Changing jobs
Keep your resume warm
A micro habit for keeping your resume ready, so you're never starting from a blank page
Once a quarter, spend fifteen minutes adding your latest results to your resume and your professional profile.
- 15 minutes a quarter
- Just you
- Quarterly
- Make time
Why this can work
The best time to update your resume is when nothing depends on it. Results are easiest to capture while they're fresh, with the numbers still in front of you. A few minutes each quarter means that if you ever need it in a hurry, the hard part is already done.
Read moreHow to keep your resume up to date
You’ll come away with one or two new results on your resume, written while they're fresh.
- Put a recurring slot on your calendar.
Fifteen minutes, once a quarter. The first week of a new quarter works well, while the last one is still easy to remember.
MonTueWedThuFri9 am11 am1 pm3 pm15 min, yours5 pm1 hr a month, for you13 hrs a year you didn’t have beforeSame slot so it stops being a decision - Look back at the last three months.
Scan your calendar, your sent messages and your project notes. You're looking for things that finished, changed or improved because of you.
Tip: Launches, fixes, problems avoided and people you helped all count.
- Turn one or two into results.
What you did, what changed, and for whom, with a number if you have one. For example: Rebuilt the new-hire checklist, cutting setup time from two weeks to four days for the whole support team.
- Update your resume and your profile.
Add the new lines to a long master version of your resume, and bring your professional profile in line with it.
- Save it somewhere that's yours.
Your own drive or account, not a work folder. If you ever leave in a hurry, your resume should leave with you.
Good times to repeat it: the first week of each quarterafter a big project wrapsright after a review
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
An estimate you'd happily stand behind in an interview belongs on the page. One you'd have to hedge will cost you more than it earns.
What might make this harder
Describe scale, speed or reach instead: how many people used it, how much faster something got, what it replaced. Specific beats numeric.
Questions people ask
How often should I update my resume?
Once a quarter is a good rhythm, plus after any big project or review. Short, regular updates are far easier than rebuilding it from memory when you suddenly need it.
What should I add to my resume while I'm still employed?
Recent results: what you did, what changed, and who it helped, with numbers where you have them. Keep a long master version and trim it for each application later.
How do I write accomplishments on a resume?
Start with what you did, then what changed and for whom. For example: took over a stalled vendor migration and finished it a month early, so finance could close the quarter on the new system.
Why this works, and where it comes from
A resume written in a hurry tends to describe duties: managed the account, ran the meetings, owned the process. That's what's left once the details have faded. The results are what get forgotten, and the results are what people hire for. Writing them down while they're fresh is most of the work.
There's a second reason to do it, and it has nothing to do with leaving. Seeing what you've actually done tends to make you steadier. Confidence at work often follows clarity: when you can point to what you built and what it changed, you walk into reviews, negotiations and hard weeks with a better sense of what you're worth.
The strongest result lines connect your work to someone else's success: the team that shipped faster, the customer who stayed, the cost that went away. That's partly good resume craft and partly a good habit of mind. When you can say how your work helped the people around you, you understand your own job better.
It isn't the right move if you're applying somewhere this week. Then you need a version written against that specific posting, in the words it uses. The quarterly update is what makes that tailoring fast; it doesn't replace it.
Other simple things to consider
What to do next
More in Changing jobs
Never lose the proof of your work
Do it with Truest and it goes on your permanent record, in a Career Vault your employer doesn’t own.
See how Truest worksAlready a member? Log in- A living page in your VaultKeep it as one page you add to, next to your reviews and your files.
- Lands in your closeoutFriday's closeout asks for progress, priorities, and proud moments; this is one.
- A reminder beforePut it on your calendar and Truest reminds you before it starts.
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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.