory (which, let’s be honest, isn’t always 100% accurate), and you don’t risk forgetting a detail that could’ve made a difference.
BUT don’t stop at the resume. Keep your LinkedIn updated, too.
You don’t want the recruiter to find your neglected, dusty profile after they were impressed with your resume and decided to move to your LinkedIn. So update your experience there too, as you do it in your master resume. Clean up any old uploads, and upload your latest resume for easy job applications.
If you’re using our Job Tracker, this becomes even easier. You can keep every tailored version of your resume saved there alongside the job ad it was created for. It saves you from all the digging through your desktop and browser bookmarks, trying to remember which file is saved where.
Preparing for Emerging Opportunities and Career Shifts
You don’t need to be job hunting to keep your resume updated. In fact, some of the best opportunities come when you’re not actively looking - like when you meet someone from your dream company and the conversation leads to “hey send me your resume,” and all you can think is, oh no... where even is that file?
That’s why it’s smart to check in with your resume every 3–6 months, especially after big milestones like promotions, new projects, certifications, or a shift in the direction you want your career to go. It doesn’t have to be a full overhaul each time. Just keep things current so you’re not caught off guard if something exciting comes up.
