Resume No-Nos: 10 Things You Don’t Want on Your Resume
When the Hiring Manager at a potential employer reviews your resume to decide whether to schedule a phone interview or invite you into their office, there are a few things they look for on your resume: relevant experience and skill set, past accomplishments, and a narrative of your career so far.
However, there are also a few items that if included might harm your chances to secure the job, or even cause your resume to end up in the waste bin.
10 Things to Leave Off Your Resume
- Photographs
Unless you’re applying for a modeling job, your appearance does not matter (outside of general good hygiene) on the job hunt. Plus, a photograph would gobble up valuable space that could have otherwise been dedicated to information about you and your previous work experience.
- Unnecessary URLs
You may think your social media presence is the cleanest of them all, but there’s no reason to give potential employers direct access to your personal life. If you do include URLs in a resume, such as a link to a portfolio or website, make sure the links are functional, but do not include them when you print out physical copies of your resume.
- Objectives or Goals
There’s no need to include your goals on the resume, because the employer understands your main goals at that moment are to get hired. If you want to explain in more depth about your career aspirations before meeting a potential employer, a cover letter is the perfect place to do so.
- Unnecessary Personal Information
Potential employers do not need to know your religious or spiritual affiliations, your marital status, or your nationality. This information is irrelevant to your previous work experience and whether you’d be a good fit for the position.
- Bad Grammar and Typos
You want to avoid spelling errors and grammar issues at all costs. Hiring Managers consider errors like these as indicators that you may not be a very solid communicator.
- Reasons Why You Left Old Job Positions and Previous Salaries
Answers to these questions may come up in an interview, but they should have no home on your resume.
- References
If a company is interested in contacting references before considering you for a position, they will let you know during the hiring process. If you add references, or even the sentence “References available upon request.” to a resume, you are taking away from space that could have been utilized for more relevant information.
- An Extra Page
If you can’t fit your resume onto one sheet, this suggests you have included too much information or written in a wordy manner. Look back over your resume to remove unnecessary words, clichés, and any information that is more than 5 years old or irrelevant to the specific job position.
- Titling Your Resume “Resume”
The only thing at the top of your resume should be your name. The employer already knows they are looking at your resume, there’s no reason to remind them.
- Immature or Inappropriate Email Address
Make sure your email address is professional. If you’re unsure whether your email address is appropriate to include on a resume, that probably means it isn’t. You can create a new email address for free with Google or Yahoo. We recommend an email such as this: firstname.lastname@gmail.com.
Looking for more resume tips? Contact Staff Force today.
