Updating Your Resume When Time Is Tight by Michelle Vandepol

Finding the time to update your resume when time is tight is tricky. Not to mention getting it all together in time to apply before the job deadline closes. You know it needs to be a priority if you are to move ahead, but you’re already exhausted. The good news is that there are other mothers that have tackled the same obstacles and have moved on to their dream positions. Here two of them share how you can do it too.
Pay attention to the important stuff. Note characteristics you want in a job. Highlight potential positions and the perks you want when you’re job searching, no matter how casually.
Even if you are not feeling ready to apply just yet, look for opportunities to do the things you want to show up on your resume. To get an idea of the skill set to work on, look at the listings of the positions you want. At your current job, take advantage of workshops, on the job training, and involvement in projects showing advancement initiative.
On a practical level, keep your updated resume in a safe place (including multiple back up copies) so you don’t have to go from scratch every time you have something new to add. Look up resume templates online or in a library resource book to properly format yours if it’s been a while. You want to look current.
Having a ready current resume also serves as job security. At review time, your accomplishments will be fresh in your mind. It also serves as a non-monetary emergency fund. Having an updated resume ready to go means in the event that you get served a pink slip, you can be job searching that same day or the next. Saved time is saved money, after all.
Whether looking to advance at your current workplace or interviewing for a new position outside of it, the horn blowing skill is the same and you need to get comfortable with it.
“Be a salesperson for yourself,” says Ett Vandebeek, a mother of two who works as an office administrator. Even if deep down you doubt your abilities, remind yourself that everyone feels inadequate sometimes and overcoming self-doubt is an important part of achieving success.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” she asks. There will be more jobs to apply for and other opportunities to inquire about. Asking the question of yourself means taking the fear of failure out of the equation.
“If you have a dream, you can do it,” she says, speaking from personal experience. Her recent transition from an assembly line position at a manufacturing plant to a different kind of challenge, as an administrative assistant in a high profile office; serves as an example of a large change in job description, one she had to convince herself she was ready for. She says the key to getting in the right mindset for applying and interviewing for the job you really want is picturing yourself already in it.
Visualization works for moving within your company as well. Jessica Murdy is a mother of three who recently made the transition from reporter to editor.
“See yourself doing what you want to do,” she recommends. Noting the steps that you will need to take to move into a new position whether it is for the schedule, pay, recognition, or challenge; means that the transition will occur naturally. You will find yourself subconsciously taking the steps you’ve planned even if you tucked the to-do list away.
Murdy traces her investment into her dream position back almost a decade. She started as an arts feature writer coming into the newspaper office two days a week on production days. She worked at that position for 2 years, then took a scant 11 weeks maternity leave (she confesses she was worried about job security), and came back to the position for approximately 6 more months.
9-11 and a coinciding vacation made her rethink her priorities for her family and she found herself craving more family time. She quit her job and it was almost another two, and another child, before she found herself reapplying to the same paper. This time, with a new editor at the helm, they built a position for her to do at home, one day a week. She did this position for several years, quitting shortly before another editor transition and then rehiring with the next.
This time she was offered four days a week in office. She weighed her daycare options and decided that it was time to make her next move. Her youngest was months away from being in kindergarten and only needing part-time daycare. She credits her flexibility with opening the door to her new position, something she recommends.
“Stay open and flexible,” she says. You will have more options that you would have come up with on your own. She also says that giving more than expected is what will build the stage for future advancement. When she was finished her responsibilities, she took on others with a management perspective on what needed to be done. That is what got noticed in the end, she says. A year into the 4 day a week position, she asked for more responsibilities and that move gave her the skill set for her current move into the editor’s chair at a sister paper.
Both of these working mothers spent time building their skill sets and looking for new positions which would be better fits for them and their families. They surrounded themselves with supportive people and went ahead and did what needed to be done. Their stories are inspiring but not unusual. They could be yours as well.