How to update your resume: a step-by-step refresh for an old resume.
Updating a resume is mostly editing: adding your newest results, cutting what no longer helps and making sure the format and wording look current. Done once properly, later updates take minutes.
Start with your current role: add it with dates and your best recent results. Then cut or shorten old and irrelevant jobs, rewrite your summary for the role you want next, refresh your skills to match current postings, and modernise the layout to one clean column. Finish by checking contact details, dates and tense, and keep a reminder to update every few months.
A full refresh in order
- Add your current role. Title, dates and three to five results from your recent work.
- Rewrite your summary. Aim it at the job you want next, not the one you had.
- Trim older roles. Shorten or remove jobs that no longer support your direction.
- Refresh skills. Remove outdated tools and add the ones current postings ask for.
- Modernise the layout. One column, clear headings, readable font, no photos or graphics in the main text.
- Check the details. Contact details, LinkedIn URL, dates, tense and spelling.
Illustrative examples to adapt
Illustrative: every name, employer, school, date and number in these samples is fictional or a bracketed placeholder. Replace each bracket with your own true details; never copy a result you did not achieve.
Update notes before you edit
When to use: Collecting what has changed.
Since my last update ([date]): New role or title: [title, date] New results: [result], [result] New skills or tools: [skill], [tool] New training or certifications: [name, year] What to cut: [old role or outdated skill]
Refreshed experience entry
When to use: Your current role, newly added.
[Your name] EXPERIENCE [Current title], [Employer] | [Month Year] to present - [Best recent result you can prove] - [Second result] - [Ongoing responsibility, in present tense]
Disclosure: TryHired makes HIRED, a paid job-search program, so we have a conflict of interest when we mention it. Every sample on this page is free to use without buying anything.
What to update, and how often
| Item | When | How |
|---|---|---|
| Current role and results | Every few months | Add results while details are fresh. |
| Summary | When your target changes | Aim it at the next role. |
| Skills | Before each job search | Match current postings. |
| Older roles | Each major update | Shorten or remove. |
| Layout | If it looks dated | One clean column. |
| Contact details | Every update | Phone, email, LinkedIn URL. |
The same line, rewritten
Illustrative example with placeholders.
| Version | Example |
|---|---|
| Weak | Adding your new job title to the top of a resume you wrote years ago and changing nothing else. |
| Strong | Adding your current role with [number] recent results, rewriting the summary for [target role] and trimming roles older than [year]. |
Why it matters: A new title on an old resume still reads like the old you. A real update changes the story to point where you are going next.
Before you send it
- Your current role is added with results.
- The summary targets your next role.
- Older roles are shortened or removed.
- Skills match current postings.
- The layout is a single clean column.
- Contact details, dates and tenses are all correct.
Mistakes to avoid
- Only adding a new title.
- Keeping an objective statement from years ago.
- Leaving outdated tools in your skills section.
- Forgetting to change the old current job into past tense.
- Waiting until you need a job to update everything at once.
Build yours
Questions people ask
How often should I update my resume?
How do I update an old resume?
Should I remove old jobs from my resume?
What makes a resume look outdated?
How this page is built
Written by Maid Dizdarevic, a career coach and 8x LinkedIn Top Voice. Advice is labelled as advice. Every sample uses a fictional person marked '(illustrative)' or a 'Your name' placeholder, and every employer, school, date and result is a bracketed placeholder for your own true details.
- What a specific employer screens for: always read the posting.
- Your results: we never invent numbers, and you should never copy a result you did not achieve.
- Outcomes: no resume, letter, profile or program can promise an interview or a job.
- TryHired editorial guidance by Maid Dizdarevic, career coach, Nov 4, 2026.