How long have you been using your resume?

Many job seekers have been using essentially the same resume for most of their careers - some of them dating back to the Nixon Administration. To update it, they simply put the most recent job at the top of their "experience" heading and start sending copies out. Most of these job seekers are mystified when they don't get called in for interviews based on their antiquated resumes.

Others constantly rework their resumes, producing, essentially, a brand new resume every few days. They move bullet points around, drop and add information and, after a few weeks, wind up with a steaming pile of dung. They don't give their resume a chance to succeed or fail before they change it again.

The obvious question, then, after looking at both ends of the spectrum, is "What is the shelf life of a resume?" To answer that question, here are two rock solid pieces of advice:

Give it a chance. You'll never know if you've got a winner or a stinker without testing it. How much of a chance should you give a new version of your resume? While that depends upon many things - including your field of choice and how many you send out - a good rule of thumb is 2-4 weeks. If you're properly targeting companies and sending out a lot of resumes and getting no results within that time frame, then you know it's time to rework your resume. Anything shorter than two weeks and you haven't given your new resume a chance to do its job. Anything longer than a month and you're wasting time.