Have you taken inventory of your career progress in 2019? Let me provide you with an actionable goal worksheet to help audit 2019 to strategically update your résumé for 2020. Enhance your personal brand and determine top priorities to make 2020 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER.
First, the best way to start your year is to conduct a 2019 calendar audit. This is a practice recommended both by John Maxwell, author of 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth and Rachel Hollis, author of Girl Wash Your Face.
First, open up your 2019 calendar and make three lists to determine how you spent your time. Grab a glass of wine, a Moscow mule (my fav), or a mug of hot chocolate and download this actionable goal worksheet to recap your world in 2019, and develop SMART goals for 2020. First, write down…
- “Things that were Worth My Time,” that helped me grow, what you want to see more of in 2020.
- Wastes of Time or Energy, things you never want to do again.
- Things that make YOU feel good (vacations, exercise, and hobbies).
As we start 2020 hopefully you’ve already thought about your career goals for 2020, and whether or not you are actively or passively job searching. January is a great time to update your résumé. Your résumé and your LinkedIn profile should be living, breathing, and refreshed annually. If your career is moving in a positive direction, you should be taking on new tasks and responsibilities and therefore need to update your résumé.
Now consider the following and write down:
1. Personal or professional goals you’ve accomplished.
- Contest winner for “Modernize Your Resume” contest from Emerald Publishing
- Recognized as “Best in Amazon” for Quality and Benchmark Standardization
- Selected to represent my organization within the local Chamber of Commerce
2. Skills you’ve acquired education you’ve completed
- Training’s you attended
- LinkedIn Learning courses completed
- MOOC’s
3. New concepts you learned, based on new experiences or training
- Lean Six Sigma
- Agile Project Management
- HTML, Java, Python, CSS, SQL
4. Skills you’ve sharpened
- Resource Management
- Process Improvement
- Client Expectation Management
- Staff Development
- Quality Control
5. New initiatives/strategies you implemented.
- Decreased spending 5K monthly by restructuring and initiating a supply chain initiative.
- Saved $25K annual by proposing new regional security structure.
- Delivered $150K in annual savings through implementation of a global sourcing program.
- Saved $10M annually by eliminating the use of outside ad agencies and building and developing an internal team to manage marketing portfolios.
6. Side projects you’ve been working on.
- Started a storytelling podcast
- Spearheaded a weekly e-newsletter about UX design
- Created a blog about morning rituals and productivity
- Spoke at a digital marketing conference
7. Notable events (can be personal or professional)
- Started a new job
- Promoted within the organization
- Started a new relationship, got married, had a child
8. Lessons learned to apply towards 2020.
- It’s important to set boundaries with clients and to express them early
- Make my to-do list smaller and more focused on what will move the needle
- Networking in-person is significantly more valuable than online networking
Next, think about how you felt in 2019 and how you want to feel in 2020. First, circle what feelings you felt the most in 2019, were they more positive or negative? Second, decide on 3 feelings you most crave to have in 2020 and rate how much you focused on that feeling in 2019.
Third, list the actionable steps you will take for each of the three areas. For example, if you want your health or fitness to be a 9, your steps might look like this:
- “Pack myself a healthy and filling lunch every night.”
- “Give myself a rest day 1x per week.”
- “Mke a playlist that gets me excited to go to the gym.”
Next, let’s quantify those results to enhance your personal brand. As a résumé writer, I ask myself the following questions to quantify and qualify my results:
• Last year I wrote ___ résumés.
• I helped ____% of my clients gain employment.
• Among top ____% of LinkedIn profile views.
• I wrote résumés representing the following industries: _______.
• Views on original content blog post_____.
• Some of the companies where my clients found employment include_________.
Lastly, it’s time to write down your top 3 goals for 2020. Then get a little deeper by making them SMART goals; specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
You can look back on what you accomplished in 2019, and focus on what you want to see on your 2020 résumé. When you consider what goals to set, dig deep to determine your next steps. What is a goal you have you been dreading or putting off? I encourage you to challenge yourself! The only way we grow and progress is by doing the things we are anxious about.
We all tend to find ourselves within a comfort zone. But the best way to reach the next rung in the ladder is by finding your greatest challenge, your biggest fear, and overcoming it! About 75% of the population fear “Glossophobia” or fear of public speaking. So your goal for 2020 may be to speak at an upcoming conference, or maybe just at your weekly chamber meeting. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s a goal that puts you outside your comfort zone.
To Audit 2019 to Strategically Update Your Résumé for 2020 don’t forget to print out my free goal worksheet.
Written by Cassie Hatcher, Owner of Career Confidence, Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW) 🛦Military-to-Civilian Transition Coach 🌱 Wannabe Homesteader 🐔🐐🐕🐖