Three easy ways to update your CV in 2025

Whether you’re job searching or just considering a change in your professional life, now‘s the time to update your CV. 

In today’s fast-moving world of work, regularly refreshing your CV is essential, even if you’re not actively job hunting. 

Why? You never know when a potential employer or recruiter will get in touch with a new opportunity that takes your interest. Alternatively, you might find the perfect job advert that’s closing soon, so you need to be ready to submit an application quickly. 

However, that doesn’t mean that you need to spend lots of time updating your CV every few months. Try following these three simple steps: 

How to update your CV quickly and regularly

1. Show your career growth (even without a title change) 

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you’ve not opened your CV since you last found a job. If so, the first place to start is by including your latest role on your Employment History. It’s also a chance to remove any responsibilities or achievements from your early career that are now irrelevant to your career ambitions, especially if you’ve built on those since. 

Alternatively, maybe you haven’t changed role with your current employer since you last updated your CV. If that’s the case, you can still add your recent responsibilities – you don’t need a new job title to prove you’ve progressed. These include: 

• Cross-functional projects you’ve contributed to, especially those outside your core remit. 
• Campaigns you’ve led, especially if you can discuss your strategic input and key results. 
• Leadership experience you’ve gained, which can even include training or mentoring others, or managing freelancers. 

You can also begin the section with a bullet point explaining how your responsibilities have grown over time, e.g. “Progressed from content production to leading global campaigns, collaborating with teams across four regions.” 

2. Add new skills and certifications 

Many technical skills are fast losing relevance in today’s world of work. What you learned early in your career might no longer be as useful as it was then. As a result, hiring managers and recruiters love to see evidence of continuous development. 

If you’ve completed any courses, bootcamps or certifications, add them to your CV and link to the digital credentials. Even if they’re not relevant to the role, it’ll reflect your desire and ability to learn. 

These include: 

• Courses from industry-recognised platforms like Coursera, HubSpot or LinkedIn Learning 
• Badges or certificates that can be verified online. 
• Skills that align with your career goals. 

3. Align your CV with your digital profile 

Your CV is just one part of your professional brand. If you’ve already created an optimised LinkedIn profile and online portfolio or blog, don’t undo your good work by making basic errors. 

You need to ensure that everything related to your brand (and therefore your application) tells a consistent story: 

• Use the same job titles, dates and tone of voice across platforms. 
• Link to relevant content across all platforms, such as any content (e.g. blogs, videos etc.) or project work. 
• Make sure that your personal statement and ‘About you’ sections are aligned. 

How often should you update your CV? 

Refreshing your CV doesn’t need to be a weekly task. The best times to do this are: 

• Upon receiving a promotion or changing role within your organisation 
• When you’ve finished a major project in your current role (or, more importantly, when you have results that can be included) 
• After completing a learning course 
• Whenever you publish or feature in a noteworthy piece of content 

After you’ve updated your CV 

Keeping your CV up to date will allow you to respond quickly to any opportunities. At a time when employers are receiving hundred of applications for each vacancy, having the option to apply within a short timeframe will help you. 

However, where possible, your application should include a cover letter. Read more about how to write an effective letter that complements your updated CV here.