Andrei combines academic knowledge with over 10 years of practical experience to help job seekers navigate the challenges of resumes, interviews, and career growth. Through the Novorésumé Career Blog, he offers actionable advice to simplify and ace the job search process.
Updated on 12/17/2025
Happy holidays!
With the new year looming over us, we thought we’d give you one final piece of professional advice to carry with you into 2026.
Updating your resume for the coming year!
Whether you’re after a new job or you’re always on the lookout for better professional opportunities, a new resume is a must in 2026.
It can help you reflect on all the good things you’ve done in the past year, pinpoint your most noteworthy achievements, and decide what the next steps in your career should be.
In this article, we’re going to explain the benefits of updating your resume in 2026 and give you some practical tips to make your resume stand out in today’s competitive job market.
Let’s dive in!
4 Benefits of a New Resume in 2026
Let’s start with the “why?”
If you’re looking for new career opportunities this new year, having a new and updated resume will let you jump on the first good opportunity you get without missing a beat!
Even if you’re not, updating your resume is still a good idea.
Having an updated resume makes sure you’re on the safe side in case something unexpected happens in your career.
Alternatively, you can use your new resume as a source of introspection. Look back at your professional wins from the past year, reflect on your career choices, and make better decisions in the future!
But don’t just take our word for it. Here is a full list of the most notable benefits of updating your resume:
#1. Saves you time and effort
Regularly updating your resume makes it easier to add things as they happen so you don’t leave out anything important, including any professional achievements and acquired skills.
Additionally, it saves you the effort of having to double-check everything you put in your resume, dig up documents, or even contact ex-colleagues or bosses.
This way, even if you’re not actively looking for a job at the moment, you won’t have to spend hours updating your resume when you do.
Well, the start of the new year is the best time to do that! You can look back at your work year, single out your top achievements and most noteworthy skills, and make sure everything is factually correct.
#2. Keeps you competitive
You never know when a new or better opportunity will knock at your door, but you surely want to be ready to take it when it does.
Such an opportunity may come as a networking connection that offers you a job, a promotion opening at your current organization, or a chance to manage a new project.
No matter the case, having a new and updated resume is a sure way to stay ahead of the game.
Instead of having to panic-write your resume on the spot, you’ll have it ready at hand, prepared to face whatever challenges to come!
#3. Provides added safety
Every new year brings its respective changes and challenges in each aspect of life, and the job market is no different.
Just to give you an idea, Federal Reserve officials now foresee the unemployment rate edging up to 4.3% by the end of 2026 (from 4.2% earlier this year), while the Conference Board anticipates U.S. economic growth slowing to 2.0% in 2026, down from an estimated 2.7% in 2024. Meanwhile, projections from the Congressional Budget Office suggest that unemployment could climb to 4.4% by mid-2026, reflecting potential headwinds in the job market.
Even if this doesn’t come to happen to you, it’s good to be on the safe side and be prepared to tackle any unexpected developments in your career in a timely and effective manner.
If, for example, you get laid off and your resume is still the same as it was five years ago, you’ll probably stress over updating it, instead of focusing on finding new opportunities.
An up-to-date resume helps to get back on your feet faster and kick-start your job hunt.
#4. Offers a chance to reflect
A new resume is a great way to reflect on your career by looking back at where you’ve been and to better understand where you want to go next.
You can, for example, analyze your past career decisions and identify certain patterns to get inspired about what you want to do next, in case that’s something you’re still debating. This could involve looking for a new job, obtaining new training, or changing fields entirely.
In any case, with a fresh new resume, it’ll be much easier to pinpoint your successes and your failures, leverage and learn from them, and build something better for the future.
How to Renew Your Resume for 2026
Now that we covered the “why,” you’re probably wondering how to create the perfect resume for 2026.
HR, like any other field, changes constantly. Companies use new tools to parse resumes, and hiring managers expect new types of skills and experiences from their candidates.
In this bit, we’re going to give you our top 5 tips for creating a resume that’s going to stand out in the coming year!
#1. Consider Applicant Tracking Systems
Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software has become more and more common in recent years.
In a nutshell, ATS is a type of software that can immediately scan resumes, look for certain keywords and experiences, and automatically disqualify irrelevant candidates.
Unfortunately, though, ATS tools are rarely 100% accurate and can end up discarding a resume, even if it’s relevant. If you want to guarantee that your resume is safe, you’ll want to optimize it manually for applicant tracking systems.
Here’s what you can do to ensure that your resume is ATS-friendly:
Use a simple layout that’s not cluttered with custom graphics and fonts. ATS can’t read JPGs or graphics, so avoid them! Want to save time? Just use any of these ATS-friendly resume templates!
Choose the right file type to save your resume. PDF files are universal and easily read by most ATS, so that should be your go-to format. That is, of course, unless the employer specifically asks for a different format.
Pick the right resume format. In 99.9% of cases, that’s the reverse-chronological format. While formats like the functional resume can be helpful at times, they’re also not very popular among hiring managers.
Tailor your resume to the job by using keywords from the job ad. Review the job ad, extract the most important skills/experiences into a list, and make sure to mention them in your resume skills or work experience sections.
Avoid spelling and grammar mistakes. You might have the right skills, but an ATS might not be able to pick it up if you write “criical thinking” instead of “critical thinking.”
#2. Show off Your Most Up-To-Date Certifications & Skills
Did you gain any valuable experiences, skills, or professional qualifications during the past year?
Make sure to add them to your resume!
You can include both hard and soft skills here, as well as any job-related certification you’ve attained independently or through your work.
Regularly updating your resume with newly-acquired skills and certifications not only makes it easier to analyze your career progression but also shows that you’re one of those dedicated employees who never stop learning new things.
#3. Make Your Achievements Quantifiable
You probably already know this, but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate it—your professional achievements speak louder than your responsibilities.
Hiring managers likely already know what your responsibilities consist of in any given position; what they want to know is how you made an impact and what you helped the organization achieve.
That said, anyone can claim they have achieved all kinds of great things throughout their career. To make your achievements as credible as possible and set yourself apart from the competition, you want to quantify them whenever you can.
So, instead of writing:
Incorrect Example:
Increased the number of sales in a year.
You should write:
Hit and exceeded department sales KPIs by 20% for 5 months in a row, driving over 300,000 USD worth or business.
If you work at a job that’s more responsibility-focused and doesn’t offer many possibilities for professional achievements, don’t fret!
That’s totally OK, just focus on explaining how you excelled at fulfilling your job duties and you’ll be good to go.
#4. Keep It Visually Appealing
Before hiring managers read your resume’s contents, they notice what it looks like.
If your resume looks outdated, cluttered, and visually unappealing, chances are you won’t be making a great first impression.
As such, make sure to give your resume a visual makeover in 2026.
One thing to note here is that, when it comes to resumes, less is usually more! Meaning, you shouldn’t overdo it with your resume design by adding many graphics, using too creative fonts, or including symbols, pictures, and the sorts.
Not only do such elements make resumes the opposite of reader-friendly, but they also make it harder for ATS to process them, which means they may penalize your resume from the get-go.
Here are some formatting and layout tips you should follow to make sure your resume looks professional
and visually appealing:
Resume Formatting Tips for 2026:
Follow the reverse-chronological format. It continues to be the most practical, professional, and favored format among recruiters globally, so you can’t go wrong with it!
Don’t make your resume longer than one page. Unless you have 15+ years of super relevant professional experience, there’s no reason for your resume to be two or three pages long.
Pick an 11 or 12-pt font size and stick with it throughout your resume.
Use standard and legible resume sections. For example, your work experience should be called just that (“Work Experience”) and not “work history” or something else.
Leverage bullet points to list information such as work achievements and responsibilities, academic details, etc. They help make the resume much more reader-friendly.
Be consistent with resume formatting. For example, use the same date format everywhere, instead of using 11.2018 in one place and November 2018 in another.
Always save your resume as a PDF file. It’s the safest choice, as it guarantees your resume layout will stay intact no matter what device opens it. Only save your resume as MS Word if the job you’re applying for specifically requires you to and never, ever, submit a JPEG or PNG of your resume.
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Quick Tip
Want to skip all the hassle of formatting your resume from scratch? Check out some of our free, tried-and-tested resume templates, pick out your favorite, and fill it in as you go! Our selection includes templates for all kinds of industries, including tech, creative, traditional, etc.
#5. Use a Resume Summary
Hiring managers have a much easier time judging candidates based on their years of experience, skills, qualifications, and achievements, than based on their career goals and aspirations.
Not just that, but they want to be able to do that from the moment they lay their eyes on your resume, instead of having to spend valuable time looking for the information they need throughout your resume.
Done right, your resume summary will ‘hook’ hiring managers within the first moments they pick up your resume and get them to go through the rest of the information there in more detail.
So, if the last time you updated your resume was back when you were a student and you’re still using a resume objective, now is the time to update it into a resume summary!
As a real estate agent, you already know how much presentation matters. Let our guide teach you how to build a real estate agent resume that matches your skills.
