How many hours should I spend developing my résumé?


Someone asked me recently, how long it would take him to develop his résumé.

If you’re wondering the same thing, the answer will depend on whether you have an old résumé to use as a base; if you’re changing careers; and/or if you have a long work history.

If you were starting from scratch, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to spend 20 hours developing your base résumé.

This may seem like a long time, but considering the importance of a résumé to your career, it is definitely worth the investment.

You will want to:

  1. Gather material
  2. Research your field
  3. Decide on a style and format and select the résumé sections you want to use
  4. Assess your skills
  5. Write, rewrite and edit your bullet points
  6. Pull everything together in a way that makes it easy for employers to get to know you

Even if you have a résumé, you’re not off the hook.  You will still need to edit each résumé you send out so it targets the job you’re applying for.

To see a list of topics covered in a LearnCache résumé course, check out this “Table of Contents” PDF.