Updating your CV: a method that takes an hour

A CV you haven't opened since your last job move ages fast: a headline that no longer fits, your current job missing, tools from another era. Bringing it up to date doesn't mean starting over: with a method, a checklist and the right tools, an hour is enough. Here it is, in order.

When to update it

• Whenever something changes: new job, new assignment, promotion, course completed. It is when you best remember what you did and what came of it.
• Once a year, even if nothing has changed: your annual review is a good marker, because you have just taken stock of the year.
• Before each application: not an overhaul, just tuning the headline, personal statement and keywords to the job ad (see CV keywords).

One habit saves a lot of time: keep a note where you jot down results as they happen, a project delivered, a figure, a client's feedback. On update day, the material is already there.

Before you start, gather

• the job ad you are targeting, or two or three similar ones;
• your latest reviews or appraisals, and your figures: sales, budgets, team sizes, deadlines;
• the list of tools you genuinely use today;
• your recent training certificates and qualifications;
• your LinkedIn profile, so that both tell the same story.

The checklist, section by section

1. The headline: is it still the job you want, at the right level? If you have moved up, it should say so (see the CV headline).
2. Contact details: phone, a professional email address, your town if you have moved, LinkedIn or portfolio links that still work.
3. Dates: the end date of your previous job, “since” plus month and year for the current one, the same format throughout. “Readable dates” is a criterion in the site's ATS check: “Month and year for each job: the robot works out your experience from the dates.”
4. Your current job: it deserves the most lines, with your results. In the present tense, while finished jobs are in the past.
5. Older jobs: they lose a line at every update, and the most distant end up on just one (see the one-page CV).
6. Results: replace each task with what it achieved, using your real figures (see raising your CV's value).
7. Skills and tools: add what you use, remove what has gone (see skills on a CV).
8. Training: add recent courses and certifications; older ones with no bearing on the job can go.
9. The personal statement, last: it sums up the rest, so you rewrite it once the rest is up to date (see the personal statement).
10. The photo, if you have one and it is dated (see a photo on your CV).

Rewriting the lines that have aged

Some lines date a CV more surely than any date: abandoned software, a job title the market no longer uses, a phrase from another era. Reread every line with one question: would I write it like this today? Replace each “[X]” with your real figures.

What to take out

A CV you keep updating without ever taking anything out ends up overflowing. Each time, remove: student jobs once you have a real career, the detail of distant jobs, tools nobody uses any more, training unrelated to your field, and details that have no place there (date of birth, marital status). The order to cut in is in the one-page CV.

Word, PDF, or no file at all

The easiest route depends on what you still have to hand (and for the format to send, see our guide to a CV in Word or PDF):

• The original Word file: make your changes in it, then export to PDF to send it. If you no longer have Word, Edit a Word CV reads your .docx, picks up your photo and gives you back a sorted CV (as a PDF) or a rewritten one (as Word or PDF).
• Only the PDF (a Canva template, a file sent out long ago): on Edit a PDF CV, say in one sentence what you want to change (“add my current job, update the dates”); the AI changes the text in place, in your layout. If the new text doesn't fit, the site redraws the CV in the same look.
• No file at all: a photo of your paper CV, or its text pasted in, is enough for the analysis.

In all three cases, “My structure” does the heavy lifting. The AI copies your CV into sections; you add your new job by describing it in your own words (“Describe this job: title, employer, dates, what you do there”), typed or dictated, and it shapes it, in its place in date order. It makes nothing up: a figure you didn't give becomes “[X]”, for you to fill in. Moving, removing or renaming then happens without AI, and the redrawn CV downloads as a PDF with a free account; for a Word file, use “New template”.

Finish with a proofread: in “My structure”, “Have the AI proofread it” fixes the spelling and makes the dates consistent without changing the meaning (see AI proofreading and our guide to proofreading your CV). Then the CV analysis tells you what is still holding it back, word for word.

Keep a full version

The CV you send out is not the only one to keep current. Also keep a full version, just for you: every job, every result, every course. It is your reserve: each application draws on it for what suits the ad, and nothing is lost when you cut. With a free account, “Keep in my account” stores your CVs, encrypted, ready for the next update.