My understanding of a resume is that you write one in the hopes of putting all of your professional accomplishments and training on a single piece of paper (sometimes two) to obtain a position of employment. A resume ought to be concise, simple, and professional. Things relevant to the position desired should be included in it and nothing else. I think that a resume’s ultimate goal is for the person writing it to get a job. I can’t imagine any other reason why you’d have a resume or why you would continually build your resume throughout time, updating it to include recent employment and any further training or accomplishments.
I’ve talked about them before in a lot of classes. I am in an education class right now focused on administration in schools and we had to build a resume and cover letter. We also did a variety of activities about getting a job; our midterm in that class was a 15-minute interview with the professor. It’s about the only helpful thing we’ve done in that class, to be honest. Anyhow, I think my resume is slightly pathetic. I haven’t really done much with my life. Hopefully someday that will change.