Let’s address the elephant in the room. Today's resume is much different from the resume that worked 10 years ago. And the truth is, most people are still following those outdated practices and really just need to start their resume over - from scratch. 

Now before you label the task "impossible,” creating a new resume doesn’t have to take forever. I've created the BASE Method to help you create your resume from scratch in less than two hours. Let's take a look!

Brain dump

List out all current and previous positions/employers. List all of your key duties beneath each position. Feel free to use the job descriptions to help with this part. No need to get fancy with the wording just yet.

Assess

Once you’ve got everything listed, identify which duties resulted in quantifiable accomplishments. When it comes to your resume, rather than simply listing all the types of things you’ve previously done, you want to convey the impact of your work. 

If you’re having trouble identifying the accomplishments, ask yourself the following four questions:

• In what ways did you save your company money?

• What new processes did you suggest/implement?

• What work did your co-workers recognize you for completing?

• What was your biggest challenge, and how did you overcome it?

Synthesize

Now you’ve probably got a long list of amazing accomplishments - kudos to you! If you’ve only got limited experience, it may make sense to leave your list as-is. However, if you’ve got 10+ years of experience across multiple roles, rather than providing a laundry list of accomplishments, you want to select the achievements that are relevant to the type of roles you’re targeting. Ex: If you’re looking for roles in project management, it may be time to remove your first job as a cashier at your local retail store.

Execute

In this step, it’s time to put everything into resume format. Now that you have clarity on your accomplishments and what types of roles you’re targeting, you can create a career summary and skills section that makes you truly stand out! Once everything is in the appropriate format, you'll be ready to submit your new-and-improved resume confidently.

Next Steps

Are you ready to create your new resume? Consider grabbing The Ultimate Resume Guide if you struggle with articulating accomplishments or identifying keywords. If you think you're good on the content, consider grabbing our attention-grabbing, ATS-optimized Resume and Cover Letter Templates to save yourself a little time and hassle!