Your resume should not list every single position you've ever had - this document is not a historical timeline. Every resume will be different, however, a common technique is identifying the most-relevant positions you've had that showcase a certain skill, proficiency, or quantification. Think: "show, don't tell."

What sets you apart from every other candidate? How do you prove that you have talent or that you acquired and demonstrated proficiencies through previous experiences?

Imagine you're applying for your first ever job. You've just graduated high school (or are maybe still in high school) and you have the same experience that most other teenagers do: perhaps you mowed grass during summers, shoveled your neighbors' snow during the winter, and have decent grades. Can you explain more about your experience? Perhaps you can quantify your lawnmowing prowess by explaining that you increased your customers by 25% each summer. Hiring managers like to see results, numbers, and hard evidence that proves you can do what your experience indicates.

Now, improving your ability to cut grass as a teenager may not be impressive, but by quantifying your experience, you display other things like motivation, dedication, effectiveness and understanding of your skill(s), and so forth.

Let's say you're making a career move into Sales and your age is 30-40. If you were the top salesperson of your 6th grade class in elementary school - selling the most cupcakes out of all your friends and winning a 1st-place trophy and a cool shirt - that is undoubtedly an incredible and notable accomplishment (especially as a 6th grader)! Should you include this respectable reward and accomplishment? After all, you could quantify your sales skills with the amount of money you raised from your cupcakes :).

Well, winning an elementary sales contest 20+ years ago is not an effective indicator that you are a successful salesperson in your 30s. It may be relevant... but it's not recent! If you have not demonstrated other sales abilities as an adult, you probably need to work extra hard to beef-up your recent experience.

However, using the cupcake story as a charming anecdote during an interview just might be that extra winning-attitude your future employers are looking for! ;)

We're in the 21st century... paper resumes rarely exist anymore. Most every organization requires you to complete an online application process, which means that you need to upload any application documents as files.

1. Create PDF copies of your documents. Keep the original file in whichever format you create it (DOC, DOCX, ODF, ODT, etc.), but to upload a file, you want a PDF. Why? You don't want your precious formatting to screw up when someone opens your file!

2. Use professional file names. When naming your PDF, use a professional naming convention like "John.Doe.Resume.pdf". Hiring managers may not appreciate (or be able to keep track of) "Resume.pdf" or "newly updated sales resume version 4.pdf".

Imagine that you've been at the same company for 5 years. Maybe you were promoted, your responsibilities slightly changed over time, you hopefully earned an accolade and tackled difficult projects... but can you remember all of that after 5 years? Perhaps 5 years is not so long that you've forgotten everything, but it's best to make updates to your resume when the update is still fresh in your mind. It's easier to remember quantifications (numbers, percentages, etc.) and describe what you did or accomplished.

Even if you do not plan on applying to a different position or job anytime soon, make updates before you need to.

Keep a repository of any possible award, accomplishment, project, work experience, skill, etc. that you might want to include in a resume or on an application. This could be as simple as a single document with a long list of "stuff" you've done or can do. From this repository, you can effortlessly create a brand new resume by pulling items from your repository.

Remember! It's best to update your resume (and repo) when updates are fresh on your mind.