Time to rework the old resume

As I mentioned last week, I just finished up a contract job I had as a technical writer for a local alumni insurance company. For the first time in a long time I am looking at my resume and saying to myself it's time to rewrite it completely. This past year as a technical writer has given me experience that I hope to translate into more work in the future. It has also given me a ton of sample work which I was lacking before. I put together several samples from that job of all different sizes and types. They will help me show I can do the work at any technical writing job I apply for.


Looking at my resume some more I find old job experience that isn't as relevant now as it was when I was still in college. For example I spent a little over two years working for the schools newspaper doing layout work, website design, and for a very short time I was an executive editor of the whole thing. That experience to me has become pointless to include, especially now with the real world technical writing experience I have as well as my internship time over the summer a couple years ago. I hate to remove it but it's old experiences that aren't relevant to what I want to do for a job. By removing them from the resume it will give me more room to talk about my most recent work. Which is more important to my goals of finding a new job.

My logic for redoing my resume from the ground up at the end of the day is mental too. It's like cleaning up the past and preparing for the future mentally. By taking a hard look at my past work and accomplishments it will give me the drive to work towards new goals. It will also give me a chance to finally revaluate my strong suits and weakness in terms of skills. I know more now about what I am good at then I did a couple years ago. Especially since I have been out of college. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this resume clean up. Hopefully a new job!