When I graduated I don’t remember thinking of a resume building process that is tightly coupled with one’s career. You finish education, get on the first job that comes and then retire from that same job years later. It happens even now but quite less I guess…

Working for the Government or the private company was nothing different when it comes to the tenure you spend in a place. At least that was how I saw it… Even people who took breaks from Government jobs and worked else where or went abroad… returned back after that duration… and retired on that same job…

But then I saw that change and people started changing companies… May be the advent of Information Technology… Many of my friends in non IT jobs still have been working in the same company for 25 plus years…

I witnessed how people had to create resumes to apply for new jobs. Even firing became a norm in every industry and so people who were in a comfortable job one day found themselves jobless the next day. This probably started the process of Resume building where in a person writes and rewrites their resume as well as takes up jobs that will add more value to the resume they already have.

The choice of a job became the choice of the company so that you can put that name on your resume. Large Banks, Large corporations, even short commission services in Military all happened and added to a person’s resume and profile. Even voluntary work gets added… People asked about the gaps in the resume… Even today that happens though we all know gaps in career is natural…

But over years I also saw something else. People changing jobs every now and then. Jumping ships for a myriad of reasons like friends or boss moving to new company, getting bored with current company, politics, and work pressure and so on. It has become a norm…. Also the rise of Temp workers started.. Personally for me.. last 10 years has been mostly consulting assignments which ranges from 9 months to 3 years…

People have more options now and are ready to take risks… the expectations from a job have also increased…. I often wonder if there is a good duration that one should be in a company and then look out. I have heard people say 3-5 years as ideal as it gives you the opportunity to build on something and have a few successes to portray.

I think nowadays the LinkedIn itself forms the first base of your resume. I always tell people in any profession to keep their LinkedIn profile updated… It matters….

Categories: Work & Career

Tags: Career, Resume, Resume Building