I’ve been writing computer software since 1983, and charging for my services since 1985. That’s 30+ years. To be fair, it was only fill time for 25 of those years…but I was always writing code.
Recently, I sat down to create a list of all the projects I worked on as a sole contributor, or part of a team. After a while I started to get lost. There were gaps when I couldn’t remember what I had worked on. Other times, I couldn’t remember when I had made the contribution.
The same is true for job history. I lost my resume a while back, and the only one I had available had purged all but the last 10 years. Then, someone wanted to know my entire career. That was a really painful moment. I had to guess at dates, and some of the employer information was no longer available, because they had gone out of business. I didn’t lie. But, I lost some of my credentials simply because I did not retain everything.
A resume is an essential document when you find you are looking for work. It can even help with your current employer when you are trying to get assigned to a particular project, or try to apply for an internal position. In addition, having a Curriculum Vitae, or a list of projects, can be very helpful to demonstrate your experience in a way that is more complete than a resume.
The point is, if you don’t have these documents now, get started. Post them on LinkedIn, print them out, save them on your computer. Make them available to yourself in the future when your computer decides to die. Don’t wait until the information is forgotten. Get credit for all you do.
Cheers,
Ben