Andy (0:03): Welcome to the HigherEdJobs Podcast, Ask the Expert Edition. I'm Andy Hibel, the Chief Operating Officer and one of the co-founders of HigherEdJobs.

Kelly (0:11): And I'm Kelly Cherwin, the Director of Editorial Strategy. Welcome back to one of our experts, Christopher D. Lee. Chris is a managing director and executive search consultant with Storbeck Search, part of Diversified Search Group. Beyond his search work, he spent decades in senior HR leadership, including as Chief Human Resources Officer at William & Mary, and he also teaches graduate-level human resource management as an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond. Chris, thanks again for joining us.

Chris Lee (0:37): My pleasure to meet with you again.

Kelly (0:38): For this episode, we have a question about a habit a lot of professionals struggle to keep up with. The question is: "I only update my resume when I'm actively applying for jobs, and by then, I can't remember everything I've accomplished. What are smarter habits I can build so I'm not scrambling to reconstruct my career history every time I need it?" I will say, for this one, we immediately thought of your fantastic piece, Chris, on keeping your resume current, which we will link. It's from 2018, but it still holds up perfectly well today. It's called "Keeping Your Resume/CV Up to Date the Easy and More Impactful Way." So let's get into the discussion. Chris, what are your thoughts on this?

Chris Lee (1:20): All right, you know I like to do a little banter to lighten the mood, so I'm going to start with a quick joke. I went to see this artist once, and someone in the audience called out, "Hey, when are you going to release a new album?" And he goes, "Have you heard XYZ?" They go, "No." He goes, "Yeah, I did that 20 years ago. Go buy that one. It'll be new to you." So that's my quick joke here. I had to go back and read it, Kelly, so thanks for the heads-up!

(1:56) (Laughter)

Chris Lee (1:58): Going back to the gray hair jokes, I was thinking, I've seen this before. But fortunately, I have some updated thoughts. It still holds. I think it's great on the core idea of habit, and that's what the question asked about: habits. There's nothing better than a manila folder or a little spreadsheet or checklist on your computer. Something happens, you write it down. I don't know about you all, but many times I've been involved in something and thought, "Oh, this is really good. I want to remember this and put it in my resume." Then a month or two later, or six months later, you're going, "Man, I remember I was going to put something in my resume." You remember the prompt, but you don't remember the zinger, the idea that really matters. And the longer it takes you to write it down, the less vivid that memory will be.

I think "vivid" is a good word, because I sometimes describe the resume as a photograph. It's a picture of your career at a point in time, and recording the memory while it's fresh really matters, because you get limited time and space to get people's attention. In the article, I talked about keeping those artifacts, perhaps even in a photo somewhere, so that you have them. So I won't repeat what was there.

I want to add two components. One is to remind readers that part of my philosophy is that everyone needs three resumes, not a single resume. First, you have to have a master resume, which is really more of a repository of everything you've done. Call it the comprehensive master. That document is never shared. It's just the library, if you will. Then, for the different ways you will enter the job search market, you want up to three resumes that speak to that particular opportunity.

Let me use a couple of examples. If you are a full professor and you're thinking about your next opportunity, you may want to be a division chair. You may want to be the assistant vice president for research, or you want to be a provost, or maybe you're ready to be a dean, as the case may be. The point is you have a collection of skills, and you want all of that in your master document. But for each of those roles, the resume should look different. If you're going for a named professorship, for example, or you're applying for a grant, they want to know about research, teaching, service, scholarship, your h-index, and all those kinds of things. That's less pertinent if you're trying to be a division chair or a dean. They want to know about budgets, [5:22] personnel, systems, curricula, and things like that. And if you're trying to do something in the provost's office or a research job, then you want to emphasize your grants, your abstracts, how you've engaged others, and interdisciplinary research.

So it's three different profiles. You take from the master document and curate what makes the most sense, because it's going to tell a story, and no one wants to read about all the other things that are less pertinent. There's another article we wrote, I can't remember which one, where we talk about this, and the guidance is [6:09] 75, 20, 5. Seventy-five percent of the resume is going to be the same. That's never going to change, because that's the core of who you are and what you've done. Twenty percent is going to be specific to the category of opportunity you're seeking, so all the associate provost positions or all the division chair positions. And then 5%, if you're smart, will be tailored to the specific job. That particular institution has its own way of seeing the world, and you want to use keywords, thoughts, and ideas that say to them, "Oh, Chris is a good match for this role."

I know that's a little bit off the beaten path, but you want to keep updating that master document. It doesn't take long. You take a couple of minutes, even a couple of seconds, just jotting a quick note. But you want the master document to be an ongoing thing. And again, it's never shared. It's just your personal library.

Andy (7:16): Wow. Chris, first of all, that is fantastic. It's the anatomy of a resume or CV, and it's exactly how people need to think. I'm going to ask your forgiveness while I go here: obviously that article you couldn't remember did not make it into your folder, did it?

[7:35] Sorry, I couldn't resist. I also can't resist a great analogy, and the artist with the album from 20 years ago is a fantastic one. I have to go with a different medium, though. Instead of a picture, a mural. I completely agree that your resume or CV is a living document that grows over the years. Maybe it's a family photo that gets bigger, or maybe it's a giant mural you keep adding to. And your point about capturing things while the memory is vivid is exactly what you should be doing.

I'm going to take us back 25 years here. This is when John, Eric, and I did every little bit of what you saw on the website. It all came from the three of us.

[8:34] John and I argued and argued and argued, in a constructive and creative way, about what was called back then the Resume Manager, which then became My HigherEdJobs and is now the candidate portal, where you can keep resumes and other materials and manage your part of the job search. What I didn't realize when we were building it, and remember, none of the three of us had looked for a job in a very long time, is that I still get asked for a resume depending on the project, probably half a dozen times a year. In addition, you have to have a short narrative bio, and those bios need different versions. If you're on a podcast, you can't put Kelly through reading a four-minute bio. You need to give her a 30-second bio so she doesn't die while reading it. Those things are really important.

So over the years, I've stored all my resumes within HigherEdJobs, and I add to that master document every time I do something. I'm also going to tip my hand and say that, when I think it's appropriate, I add it to LinkedIn to keep things consistent. If somebody looks at my resume or at my LinkedIn profile, they should see substantially the same thing. You shouldn't be able to look at my LinkedIn profile and see I haven't touched it in 10 years, and the same is true of your resume. So that's my folder. That's where I like to go. And obviously I'll put in a plug for HigherEdJobs. Just remember, it was my blood, sweat, and tears that went into that. We really worked hard on it and we're proud of it. But there are other options out there you can use. The key is having a place where you store your resume electronically and just keep it there. And to your point, on HigherEdJobs you can store practically as many resumes and cover letters as you want, and people do keep multiple versions there.

Chris Lee (10:44): Excellent. That fleshes things out in a fantastic way. Thanks for adding that. I want to use a staff example so the point is vivid, and then share one additional technique. Say a student affairs professional is ready for their next opportunity. Maybe they're in residence life and want to move into student activities, since you do activities in residence life. Or maybe they want to specialize in Greek life and the Panhellenic side, or maybe they want to be a division head. Again, that's three different profiles the person can pursue based on their background, but those jobs are very different. With Panhellenic Council, you've probably got some student conduct issues in there, and you've got student conduct issues in residence life too. The point is to emphasize what's appropriate for that particular role. I just want to round that out so it's clear this isn't only about faculty. It applies to faculty and staff.

The final technique, in addition to what's in that 2018 article, is to think about it like an annual review. Some people like to put a 30-minute block on their calendar once a quarter that says "update resume." That can be a prompt if you're not doing it on a routine basis. Throughout the year, in those 15- or 30-minute intervals, you're adding items. You're not really updating the resume; you're just putting in placeholders so you can go back later. Then you do it fully at the end of the year.

Andy, you pointed out something I hadn't really thought about and need to flesh out, but you're absolutely right. There are many occasions when people ask you to share your bona fides, like you said, a bio for a podcast or a speaking engagement. If you're faculty, you're obviously putting in grants and proposals. I have a board resume, because I've served on a couple of boards, and you need a board resume, which is different from a work resume. And then LinkedIn. I'm so glad you said your LinkedIn should be consistent with your resume, because in today's world, your resume is sometimes the second thing people see. Someone says, "Hey, let me tell you about Kelly," or Chris, and the first thing the other person does is Google you. They go to your LinkedIn page, and if there's a gap or something missing compared to your resume, that raises red flags, at least in my business, the search world. It should be consistent. That's the social media part of the world we live in today.

Even the right words matter. Kelly, as you know, I've been an HR manager multiple times, not just at the three organizations you mentioned. One of the reasons I don't highlight some of the others is that their names have changed. One was a junior college and is now a state college. Another merged with a different college. Both of those were in Georgia, where they consolidated institutions. So it's hard to talk about them and keep things consistent, but you want to present a unified front. Your paper and your electronic presence should be consistent.

Kelly (14:23): Well, great advice, and great call, Andy, on bringing up LinkedIn. Chris, this was excellent. I really enjoyed it, and I hope our listener who submitted this question enjoyed it as well. Thanks again for joining us.

Andy (14:37): And thank you for listening. If you have questions for Chris or any of our experts, please feel free to email us at podcast@higheredjobs.com or send us a direct message on X @HigherEdCareers. Thank you for listening, and we look forward to talking again real soon.